Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields and editor-at-large Ben Shapiro have resigned over the publication’s handling of an alleged assault on Fields by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
Fields and Shapiro informed Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon of their decisions late Sunday night, BuzzFeed News reports.
“Today I informed the management at Breitbart News of my immediate resignation,” Fields said in the statement to BuzzFeed. “I do not believe Breitbart News has adequately stood by me during the events of the past week and because of that I believe it is now best for us to part ways.” (RELATED: Reporter Posts Photo Of Bruise After Saying Trump Campaign Manager ‘Yanked Me Down’)
In a separate statement, Shapiro criticized the publication for betraying the mission of late founder Andrew Breitbart.
“Andrew’s life mission has been betrayed,” Shapiro said. “Indeed, Breitbart News, under the chairmanship of Steve Bannon, has put a stake through the heart of Andrew’s legacy. In my opinion, Steve Bannon is a bully, and has sold out Andrew’s mission in order to back another bully, Donald Trump; he has shaped the company into Trump’s personal Pravda, to the extent that he abandoned and undercut his own reporter, Breitbart News’ Michelle Fields, in order to protect Trump’s bully campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who allegedly assaulted Michelle.” (VIDEO: Reporter Battles Trump Spox Over Alleged Assault)
Spokesman Kurt Bardella resigned from Breitbart last week.
“Both Lewandowski and Trump maligned Michelle in the most repulsive fashion,” Shapiro wrote in his resignation statement. “Meanwhile, Breitbart News not only stood by and did nothing outside of tepidly asking for an apology, they then attempted to abandon Michelle by silencing staff from tweeting or talking about the issue. Finally, in the ultimate indignity, they undermined Michelle completely by running a poorly-evidenced conspiracy theory as their lead story in which Michelle and Terris had somehow misidentified Lewandowski.”
“This is disgusting. Andrew never would have stood for it. No news outlet would stand for it,” Shapiro wrote.
“Nobody should,” Shapiro argued. “This truly breaks my heart. But, as I am fond of saying, facts don’t care about your feelings, and the facts are undeniable: Breitbart News has become precisely the reverse of what Andrew would have wanted. Steve Bannon and those who follow his lead should be ashamed of themselves.”
Fields later told the Independent Journal, “I can’t stand with an organization that won’t stand by me. The bruises on my arm will heal but I cannot be silent about the smears and lies perpetrated against me by the Trump campaign.”
In response to Shapiro’s resignation, Breitbart News released the following statement under the headline: “Ben Shapiro Betrays Loyal Breitbart Readers in Pursuit of Fox News Contributorship.”
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.
The snarky response was deleted Monday morning, and editor-at-large Joel Pollack wrote the following statement in its place:
“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,” Pollack wrote. “I apologize to Michelle Fields, my friend Ben Shapiro, and to everyone concerned.”