About

Breitbart is a conservative news site known for covering a variety of high-profile political scandals and Internet controversies, including the ACORN undercover videos, Weinergate and Gamergate.

History

In 2007, the website Breitbart.tv was launched by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart. In 2009, the Breitbart writers Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe covertly recorded themselves acting as a prostitute and pimp seeking tax and legal advice from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) (shown below, left). The videos were subsequently edited and published by Breitbart, leading to the loss of private funding for the organization. In 2010, Breitbart launched Breitbart.com, stating it was created to become "The Huffington Post of the right." In March, the website released edited footage of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) official Shirley Sherrod speaking at a fundraiser for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in a video titled "Proof NAACP Awards Racism" (shown below, right). In the video, Sherrod admits to feeling biased against helping a white farmer with government assistance.

Following the release of the video, the NAACP condemned Sherrod's remarks and the United States government called for her to resign. In July, the NAACP released the full version of Sherrod's speech, revealing a section that had been cut of Sherrod admitting she was wrong to be reluctant to help the white man. In 2011, Sherrod filed a lawsuit against Breitbart for defamation, which reached a settlement four years later. In May, the Breitbart site BigJournalism reported on the Weinergate controversy involving a sexually explicit photo posted by former New York Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner's Twitter account (shown below). After the site reported that additional graphic photos had been discovered, the images were leaked online. Breitbart subsequently claimed that he did not call for the photos to be published.^[4]

In 2012, Breitbart passed away, followed by a major redesign of the site. On October 22nd, BuzzFeed^[3] reported that the staff members were struggling over control of the site in wake of Breitbart's death. In 2014, the company expanded the website with new offices in Texas and London, along with the addition of 12 new staff members.

Milo Yiannopoulos

In October 2015, Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos was promoted to the editor of Breitbart Tech.

Stephen Bannon

Stephen Bannon is the former executive chairman of Breitbart. He served in this position from March 2012 to August 2016. There, he is credited as forming the ideology for what would become the alt-right. On August 17th, 2016, he was appointed to the position of Chief Executive in Donald Trump's 2016 United States Presidential Election campaign. On November 13th, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump announced Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon would be serving as his Chief Strategist and senior adviser, an appointment which drew sharp criticism from the anti-defamation league for Bannon's ties to anti-semitism and white nationalism.^[6]

2016 United States Presidential Race

Michelle Fields Assault Controversy

On March 11th, 2016, Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields filed a police report claiming that Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski physically assaulted her while she was at a Trump presidential campaign event in Jupiter, Florida. According to Fields, Lewandowski grabbed her by the arm and aggressively pulled her away when she attempting to ask Trump a question. The account was backed by The Washington Post reporter Ben Terris, who purportedly witnessed the incident.

The same day, Lewandowski posted a tweet^[5] denying the incident occurred, referring to Fields as "delusional" (shown below). Within four days, the tweet gained over 1,800 likes and 1,300 retweets.

On March 13th, Fields resigned from Breitbart due to the company's response to her assault claims. The following day, Breitbart staff writer Ben Shapiro resigned from the site, claiming that the news organization's management had "sold out" the late founder's mission "in order to back another bully, Donald Trump."^[2] Also on March 14th, Breitbart spokesman Kurt Bardella, national security correspondent Jordan Schachtel and associate editor Jarrett Stepman also resigned from the company, echoing Shapiro's statements that the site was giving favorable coverage to Trump.

Search Interest

External References