The Breitbart implosion: Donald Trump is tearing apart right-wing media

[applegrove]

The Breitbart implosion: Donald Trump is tearing apart right-wing media

by Simon Maloy at Salon

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/14/the_breitbart_implosion_donald_trump_is_tearing_apart_right_wing_media/

"SNIP...........


The late Andrew Breitbart’s media empire finds itself embroiled in an ugly internal conflict, and it’s all because of Donald Trump. For those who haven’t been following the bizarre details, Breitbart.com and Trump have enjoyed a mutually sycophantic relationship that was recently strained when Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields attempted to ask Trump a question, only to have Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski allegedly put his hands on her and roughly yank her away from the candidate. The Trump campaign adamantly denies the story, and the Breitbart management, while ostensibly standing with Fields, demonstrated an unseemly amount of deference to Trump’s denials, up to the point of questioning Fields’ version of events and responding weakly to the Trump campaign’s attacks on Fields’ character. Matthew Boyle, Breitbart’s Washington political editor, ran cover for Lewandowski, publishing a series of text messages which revealed that Boyle wanted to “make sure that this” – the allegation that one of his colleagues had been assaulted by a senior Trump official – “doesn’t turn into a big story.

To the outside observer, it looked like Breitbart management was defending the Republican frontrunner at the expense of one of its own employees. That’s because they were – this morning both Fields and longtime Breitbart acolyte Ben Shapiro announced their resignations from the site, with Shapiro alleging that the conservative outlet had become “Trump’s personal Pravda.” Anyone’s who has followed Breitbart’s coverage of Trump over the last few months can attest to the truth of that statement (there have been unverified rumors flying around for a long time about a cash-for-coverage arrangement).

The Breitbart crack-up isn’t all that surprising, as Trump is doing the same thing to Breitbart as he is doing to the rest of the conservative movement and the Republican Party. He’s exploiting catastrophic fissures within the conservative media and political worlds to his own benefit. Almost a year ago I wrote that “the Republican primary is going to fracture the conservative media as right-wing print and broadcast outlets choose sides in the intra-party fight, and it’s going to result in some grossly hagiographic coverage of the candidates.” At the time, Breitbart was positioning itself as an arbiter of true conservatism within the party, and it looked like they were going to line up with Ted Cruz for 2016 – an alliance that made sense, given Cruz’s own obsessive focus on conservative purity.

But then Trump came along with his anti-immigrant bravado and rising poll numbers, and the Breitbarts realigned. They began talking about Trump as one of the truly “conservative” candidates, as opposed to more “moderate” candidates like Marco Rubio and Scott Walker. No rational person could ever credibly accuse an opportunist and ideological chameleon-like Trump of being more “conservative” than a lifelong true-believer like Marco Rubio, but Team Breitbart was clearly enamored of Trump and they agreed with his hardline posturing on immigration. So they began sucking up to the candidate in order to gain access and put themselves in close proximity to the frontrunner, all the while maintaining the idea that they were standing up for their principles. All that bowing and scraping to Trump has now blown up in their faces.


...........SNIP"

[Abouttime]

1. Fortunately this is out of their hands now

Ms Fields filed a police report and Cory Lewandowski will likely be facing felony assault charges.
When this happens trump's campaign will blow up, he will either have to fire Lewandowski and take personal responsibility for his actions or more likely, trump will lash out at law enforcement and declare it just a personal attack. Either way trump loses big.
Don't worry, trump is his own worst enemy. I'm still saying that sooner rather than later trump himself is facing charges of some sort.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Once again, people underestimate trumpism

and his fans.

As to Breitbart... a few times I have seen them do pretty competent work... mostly I can judge when we are at the same story... but a few times they have been quite competent. I just hope some of these young people, most of their people are young, learn a lesson. Most come to work for Breitbart with a vision, and not quite the same I hold.

[Gothmog]

3. Yeah

I am shocked that brietbart survived the death of its idiot founder

[Erose999]

6. Media corps can't die of heart failure at age 43 in a North Hollywood gutter, after last being

seen disheveled and intoxicated in public yelling "stop raping people" and other nonsense at a group of college kids.

[trumad]

11. Yep.

Dude was an unhinged bully.

[Javaman]

4. breitbart faceplants, but that's not indicative of all right win media...

I seem to recall a little media conglomerate called fox news that are making hay off of trumps racist stupidity.

[Hortensis]

28. Good point, and 2 resignations do not

a "crack-up" make either.

As for Fields, she chose to work for both Fox and Breitbart, which makes me think she has to be a pretty unsavory character herself. Using the law to strike back may be the most worthwhile thing she's done for some while, or not. Perhaps we should bill her for the costs.

[Erose999]

5. Trump will tear Breitbart apart, if the syphilis spirochetes don't do it first.

Did I say syphilis? syphilis syphilis syphilis.

[lark]

7. Gawd, the RW sure is a nasty piece of work, they truly eat their own!

They don't give a damn about the people working for them, they just exist to push the 1%ers even higher on the totem pole. They have no principals, no ethics or morals, it's all about convenience and promoting their chosen story at any cost. Of course they don't want this to be a big story, they don't want it emphasized how violent and extreme Drumpf really is. They want to make him look possibly presidential instead of the crazy fascist person most likely to hurt you and destroy our country's way of life that he truly is.

[Stevepol]

8. Breitbart is getting a dose of his own medicine.

If he doesn't like it, who's to blame? If you poison the water and then happen to drink some of it, whose fault is it?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. He's dead.

[Cali_Democrat]

10. LOL

I know I shouldn't laugh, but this was a funny exchange.

[Sunlei]

16. Republicans killed him with their free booze, mac n cheese & pulled pork Parties he indulged.

Republicans lavished the free hotels, open bars, party foods on their favorite RW bagger bloggers. He dropped dead because of that.

[bemildred]

12. Yes, he is.

[bemildred]

13. The Blaze: Let’s Remember The Cowardly Conservative Leaders Who Betrayed Us For Trump

Enjoy.

Donald Trump has not been alone in his crusade to make a grotesque mockery of conservatism. He’s had a lot of help, and most of that help has come from the supposed “leaders” of the very movement he seeks to destroy.

A whole host of prominent figures made enormous amounts of money pretending to be spokesmen for the cause, only to sell it down the river when the sentient pile of driftwood known as Donald Trump came floating by. These past few months have been a horrific bloodbath, as many famous and once-respected conservatives have gutted their credibility for a chance to latch themselves to Trump like barnacles on the Titanic. Some of these ideological hustlers may have, at one point, truly believed in the principles of which they’ve so handsomely profited, but when the principles finally jeopardized the profits, they did not hesitate to choose the latter over the former.

Donald Trump was able to co-opt conservatism and slap his name across the front of it, like he’s done with so many hotels and casinos and dozens of other defunct companies, because those entrusted with defending and protecting it retreated at the first sign of resistance. They hid from the populist mob or grabbed their pitchforks and joined in. And when conservatism suffers the same fate as so many of Trump’s bankrupted ventures, we will have these cowards to blame.

As unpleasant a task as it may be, I think we need to identify the traitors and remember their names. We do this not out of spite, but in keeping with the Bible’s many warnings about false prophets. Scripture urges us to “expose the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11) and avoid becoming partners with those “who deceive with empty words” (Ephesians 5:6). Colossians implores us not to be “taken captive by deceit.” We’re warned in 2 Timothy that the time will come when people will not want to hear the truth, so they will surround themselves with frauds who tell them what their “itching ears want to hear.” I believe we have arrived at that moment, and it is now urgent that we specifically identify these frauds and false teachers. This is not a fun or polite process, but it is necessary, so we must get on with it.

http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/lets-remember-the-cowardly-conservative-leaders-who-betrayed-us-for-trump/

[Sunlei]

17. LOL, the RW raggs stole the Republican name, now they stain their precious 'Conservative' word.

Republican Party built Baggers & Trump, they deserve to go down with their sinking ship.

[bemildred]

18. Like a dog attacking its own tail. nt

[Turborama]

20. That last paragraph is full of bible quotes that can be used to deprogram Faux news fans. n/t

[Wounded Bear]

24. Yeah, they even quoted Two Timothy...

[silvershadow]

14. I can't wait until he tears into Rush.

Maybe that cyst of his (the one on his neck, not his ass) will explode

[Sunlei]

15. Salons (R)ight, tabloid RW media is "sucking up to Trump"

easy to see they're all afraid to write negative stories about him

[stevenleser]

19. I faced off against Michelle Fields several times. I disagree with her politics, but I believe her

and I don't think she would lie and certainly not about this.

[Bad Dog]

21. Let's hope they tear each other apart.

And field an alternative to Trump.

[JHB]

22. Company built on fraud shows lack of integrity?

Ms. Fields needs to be on the lookout for selectively-edited videos about her.

[modestybl]

23. He is also eroding MSNBC's credability as a responsible cable news channel..

... he has effectively commandeered it to be the Trump Show whenever he has a rally. Never mind Sanders' rallies are consistently larger, and his speeches full of policy substance.

Trump is unveiling the fraud on both the right and the "left" spectrum of the news media. May have done us a backhand public service.

[47of74]

25. These idiots sowed the wind

And now they whine about the shitstorm they have to reap.

[rusty quoin]

26. Maybe someday they will tear themselves apart,

but not in this election. The right wing will again group together behind Trump.

Remember that the right wing churches hated Romney's religion.

It's never been about religion, guns abortion or anything else.

It's about the very rich making more money.

It's always been about greed. Oh yeah...just like Jesus.

[Skittles]

27. conservative outlets are ALL Pravda

they're just now getting upset because the obsession is for ONE conservative asshole

[Sunlei]

29. Republicans try to save their arm fox from the wrath of the HUGEEE TrumP Monster Republican.

notice how quiet RW hate radio is, they're afraid of The Republican Kracken

[Rex]

30. So a webpage a blog and some moronic RWing interns now makes a media empire?

[demtenjeep]

31. I do not consider a blog news even if they have a "press pass and everything"

anyone can put up a blog and call it news

[Rex]

32. Agree 100%

Blogs come free with webpage templates.

[demtenjeep]

33. and donation buttons

for the price of a cup of coffee



nice gig if you can get it


me? I prefer to work for my income