In a sudden reversal, the pro-life news site LifeSiteNews.com has reinstated the CEO and Editor-in-Chief to his leadership role less than two weeks following his removal from the board and position at the helm of the organization.

In a July 8 news release, LifeSiteNews.com announced that its board, “after careful consideration, extensive prayer and a commitment to best serve our donors, readers and employees, guided by numerous factors aligned with our mission,” was ending the tenure of John-Henry Westen.

On July 18, the website posted a two-line statement noting that the board had voted to restore Westen to his former station and that “Westen has been recognized by the board as the president and CEO of lifesitenews.com Inc. subject to administrative review and investigation.”

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A great deal of confusion surrounds the back-to-back decisions and online conjecture is rife.

In the first press release, the board acknowledged the “significant online speculation surrounding this decision, but wish to clarify that much of it is inaccurate.”

On July 16, Westen sent an email to LifeSite staff and board which stated that, according to board president Dominic Ismert, the “vote to remove me from the board of LifeSiteNews and from CEO was not carried out in accordance with the bylaws of our organization.”

“Therefore until such time as the board convenes to make a lawful determination on the matter I remain both CEO and on the board of LifeSiteNews.”

A board meeting was held on July 18 and the short announcement announcing Westen’s reinstatement was posted shortly before 6 p.m. EST.

In a July 9 post on LifeSite, managing director and co-founder Steve Jalsevac pointed to a steep drop in readership and financial support in the past several years as the immediate cause of the board’s lack of confidence in Westen. Jalsevac cited a 72-per-cent decline in readers in the last three years as well as a falloff in new donors.

“Additionally, an internal survey revealed significant concerns regarding staff sentiment and safety scores, which further informed the board’s considerations,” he said.

“Without major needed change LifeSiteNews cannot survive. With common sense return to the incredibly successful founding mission and a return to collaborative management, rather than top-down, one-person control, it stands a very good chance of tremendous renewal for the good of all.”

Founded in 1997 as an initiative of Campaign Life Coalition, the news outlet was conceived as an alternative to mainstream media which, according to the website, “was either ignoring or providing highly slanted reporting” on pro-life issues

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In a long response on X to a post that stated “John-Henry was LifeSite, it will be literally nothing without him,” Jalsevac wrote, “that is just what John-Henry may have wanted many to believe. It is completely false.” In the now deleted reply on the social media platform, Jalsevac pointed back to the original vision of founding board member Jim Hughes and expanded on the change in editorial stance that had taken place under Westen.

“In recent years, John-Henry worked and insisted that we change the highly successful LifeSiteNews mission to become a dramatically different one of a traditional, Latin Mass Catholic evangelizing, religious organization to draw readers into the Catholic Church according to the teachings of the Council of Trent.

“Founding board members Jim Hughes, myself and others strongly opposed this change which we believed would tremendously confuse our loyal readers and subscribers and most new people as to what LifeSiteNews really was because of the schizophrenic messaging that the new mission statement presented.”

Jalvesac also alluded to Westen attempting to shape the composition of the board which led to the departure of key board members.

“One of those board members was wholly responsible for encouraging and paying for LifeSiteNews to incorporate in the United States and was a very generous donor and constantly active supporter in many other ways.”

Bishop Joseph Strickland, Bishop of Tyler, Texas, until his removal by Pope Francis in November 2023, has been a frequent contributor to LifeSiteNews. LifeSiteNews posted a response by Strickland to Westen’s removal.

“Some have suggested — or outright claimed — that he was removed because he spoke the truth about Pope Leo XIV or about the troubling trends within the Church. Let me state this clearly: that is not true,” Strickland wrote. “The internal decisions of LifeSiteNews are not mine to explain.”

Though LifeSiteNews incorporated as a separate non-profit in 2007 in the United States, and in 2009 in Canada, the connection to the Canadian pro-life organization remained strong. Campaign Life founding president Hughes serves as a board director of both entities and Jeff Gunnarson, current Campaign Life president, also serves on the LifeSiteNews U.S. board.

In relation to the initial leadership decision, Gunnarson told The Catholic Register that “there are some issues that need to be resolved, and I will not be commenting at this time.”

Enquiries by the Register to Jalvesac and Strickland about the reinstatement of Westen have gone unanswered.

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On July 7, LifeSiteNews journalist Stephen Kokx posted on X, “after eight years of working at LifeSite I am forced to announce that as of today I am actively seeking employment elsewhere.”

The Register asked Kokx whether the two concurrent departures were coincidental and whether conflict over editorial direction was at the heart of the shake-up. In response, Kokx wrote of “errors emanating from the imposter Synodal Church in Rome, which owes its diabolical origins to the coup d'etat carried out by neo-Modernist clergy at Vatican II” and that media outlets have “deluded themselves, in the name of a false prudence, that they should treat Leo as if he is substantially different in his outlook than his heretical predecessors.”