FactCheck: Organized Radical Left Targeted Donald Trump From Day One

Note that as the assault allegation unfolded in the press, “Breitbart chairman Stephen Bannon made several disparaging remarks about the reporter in conference calls with company leadership,” according to Politico’s reporting. And internally, Joel Pollack instructed staffers to stop publicly defending Fields.

And this from BuzzFeed [emphasis added]:

Despite the fact that there is video, an audio recording, and an eyewitness account that indicate Lewandowski did this, the Trump campaign has denied it, and Breitbart published a story by Pollak arguing that the person who manhandled Fields was not Lewandowski,appearing to side with the Trump campaign over their own reporter.

Think about that for a moment: A reporter accused Trump’s campaign manager of assaulting her and then her colleague published a piece suggesting her account didn’t add up.

“It makes no sense,” noted Gawker, “until you consider that perhaps the media outlet’s relationship with the Trump campaign is worth more to it than the safety and health–mental and physical–of its own employees.”

Suspicions of a pay-for-play foundation continue to hound Breitbart. “According to four sources with knowledge of the situation,” BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins reported last year, “editors and writers at the outlet have privately complained since at least last year that the company’s top management was allowing [Donald] Trump to turn Breitbart into his own fan website — using it to hype his political prospects and attack his enemies.”

There’s been nothing subtle about Breitbart’s Republican primary coverage. Back in January, the conservative Daily Caller noted “Breitbart News published at least 30 stories in the past week about Donald Trump’s theory that Sen. Ted Cruz is ineligible to run for president because he’s not a natural born citizen.”

Breitbart executives deny the pay-for-play allegations. If that’s the case, Breitbart decided to hang its reporter out to dry after being assaulted by Trump’s campaign manager because … why exactly?

There’s nothing wrong with advocacy during a campaign season. But for a so-called news site to dedicate its time and resources to propping up only one Republican candidate? For a news site to turn its back on one of its reporters after she said she was manhandled by that candidate’s campaign manager? Those are dubious new lows.

And that’s why the Breitbart/Trump story only comes into focus when you realize Breitbart operates as a political entity, not as a news or journalism outlet.

At one point last week Breitbart’s Washington, D.C. editor, Matthew Boyle, in an attempt to contain the story, released a text conversation he had had with Lewandowski. But all the texts did was raise additional doubts about Breitbart’s loyalty: Boyle suggested the attack on Fields had been a “misunderstanding” and emphasized that he wanted to “make sure that this doesn’t turn into a big story.”

“We are now at the point where any skepticism of Donald Trump is a bridge too far,” explained Matt Lewis at the Daily Caller. “When Ben Shapiro isn’t hard core enough for you, you’re the one with the problem,”

It’s too early to tell if the assault story will damage the Trump campaign. But as the Trump non-believers are purged from the site, we know Breitbart’s now officially unraveling.