He’s risen from the ashes (or something like that) and Brandon Darby, Breitbart News‘ Texas “bureau chief” is back on Twitter after declaring himself done with it nine days ago.
“Andrew got me on Twitter. It’s been fun but fighting gets old. Much love, peeps, Ciao!” he wrote in a dramatic goodbye tweet last Wednesday night.
But last night he returned. “I’m driving around the Arizona border in a Jeep. Meeting w/ ranchers and law enforcement. Can’t wait to share what I’m learning :),” he wrote at 9:56 p.m. last night.
Leading up to Darby’s fake exit were a few high drama Twitter disagreements. In one instance, he refused to acknowledge that Dana Loesch, an ex-Breitbart News employee who sued the company on her way out, had hosted a radio interview that he prominently featured in his story on the Bundy Ranch. He hyperlinked to her, but considering how close Loesch once was to the site, it left some wondering if there was a company-wide policy to never name her. Darby reasoned he was being “kind” by not mentioning her. Huh?
“Attn certain conservative site: if you’re going to cite my content, cite my name. Lame,” Loesch cracked on Twitter, clearly mocking them for forgetting her name.
In another moment of friction last week, the “bureau chief” (in essence, just a guy who lives in Texas) grew incensed when I questioned him about Breitbart News allegedly charging a tea party group in Texas for glowing PR-type coverage of an event in March. Even in extreme circumstances, this is unheard of in traditional or even partisan journalism circles. But not Breitbart News, which marches to its own bizarre drumbeat and sometimes not in ways that reflect favorably on the reporters who work there. Eventually Darby blocked me, but before he did, he insisted that I was “lying” and “trashy” but could provide no details or official comment on what went down. According to an event organizer who spoke out because he was so irritated by what he claimed was inadequate coverage for what they paid, Breitbart News charged upwards of 7K for them to cover the event.
Darby’s back on Twitter, but he will still face foes like Lee Stranahan, another ex-Breitbart News, who left under duress in March when Darby fired him. Stranahan isn’t exactly a wallflower.
“I’d like to welcome @brandondarby back to Twitter. Join me in hoping he answers questions about Dn Backer this time,” he wrote, needling him about the story that got him canned.
A minute later, Stranahan added this twist of the knife: “The awesome thing about @brandondarby being back on Twitter is that his old tweets are available for screen capture.”
UPDATE: Stranahan weighed in on his old supervisor’s return, telling The Mirror in an email, “Brandon’s return was predictable but unfortunately it is equally predictable he still will not answer basic questions about his professional conduct. Sadly, this is yet another way that Brandon has turned out to be exact opposite of Andrew Breitbart, who eagerly relished the chance to engage in discussion on any topic on Twitter.”