Former Breitbart News Chief's Long Endorsement of Trump Makes a 'Perfect Match' for Campaign
— -- The hiring of the former executive chairman of Breitbart News to be the new CEO of Donald Trump's presidential campaign is the latest in what many believe has been a long collaboration between the media boss and the real estate magnate.
Under Steve Bannon's leadership as executive chairman, the conservative and widely popular news site Breitbart News increasingly endorsed the GOP nominee’s moves during the campaign, covering Trump in a favorable light.
"Breitbart was a year-long mash note to Donald Trump and Donald Trump finally reciprocated and they took up the fantasy suite together," Ben Shapiro, the former editor-at-large for the site, told ABC News today.
One of the most recent examples of their favorable tone towards Trump came Wednesday, on the same day Bannon was announced as the Trump campaign’s new CEO; the news site posted an article praising Trump’s two most recent speeches as "His Two Strongest Speeches of the Campaign."
In recent weeks, they’ve also had articles showing how a poll conducted over mobile apps allegedly suggested that Trump has an opportunity to win more millennial voters than previous candidates, and one saying that Trump was "quite literally" right to call President Obama and Hillary Clinton the co-founders of ISIS. Trump himself later said that he was being sarcastic about the claim.
But, the clearest example that the news site was siding with Trump came when one of their own reporters, Michelle Fields, was grabbed by then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and sustained a bruise on her arm.
At first, Breitbart News called for Lewandowski to apologize “if that’s the case,” but later went on to publish a story questioning Fields' version of events.
Shapiro, who worked for Breitbart for just over four years as editor-at-large, resigned in response to their handling of the Fields incident.
In a statement he gave to Buzzfeed immediately after his resignation, Shapiro called Bannon "a bully" and said, "He has shaped the company into Trump’s personal Pravda," referencing the Russian newspaper that was previously the official paper of the Communist party.
Shapiro, who is now the editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire, isn’t the only one to have noticed that Bannon was helping boost the positive coverage of Trump through Breitbart.
In February, conservative radio host Glenn Beck spoke out against Bannon and the pro-Trump coverage Breitbart had been publishing.
"I believe that Bannon thinks he's either going to be the chief-of-staff or he's either going to be the next Roger Ailes," Beck said during a radio appearance.
He went on address his complaints to Bannon directly, saying "what you’ve done to Breitbart," describing it as "taking orders from a political candidate and reworking your entire site to promote the lies of a specific candidate, without any kind of truth behind these things and just spinning all of it."
Even though Bannon's title at Breitbart News is on the business side of the company, Bannon did also write a regular column for the site and hosted a Sirius XM talk radio show under the Breitbart logo.
Shapiro added, “Bannon's role there was editorial guiding force."
Breitbart News has been known to include articles on conspiracy theories, stoking speculation about Sen. Ted Cruz’s eligibility to run, as well as running articles that make claims about illegal immigration. Those ideas jive well with Trump's positions, as he has also been known to hint and not-so-subtly suggest what he believes is the truth behind conspiracy theories.
Years before this presidential campaign, Trump spearheaded a public effort to question President Obama’s birth certificate and regularly added to the birther movement.
During this campaign, there have been numerous examples of Trump peddling conspiracy theories, including when he has raised questions about whether or not Sen. Ted Cruz’s father was involved or connected to the Kennedy assassination, whether hundreds of people in New Jersey were seen cheering in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and most recently, raising questions about Hillary Clinton’s health.
“They're an absolutely perfect match,” Shapiro said. “Donald Trump is a Breitbart troll.”
The site maintains they have been editorially neutral. "Breitbart News' 31 million monthly readers turn to us for in-depth political coverage from around the globe," Breitbart said in a statement to ABC News. "From Brexit to the southern border, our anti-establishment voice is tied to no candidate or party, which is why our reporting resonates with a vast and diverse readership."
Bannon will not continue in his role at Breitbart News while working on Trump’s campaign, but the company made it clear that they plan to welcome him back with open arms. The company's statement announcing Bannon's "temporary leave of absence" read that Bannon "will resume work with Breitbart the evening of November 8, 2016."
