Breitbart News on Monday quickly deleted a post mocking an editor who resigned from the conservative media outlet over the way it reacted to reporter Michelle Fields’ account that she was grabbed on the arm by Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.
Joel Pollak, a Breitbart editor-at-large and in-house counsel, said that he wrote the post mocking Shapiro and apologized for the post on Monday.
“The article was written by me as part of an effort to make light of a significant company event, and was published as a result of a misunderstanding without going through the normal editorial channels,” Pollak said in a statement. “I apologize to Michelle Fields, my friend Ben Shapiro, and to everyone concerned.”
Here’s Breitbart stmt on that piece that was pulled, just came in: pic.twitter.com/ZIzbnGvy6a
— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) March 14, 2016
Shapiro and Fields both quit their jobs at Breitbart on Sunday citing lack of support from the outlet for Fields.
The post published by Pollak on Monday morning headlined “Ben Shapiro Betrays Loyal Breitbart Readers In Pursuit Of Fox News Contributorship” bashed Shapiro for publicizing his resignation in a statement to Buzzfeed News. The site deleted the article a few hours after it was published.
“Former Breitbart News editor-at-large Ben Shapiro announced Sunday evening via left-wing Buzzfeed that he is abandoning Andrew Breitbart’s lifelong best friend, widow, hand-picked management team and friends in pursuit of an elusive contributorship at the Fox News Channel,” the post begins. “Friends of Hamas could not be found for comment.”
The post noted that Shapiro appeared on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show to discuss allegations that Lewandowski grabbed Fields. The post claimed that this violated Shapiro’s contract with Breitbart. Shapiro told Politico that he has not been looking for a job at Fox News.
“It was business as usual for the ambitious conservative gadfly, who is known to live on the edge, courting and then leaving a series of companies over the past several years,” the post read.
The post also mocked Shapiro for taking the news of his resignation to Buzzfeed.
“Buzzfeed, a site that has been aiming to destroy Breitbart News since the moment Andrew Breitbart died, and which has predicted the demise of Breitbart.com for the past four years, rewarded Shapiro for his bravery by placing news of his resignation just beneath several other hot stories, including ‘This Wee Little Snake Taking Its First Breath Will Cure Anyone’s Fears,’ and ‘2/26: How Two Llamas And A Dress Gave Us The Internet’s Greatest Day,'” the post read.
The post was originally posted under the name “William Bigelow,” the pseudonym Shapiro’s father, David Shapiro, used to write on Breitbart News, according to Politico. David Shapiro also resigned from Breitbart on Sunday, according to Politico.
Read the full deleted post:
