Fox News contributor Erick Erickson recently criticized potential Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee for pitching products like survival food and shady diabetes treatments, decrying the types of ads Huckabee endorsed as a “plague on conservatives.” But Erickson is a hypocrite -- his RedState website also cashed in on Huckabee's shady diabetes infomercial and has previously sold out readers to a wide range of hucksters and conspiracy theorists.

On March 15, The New York Times reported that former Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee had recently appeared in an “infomercial for a dubious diabetes treatment, in which Mr. Huckabee, who is contemplating a run for the Republican nomination in 2016, tells viewers to ignore 'Big Pharma' and instead points them to a 'weird spice, kitchen-cabinet cure,' consisting of dietary supplements.”

Times reporter Trip Gabriel explained that the diabetes treatment -- a “Diabetes Solution Kit” from Barton Publishing -- is part of a wide series of shady ads Huckabee has placed in his email commentaries while he explores a presidential bid. (Huckabee also spent years using his celebrity as a Fox News personality to sell out his fans to scam artists.)

After laying out the types of pitches Huckabee has recently sent to his supporters -- including survival food ads and a “miracle cure for cancer hidden in the Bible” -- Gabriel writes that they are all “designed to pry open the wallets of small-donor conservatives, some of whom distrust mainstream sources of information.” 

The article then quotes influential conservative activist Erick Erickson lamenting the proliferation of these types of scams as a “plague on conservatives”:

“This is a plague on conservatives,” said Erick Erickson, the founder of the influential blog Red State, who has criticized ads for products and outside political groups that he calls “hucksters,” which prey on conservatives.

While a radio or TV host might not be able to choose his sponsors, Mr. Huckabee can presumably pick who he sells space to on email commentaries. “I don't know that a potential presidential candidate should be running survival food ads,” Mr. Erickson said.

While the Times gave Erickson a platform to contrast himself favorably with “hucksters,” Erickson's own RedState site has repeatedly sold out its readers to the very same groups.

For example, RedState sent out a paid advertisement last month featuring the Huckabee diabetes infomercial that was the focus of the Times article:

Prior to Huckabee's involvement, Erickson's RedState had previously sent out at least three email pitches -- all featuring the subject line “1 Weird Spice That Destroys Diabetes” -- promoting Barton Publishing's “Diabetes Solution Kit.”  

RedState has also sent numerous pitches to its readers from “Food4Patriots,” the survival food kit company the Times notes Huckabee has promoted.

When Politico noted in January that Erickson's email list had been rented to the “scam PACs” that he has repeatedly criticized, it quoted Erickson saying that he does not control who rents his list and that “and it horrifies me that the list sometimes get rented to some of these guys.” (Salem Media company Townhall Media owns RedState and manages its email list.)

As Media Matters has documented, Erickson's RedState fans have also been sent sponsored messages about “Reagan's Secret Victory Over Cancer,” “Obama's Deadly FDA Secret,” “1 Weird Trick to KILL old age,” and the “Obama scandal” that “WILL KILL MILIONS [sic].”