Sunday night, Ben Shapiro informed Breitbart News that he resigned over the outlet’s editorial direction and its “disgusting” handling of allegations against Donald Trump’s campaign manager by Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields (who has also announced her resignation because of the incident). In response, the outlet posted a snarky statement mocking Shapiro’s decision and condemning it as a betrayal of Andrew Breitbart and “loyal Breitbart readers.” The statement was replaced Monday morning with an apology.
In an article titled “Ben Shapiro Betrays Loyal Breitbart Readers In Pursuit of Fox News Contributorship” (at first credited to William Bigelow, the pseudonym of Shapiro’s father, before the byline was replaced with Breitbart News), the outlet blasted Shapiro for supposedly “abandoning Andrew Breitbart’s lifelong best friend, widow, hand-picked management team and friends” for his own self-interest. The article made no mention of the Fields-Corey Lewandowski incident.
Here’s how the piece opened:
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.
Shapiro, a Harvard lawyer and member of the State Bar of California, apparently violated virtually every clause in his employment contract during an appearance on The Kelly File last Thursday evening.
It was business as usual for the ambitious conservative gadfly, who is known to live on the edge, courting and then leaving a series of companies over the past several years.
After mocking BuzzFeed, which broke the story of Shapiro’s and Fields’ resignations, the article took a few shots at Shapiro’s radio programs and bestselling books. It also described Fields as an “alleged Fox News contributor.” (Full text of the article below.)
The statement was deleted Monday morning and replaced by a brief apology from editor-at-large Joel Pollack, who said it was a bad attempt at “mak[ing] light of a significant company event”:
Statement from Breitbart News Editor-at-Large and In-House Counsel Joel B. Pollak:
“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.”
Here is the complete text of Breitbart’s original statement on Shapiro’s resignation:
by WILLIAM BIGELOW 14 Mar 2016
LOS ANGELES — 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.
Shapiro, a Harvard lawyer and member of the State Bar of California, apparently violated virtually every clause in his employment contract during an appearance on The Kelly Filelast Thursday evening.
It was business as usual for the ambitious conservative gadfly, who is known to live on the edge, courting and then leaving a series of companies over the past several years.
Buzzfeed, a site that has been aiming to destroy Breitbart News since the moment Andrew Breitbart died, and which has predicted the demise of Breitbart.com for the past four years, rewarded Shapiro for his bravery by placing news of his resignation just beneath several other hot stories, including “This Wee Little Snake Taking Its First Breath Will Cure Anyone’s Fears,” and “2/26: How Two Llamas And A Dress Gave Us The Internet’s Greatest Day.”
The story ran next to a photograph of a baby snake hatching from its shell, apparently for emphasis. Somehow, Shapiro’s name was omitted from the headline on Buzzfeed’s home page.
Breitbart news editor-in-chief Alex Marlow was stupefied: “My friend Ben Shapiro broke the news on a website that asks its staff to drink their own urine? Impossible.”
Breitbart California editor Joel B. Pollak, Shapiro’s friend and fellow Orthodox Jew, expressed concern for his former colleague.
“I’m worried. I had enjoyed listening to Ben read Breitbart California stories, word for word, without attribution, on his morning radio show. Now what will he do for content?”
Breitbart News senior management issued a short statement: “Ben’s listicles will be missed.”
The mood was somber at Breitbart News’ Los Angeles office, where one staffer stared silently at promotional copies of Shapiro’s books, left behind on the shelves when the author stopped showing up for work, several years ago.
Alleged Fox News contributor Michelle Fields also resigned.
Below is Shapiro’s full resignation statement, which condemns the Breitbart leadership for abandoning the “life mission” of its founder:
As a close personal friend and mentee of Andrew Breitbart’s, it saddens me tremendously to announce that as of 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time, I have resigned from Breitbart News as editor-at-large. I met Andrew Breitbart when I was seventeen years old and remained his friend until his tragic death; I signed on with Breitbart News two weeks before Andrew’s death because I believed in his mission.
I am proud of what we accomplished in the years following his death, fighting back against the leftist media and debunking the left’s key narratives. I have many good friends at Breitbart News, including editor-in-chief Alex Marlow and editor-at-large John Nolte, and I admire CEO Larry Solov for his dedication to ensuring a financial future for Andrew’s widow, Susie, and his four children.
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.
Nobody should.
This truly breaks my heart. But, as I am fond of saying, facts don’t care about your feelings, and the facts are undeniable: Breitbart News has become precisely the reverse of what Andrew would have wanted. Steve Bannon and those who follow his lead should be ashamed of themselves.