Photo: Fox news Michelle Fields is gone. Ben Shapiro is gone. Breitbart is in turmoil. And it’s all because of Donald Trump…or at least what was alleged at one of his rallies.
Shapiro characterizes as the Breitbart policy of ostensibly abandoning Fields and bowing to Trump’s narrative over that of their own reporter:
'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.'
Story after cut .......
The resignations were first reported by BuzzFeed.
The chapter is a dark one for the namesake of the late Andrew Breitbart. Shapiro writes in his resignation letter, “Breitbart News, under the chairmanship of Steve Bannon, has put a stake through the heart of Andrew’s legacy.”
The person silencing staff from defending Fields was Breitbart senior Editor-at-Large, Joel Pollak. Parts of Pollak’s policy toward Fields were brought to light in leaked internal messages, published by BuzzFeed.
Now, new internal company (Slack) messages obtained by Independent Journal Review show the level of chaos the Fields assault claim caused inside the editorial circles at Breitbart. In an unbroken, 40-minute exchange with his writers, Pollak can be seen in a heated discussion with his team over how the Fields situation was to be handled.
Photo: Washington Post/Getty Images
Reporter Michelle Fields resigned from Breitbart last night; she's seen here to the left of Donald Trump, at at the campaign event that sparked an assault allegation last Tuesday
Trump's campaign denies this even happened, and has taken to Twitter to question Fields's character.
Fields filed a criminal police report against Lewandowski on Friday after alleging he "manhandled" her. The Jupiter Police Department confirmed Friday that it has received a report about an "alleged battery" that occurred at Trump National earlier this week.
Authorities have not confirmed that Lewandowski is a subject of a criminal investigation, and Trump's campaign has attacked Fields's story.
The campaign released the following statement Friday:
"The accusation, which has only been made in the media and never addressed directly with the campaign, is entirely false. As one of the dozens of individuals present as Mr. Trump exited the press conference, I did not witness any encounter. In addition to our staff, which had no knowledge of said situation, not a single camera or reporter of more than 100 in attendance captured the alleged incident."
The Narrative:
The chain begins with Breitbart Senior Editor-at-Large John Nolte messaging the editorial team the photo of Michelle Fields’ bruised arm after Lewandowski had allegedly manhandled it.
Pollak immediately orders editors and writers not to “retweet or respond” to the Fields tweet, with deep protest from reporter Frances Martel.
Both Breitbart Texas Managing Director Brandon Darby and National Security reporter Jordan Schachtel openly revolt against Pollak on the “silence on Fields” policy.
Darby says he is ashamed, and Martel asks if there is a plan:
Pollak responds that even supportive statements about Fields will be “used against us.”
Pollak refuses to let reporter Lee Stranahan tweet a photo of Trump as Hitler and says the entire situation is “the Trump campaign’s problem.”
Darby asks what he can do to help Fields; Pollak says Trump has not responded, so nothing.
Mike Flynn, Editor of Breitbart News, adds that this is “Not a profile in courage moment.”
No comments:
Post a Comment