When Ben Shapiro decides he can't work for Breitbart, you know it has to be bad. After they failed to stand up for their reporter in a principled way and chose instead to gaslight her, I figured she'd resign. But Shapiro? That was a surprise.
Yet, that's what happened on Sunday. Buzzfeed reports:
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.”
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.”
Okay, that's laying it on a little thick there. Andrew Breitbart was hardly a saint, but there does seem to be consensus that he would have fought to the death for his reporters.
This isn't the first time they've treated women with contempt, either. Former managing editor Dana Loesch had to sue them after they effectively sidelined her and then precluded her from working for anyone else. That lawsuit was finally settled quietly so she could go to work for Glenn Beck's site, but not before they treated her badly.
But today, we learned that Trump trumps all, including a reporter being manhandled by his campaign manager.
