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What’s Happening at Breitbart.com?
It may be presumptuous and even unfair of me to liken the behavior of a media outlet to a mental disorder, but unfortunately, monitoring Breitbart.com lately has been like watching a very disturbed person. Sometimes sober. Sometimes unhinged. Sometimes giddy. Sometimes juvenile and petty. Sometimes in full rage.
It won’t take but a few minutes of glancing at some of the sillier headlines and reading what passes for serious political commentary, or perusing some of the more extreme responses on Breitbart.com to anyone that dare challenge the wisdom of Donald Trump, to realize that we are no longer in Kansas. And no, Ray Kinsella, we aren’t even in Iowa, hearing voices in cornfields. It’s closer to say that we’ve passed through Alice’s looking glass to a place where the absurd characters are darker and more threatening than even Lewis Carroll could have imagined.
Am I saying that some (not all) of Trump’s supporters are so ridiculously angry that they’ll say anything inflammatory, defamatory, and outrageous behind the convenient veil of online pseudonyms? Yes, I am. Am I saying that certain political commentators have become besotted with Mr. Trump to the point of drooling, blithering idiocy, checking whatever critical thinking parts of their brains at the door? Well, yes. I’m saying that, too.
A few days ago, Megyn Kelly announced she was taking a ten-day vacation in, of all times, August. Aha! Who in the world takes a vacation in August? Breitbart.com noted that Salon.com had called the timing of Ms. Kelly’s vacation suspect. Unfortunately, the Breitbart headline, FOX NEWS’ MEGYN KELLY ANNOUNCES 10-DAY VACATION, didn’t suggest that Salon.com’s speculation was a bit over the top. Instead, it had the unintended consequence of reinforcing Trump fans with a penchant for conspiracy theory who felt Salon was on to something.
But this one, FOX SHOCK: NETWORK CALLS MEGYN KELLY ‘TALENT,’ NOT ‘JOURNALIST,’ Breitbart.com owns. Never mind that anyone who hosts a show and appears before a TV camera in the broadcast industry is referred to as “the talent.” No, it’s clear that even Fox knows that Kelly is anything but a journalist. I mean, like d’uh! I need to lie down. Or perhaps the folks at Breitbart need to lie down.
The previous two items were thought newsworthy enough for Breitbart’s editors to feature on their site. Once posted, they generated the expected response: rabid demonization of Kelly, Roger Ailes, and FoxNews in general from Breitbart’s more excitable readership – some Trump loyalists even making kind reference to Ms. Kelly’s hygiene, thus helping to complete Mr. Trump’s original thought. Whatever … wherever.
Referring to Mr. Trump’s supporters as “low information” will light up Breitbart.com’s phone lines, and they’ll report on that, too. Criticize Breitbart.com as skewing its coverage to promote Trump and you, too, may be featured prominently on the site, as Republican media consultant Rick Wilson found out when he incurred the wrath of Breitbart’s John Nolte:
To anyone not blinded by their own snobbery, Trump’s appeal to this group, even if it is on the single issue of locking America’s back border door at night, is painfully obvious.
But what is the response from the Republican Establishment to these voters? We saw a perfect example of it Friday night on CNN.
Like an embittered Gollum-In-Glasses protecting “My Precious” Jeb, Rick Wilson, a top Republican media consultant, appeared on CNN last night to hurl criticism mixed with a lot of faux-macho ad-hominem at Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
Which is fine. Wilson is even correct on a couple points.
Then he dropped his pants.
One thing to keep in mind when you read Wilson’s quote from last night below is that Republican candidates actually hire this guy to help them win elections — which I think explains a lot. [emphasis added]:
“You do not benefit by trying to draft behind Donald Trump and hope that he collapses and his low-information supporters run into your arms. This is a guy who is increasingly leading a fraction of the conservative base into a very dangerous cul-de-sac. He is promising things that he can never deliver. And it is time for Jeb Bush and other folks to start posting up and really comparing and contrasting Donald Trump’s rhetoric with the reality.”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t bolster a Breitbart journalist’s credibility to complain about his subject’s ad hominem attacks when he engages in similar, but even more juvenile, ad hominem attacks. “Then he dropped his pants.” Oh, well done, Mr. Nolte. Note that Wilson spent a good portion of his time in the CNN interview characterizing Donald Trump’s scattershot pronouncements, not “trashing” Trump supporters, as the Breitbart headline – WHY WE LOSE: TOP GOP CONSULTANT RICK WILSON TRASHES REPUBLICAN BASE – might lead its readership to believe.
Hint to Breitbart’s editorial staff: Try to be thick-skinned enough to take criticism about your reporting and the quality of your work, and remember:
- The stories this campaign season are about Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and the rest of the candidates in the field, not about the way a relatively obscure political consultant may have taken issue with Breitbart’s fawning coverage of Mr. Trump.
- Don’t let your site become the story.
- Don’t fixate on your critics.
- Watch some Monty Python from time to time, and quit taking yourselves so damn seriously.
- If your extreme behavior continues, consult a psychiatrist. Valium or other medications may be necessary (even if Tom Cruise disapproves).
Note to Ricochet’s editorial staff: Promoting this post to the Ricochet Main Feed may result in Ricochet.com being labeled a GOP Establishment hack website by one or more of the editorial staff of Breitbart.com. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Nice standard. Yes or no?
Really? How long do you want to prolong this? Perhaps you have something better to occupy your time. I know I do.
I already answered the question. See comment #90. Be seeing you.
And you.
Brian,
Jokes are made. Hyperbole is used. To take them serious just because you may not like the person is wrong.
Q: Brian Watt, yes or no?
A: C
Oh, please. Save me the lecture. Much of Ms. Coulter’s positions I agree with. I don’t detest her. I’m not terribly fond of her rhetorical style, it’s true. And it’s obvious that there are those here not terribly fond of mine either. But when she says something this outrageous she should be called on it. If any contributor on Ricochet made this remark, what would be the response? Of course, the folks at Breitbart.com wouldn’t be deliberately shielding this idiotic remark, would they? Of course not.
Yes or no?
Wait, I still have more lecture left. ;-)
What do I win if I answer this correctly? If I get it wrong I get the Rico Home Edition, right?
Watt is your favorite color?
CAPUT MORTUUM
Maybe you should try to waterboard me. I’ve answered the question. I’m sorry you’re having difficulty apparently comprehending or accepting the answer but I can’t help you with that. You may want to recognize, however, the weakness of your position and the double-standard you are seemingly endorsing. Rick Wilson should be publicly excoriated for his outrageous non-serious hyperbole but Ann Coulter for some reason should not because well, that’s just Ann being Ann. Really? The question on which you’re obsessed is the wrong question. The question isn’t whether this is hyperbole and therefore gets some sort of pass…thus giving Wilson’s crude remarks a pass. The question is whether you find both Wilson’s and Coulter’s remarks outrageous and idiotic. One set of remarks continues to be featured prominently on Breitbart.com. The other – nowhere to be found.
I really didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
Are you serious? How can you compare Fawlty to torture and the Spanish Inquisition? This is beyond the pale. Fawlty only tortures miscreants and scaffolds. Are you really coming out and saying you are a miscreant and not a scaffold? Yes or no.
Fawlty actually frequently abused a Spaniard if recollection serves – which makes this all a bit ironic, what?
He wasn’t a true Spaniard. He was from Barcelona,
Quit, Basque-ing in past glory and torture Brian some more. He was starting to sound coherent.
YEEEES I see what you did there! :)
He still sounds Catalanic to me.
Does anyone know if Brian still works at McDonald’s?