Ben Shapiro, Michelle Fields Resign From Breitbart

14 Mar, 2016 by William Teach

Print this article Font size -16+

Does anyone watch Cutthroat Kitchen? I love that show, and the dry humor of the host Alton Brown. If you missed last night’s episode, it had this in the 2nd judging phase

It's what #CutthroatKitchen's about. pic.twitter.com/Kbb2Ji1OAY

— Food Network (@FoodNetwork) March 14, 2016

That’s what so many at Breitbart have attempted to do, kill Andrew Breitbart’s dream. I’ve noted on a few occasions on Twitter that I believe Andrew Breitbart would be appalled at the direction the conservative news site he founded has taken. It has become more of an advocacy site for Donald Trump, in much the same way Glenn Beck has become a bit unhinged over Trump, and an attack platform against those running against and/or say something negative about Trump. The comments are a cesspool of rabid Trump support, and you will be personally insulted if you dare take a stand against Trump. And, it appears that Michelle Fields and Ben Shapiro have had enough

(Buzzfeed) Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields and editor-at-large Ben Shapiro are resigning from the company over the site’s handling of Donald Trump’s campaign manager’salleged assault on Fields, BuzzFeed News has learned.

Fields and Shapiro informed Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon of their decision Sunday night.

“Today I informed the management at Breitbart News of my immediate resignation,” Fields said in a statement sent to BuzzFeed News. “I do not believe Breitbart News has adequately stood by me during the events of the past week and because of that I believe it is now best for us to part ways.”

And, they didn’t. They didn’t in the articles and they didn’t in the comments. Shapiro wrote in his resignation

Andrew built his life and his career on one mission: fight the bullies. But Andrew’s life mission has been betrayed. Indeed, Breitbart News, under the chairmanship of Steve Bannon, has put a stake through the heart of Andrew’s legacy. In my opinion, Steve Bannon is a bully, and has sold out Andrew’s mission in order to back another bully, Donald Trump; he has shaped the company into Trump’s personal Pravda, to the extent that he abandoned and undercut his own reporter, Breitbart News’ Michelle Fields, in order to protect Trump’s bully campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who allegedly assaulted Michelle. I spoke with Michelle the night after the incident. She told me her story. That story was backed by audiotape, eyewitness testimony from The Washington Post’s Ben Terris, physical bruises, and video tape.

Both Lewandowski and Trump maligned Michelle in the most repulsive fashion. Meanwhile, Breitbart News not only stood by and did nothing outside of tepidly asking for an apology, they then attempted to abandon Michelle by silencing staff from tweeting or talking about the issue. Finally, in the ultimate indignity, they undermined Michelle completely by running a poorly-evidenced conspiracy theory as their lead story in which Michelle and Terris had somehow misidentified Lewandowski.

This is disgusting. Andrew never would have stood for it. No news outlet would stand for it.

What should have been a small affair became a huge one. Lewandowski should have simply apologized to Fields, and they could have moved on. But, the story became huge, and so many at Breitbart, in their rabid Trump support, took a stance against Fields, including wild conspiracy theories. She’s been trashed in the comments. So, how does Breitbart respond?

Ben Shapiro Betrays Loyal Breitbart Readers in Pursuit of Fox News Contributorship

Former Breitbart News editor-at-large Ben Shapiro announced Sunday evening via left-wing Buzzfeed that he is abandoning Andrew Breitbart’s lifelong best friend, widow, hand-picked management team and friends in pursuit of an elusive contributorship at the Fox News Channel.

Friends of Hamas could not be found for comment.

It goes down from there, a nice little hitjob that rather proved Shapiro’s point, and writer William Bigelow ends it thusly

Alleged Fox News contributor Michelle Fields also resigned.

So, a shot at the person who was assaulted and wanted her organization to stand with her. It’s no wonder many other employees of Breitbart are looking to get out. And the comments on that article? They remind me more of the fever swamps of the Democratic Underground and Daily Kos during their heyday of Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Breitbart’s dream has been killed.

Update: Breitbart has attempted to memory hole the article. You’ll get a 404 if you click the link, however, if you search “ben shapiro” it still shows in the search results

More: the article has been replaced, though you can see in the tab it still has the same title about betrayal, with this

The article was written by me as part of an effort to make light of a significant company event, and was published as a result of a misunderstanding without going through the normal editorial channels.

I apologize to Michelle Fields, my friend Ben Shapiro, and to everyone concerned.

If Pollack had an respect, any integrity, and balls, he’d put the entire article back up (sadly, I can’t pull it from the cache, it was overwritten) and append the mea culpa to the end.

Twitchy has coverage, with more screenshots, and, look, a cached version. Oh, and the name William Bigelow was used by Ben Shapiro’s dad to avoid all the death threats he gets.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.