Michelle Fields, Ben Shapiro Resign From Breitbart

[frigidmagi]

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’s alleged assault on Fields, BuzzFeed News has learned.
Fields and Shapiro informed Breitbart News chair 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.”

In his own statement, Shapiro said the episode was emblematic of how he believes the site’s management had sold out the legacy of its founder and namesake, the late Andrew Breitbart.

“Andrew’s life mission has been betrayed,” Shapiro wrote. “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.”

Breitbart has been riven by internal strife in recent days after Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, allegedly grabbed Fields and yanked her away from Trump as she was attempting to ask him a question after a press conference in Florida. The Trump campaign denied the incident, despite considerable evidence to the contrary.

Breitbart published a story casting doubt on Fields’ account, appearing to side with the Trump campaign over their own reporter. Joel Pollak, a senior editor-at-large at the organization, ordered staffers to stop defending Fields. One source with knowledge of the situation said some staffers who publicly defended Fields had been threatened with firing.

“Both Lewandowski and Trump maligned Michelle in the most repulsive fashion,” Shapiro wrote in his resignation statement. “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.”

The exodus, which began with the company’s spokesman Kurt Bardella, is unlikely to end with Fields and Shapiro. Three sources say multiple staffers are searching for a way out of the company — with several actively circulating résumés, according to two sources — and more resignations could follow in the coming days and weeks. The company is known for having editorial employees sign unusually strict contracts, at least some of which include non-compete clauses that could make it difficult to leave Breitbart for another news outlet.

Relations between Bannon and the site’s staff — which were already fraught with tension over the direction and editorial vision for the company — have deteriorated sharply over the episode with the Trump campaign. According to one company source with knowledge of the situation, some editors have discussed telling Breitbart News CEO Larry Solov they will quit unless Bannon is ousted. Solov did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday night.

Here’s Shapiro’s full resignation statement:
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.

Here’s Fields’ full resignation statement:
Today I informed the management at Breitbart News of my immediate resignation. 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.

[Lys]

Statement Of Dear Leader And In-House Counsel Joel Pollak Denouncing Criminal Acts Of Traitor Fields-Shapiro Gang

MARCH 14, 2016 BY PATRICK NON-WHITE

(BREITBART PYONGYANG) Today all the peoples of TrumpNation expressed shock and remorse at news of the well-documented crimes of slanderous traitors Michelle Fields and Ben Shapiro toward Great Leader Donald Trump and the memory of Eternal Breitbart News President Andrew Breitbart.

Word of the infamous and unnameable deeds of the assassins Fields and Shapiro was released by Dear Leader Joel Pollak, Breitbart News Editor At Large and In-House Counsel, who said thusly: "For months the lies and villainies of the lawless Fields-Shapiro Gang have festered beneath the skin of Breitbart News, before erupting forth like the oozing pus of a treacherous pimple into the sunlight of truth. It was only due to the heroic work of the Special Organs and Great Leader Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski that these treasons against all humanity, and the Populist Nationalist Idea of Great Leader Donald Trump, were dragged forth into the public view, to be spat upon as such slanders deserve."

The lies of the venomous she-bitch Michelle Fields against TrumpNation and all right-thinking peoples are thus exposed to the ridicule and contempt of the peoples. It was through the dedicated work of Mister Lewandowski that Fields was exposed as a malignant urchin posing under the good and honorable name of a Breitbart News Reporter at Large, who casts lies and deceits into the popular consciousness concerning Great Leader Donald Trump, the Lion of Trump Tower, who because of his endurance and inflexible will to win will go from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake. May all such traitors wither before the gaze of the unforgiving peoples of TrumpNation.

Of the wrecker and saboteur Ben Shapiro it is best not to speak, save that his name must be blotted from all scrolls and shattered from all tablets for all time to come. The rootless cosmopolitan Shapiro, who was taken in as a foundling and nurtured to strength by Our Eternal President Andrew Breitbart, has betrayed his benefactor by repeating the calumnies of Fields and magnifying her foul work, spitting upon the honored body of the man who raised him from the gutter from whence he came into the worldwide prominence he enjoyed as a Breitbart News Editor at Large and trusted friend of Great Leader Donald Trump, only to sell his master's wife and children in return for the hireling Judas thirty pieces of silver he received from the weakling Ted Cruz, curse his name!

Breitbart News Editor at Large John Nolte, who has succeeded the thrice-accursed dog Ben Shapiro in all offices and honors, spoke of his devotion to Great Leader Donald Trump and assailed the reprehensible back-stabbers Fields and Shapiro as such: "May all of the fruits of the treasons and betrayals of the disloyal Fields-Shapiro Gang turn to scorching ashes in their mouths, burning their serpents tongues for all time in retribution for their greedful and unfair words. Ten thousand years of life to Great Leader Donald Trump!" All the peoples of TrumpNation agree. The Populist Nationalist Idea of Great Leader Donald J. Trump shall endure through the ages, until all such liars and slanderers suffer the torments and bereavements of the damnation which is their fate, and America is Made Great Again.

The Fields-Shapiro Gang has been broken up, and their double dealing exposed, yet these two flunkies of the GOP establishment and wicked Ted Cruz remain at large. A Peoples Tribunal of Breitbart News editors has sentenced the Fields-Shapiro Gang to doxing, to death in absentia, and to public mortification. All peoples of TrumpNation are urged to report the whereabouts of these two thieves in the night. Great Leader Donald Trump has promised huge rewards, including an autographed Make America Great Again baseball cap, in return for their capture, alive if possible.

(Source)