I went to sleep early this morning wondering what the response from Breitbart would be. Well, I wasn’t disappointed. They ended up releasing one of the omst scathing responses I’ve ever heard, but unfortunately, they ended up pulling it for some reason. One theory was they put it out knowing it would be archived, so they could then pull it later and have the best of both worlds. I’m not sure, but I do know that all these people crying and wringing their hands about it are such hypocrites. They had no problems with the attacks from Ben Shapiro last night, but now they are apparently concerned with decorum. Please, spare me.

In case you missed it, I’ve decided to reprint the whole response here before I move on to the Gawker trial…

 

LOS ANGELES — 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.

Friends of Hamas could not be found for comment.

Shapiro, a Harvard lawyer and member of the State Bar of California, apparently violated virtually every clause in his employment contract during an appearance on The Kelly File last Thursday evening.
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.

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 story ran next to a photograph of a baby snake hatching from its shell, apparently for emphasis. Somehow, Shapiro’s name was omitted from the headline on Buzzfeed’s home page.

Breitbart news editor-in-chief Alex Marlow was stupefied: “My friend Ben Shapiro broke the news on a website that asks its staff to drink their own urine? Impossible.”

Breitbart California editor Joel B. Pollak, Shapiro’s friend and fellow Orthodox Jew, expressed concern for his former colleague.
“I’m worried. I had enjoyed listening to Ben read Breitbart California stories, word for word, without attribution, on his morning radio show. Now what will he do for content?”

Breitbart News senior management issued a short statement: “Ben’s listicles will be missed.”

The mood was somber at Breitbart News’ Los Angeles office, where one staffer stared silently at promotional copies of Shapiro’s books, left behind on the shelves when the author stopped showing up for work, several years ago.

Alleged Fox News contributor Michelle Fields also resigned.

Ben Shapiro immediately started whining to Politico, which I suppose is no surprise. He seems to be the sort who can dish it out but fails to be able to take it. Remember when he cried about Zoey Tur? This is even more pathetic.

In an interview Shapiro denied he was looking to work for Fox News and that he has “never received” a job from the network. Shapiro, who is a Ted Cruz supporter, also said he did not violate his employment contract as the piece originally noted, since he is an “at will” employee.

The unusual piece, which can be read in full here, was even more shocking for Shapiro because it was posted under the pseudonym his father used while writing for the site — William Bigelow.

Shapiro’s father, the writer David Shapiro, also resigned from Breitbart on Sunday evening.

According to the younger Shapiro, his father was hired under the pseudonym to protect his safety since the younger Shapiro said he received so many death threats for his writings.

“Breitbart put this under his byline because they knew I’d have to out him,” Shapiro said in an interview on Monday, adding that by linking to his profile with the California State Bar the site exposed personal information, though that information is outdated. “The fact they would use my father’s pseudonym in order to attack me just exposes how despicable they are.”

https://twitter.com/TheRalphRetort/status/709404992021528577

Who cares, Ben? You wanted to play hardball, so you’re getting just what you asked for. My only regret is that they took it down, because that was one of the funniest responses to a resignation that I’ve ever read. Give me your thoughts while I go get the afternoon Gawker thread ready.

 

PS: Patrick Howley, the Breitbart reporter who was suspended for casting doubt on Michelle Fields’ version of events, is now back with the company.

https://twitter.com/PatrickHowleyDC/status/709389871203233793

 

UPDATE: More on the “Friends of Hamas” jab

On February 7, 2013, Shapiro published an article citing unspecified Senate sources who said that a group named “Friends of Hamas” was among foreign contributors to the political campaign of Chuck Hagel, a former US Senator awaiting confirmation as Secretary of Defense as a nominee of President Barack Obama. In the article, Shapiro criticized the Obama administration for ignoring his questions about Hagel’s foreign associations and called for full disclosure of Hagel’s foreign ties.

On February 20, Slate reporter David Weigel reported that he could not find any convincing evidence “Friends of Hamas” actually existed, based on personal interviews with Senate staffers, the conservative Center for Security Policy, and the US Treasury Department Terror Sponsors list. Shapiro told Weigel that the story he published was “the entirety of the information [he] had.”

Subsequently, New York Daily News reporter Dan Friedman reported on February 20 that he may have been the unwitting source of the “Friends of Hamas” allegation. Friedman said that the story arose in the course of questioning Republican aides over Hagel’s connections to foreign terrorist groups, presuming that one of the aides had interpreted his asking about such political connections as evidence of their existence. Shapiro responded by reporting that his source had averred that Friedman was not a source.

In an interview with Salon.com, Shapiro said the following in regard to the controversy: “We’re all striving for some semblance of truth, even if there’s angles to it. When people make corrections or find things that I do wrong, it doesn’t upset me. It urges me to do better.”