Former MSNBC contributor Kurt Eichenwald is on a mission to prove that Kyle Kashuv, a Parkland student activist who is pro-Second Amendment, is attempting to conduct a media takedown of him and others by unfairly accusing media personalities like himself of attacking Parkland survivors. Eichenwald’s theory comes amid backlash from “trolls” and “bots” for his regrettable exchange with Kashuv on Friday.
Last week, Parkland gun control activist David Hogg, with the enthusiastic support of Media Matters, targeted Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s advertisers, a routine that has become familiar, particularly from the Left. As the boycott campaign was revving up, Eichenwald responded to a tweet by Kashuv by slamming him as “trafficking in fantasies.” Eichenwald eventually deleted the tweet and explained that he thought he was responding to someone else. Shapiro wrote up the incident and rhetorically suggested it was time to boycott Eichenwald if we’re “playing by the Left’s rules.” Shapiro ended the piece by slamming politically-motivated boycotts. “The strategy of boycotting political opponents is an ugly one. And the more the Left embraces it, the worse our political discourse will get,” he concluded.
In a bizarre email sent to Shapiro Tuesday morning, Eichenwald laid out a conspiracy theory about Kashuv, whom he described as having psychological problems and whom he accused of attempting to conduct a smear campaign with the help of conservative media. Eichenwald said he talked to a psychologist friend about his “disturbing” exchanges with Kashuv; his friend, said the journalist, suggested that Kashuv had psychological issues. On Twitter, Eichenwald spelled out his conspiracy theory about the conservative student and explained what he was doing about the “bots” and “trolls” targeting him.
Below are the emails Shapiro posted Tuesday, followed by some of the tweets Eichenwald blasted out to his followers about the alleged conspiracy, Russian bots, and the real story behind that unfortunate “tentacle porn” incident:
And here are some of the tweets posted by Eichenwald:
On his Twitter page, Eichenwald describes himself as a “contributing editor” at Vanity Fair. After he floated the conspiracy theory, a Vanity Fair spokesman issued a statement saying that Eichenwald is not a contributing editor at the magazine.