Breitbart Reporter Embroiled in Trump Staffer Assault Incident Quits Amid Internal Work Strife

Michelle Fields, the reporter who claims she was assaulted and left bruised by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, has tendered her resignation to Breibart. The incident occurred at a press conference in Florida this past Monday, when Fields claims "Lewandowski grabbed Fields and yanked her away from Trump as she was attempting to ask him a question". Resigning at the same time is editor-at-large Ben Shapiro, a witness to the alleged event.

“Today I informed the management at Breitbart News of my immediate resignation,” Fields said in a statement sent to BuzzFeed News. “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.” In his own statement, Shapiro said the episode was emblematic of how he believes the site’s management had sold out the legacy of its founder and namesake, the late Andrew Breitbart. “Andrew’s life mission has been betrayed,” Shapiro wrote. “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.”

www.buzzfeed.com...

The situation for Fields increased in intensity when Breibart published a story "casting doubt on fields' account, appearing to side with the Trump campaign over their reporter". On the heels of this article came editor Joel Pollak's mandate for staffers to "stop defending Michelle Fields", after staff at Breibart were spreading the word via Twitter and internet chat rooms.

“STOP tweeting about the story. Stop speculating about the story,” Pollak told staffers in one message, and reminded them that “you were given explicit instructions.” “You may wish to defend your colleague, and that is commendable — but keep in mind that when you do so, you are also putting other colleagues under direct public pressure, so you are actually hurting some to help another,” Pollak said in one of the chats. “That is why we have to be patient, and coordinate our responses.”

Pollak could not immediately be reached for comment. Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Breitbart spokesman Kurt Bardella quit in protest on Friday over how the site has handled the Fields situation and has publicly accused the site of lying about what happened to Fields

www.buzzfeed.com...

Finally, this whole situation may prove to be based on false accusations. Although different videos of the incident in question have surfaced, the most damning of the brief interaction between Fields and Lewandowski can be viewed here:
www.youtube.com...
The whole walk-thru can be seen here:
twitter.com...

Some view this situation as a company not having the back of it's reporter, and others believe Fields exaggerated or plain fabricated the charges. I'll let you be the judge.

This is what any company would do if an employee was potentially involved in something like this.Anything the other employees would say or do would reflect back on the company in general.A company cannot afford to "take sides" if you will . And any time any form of statement was "officially" released , you can bet a rat's rear it went through the legal department first.

I can't believe I'm actually going to say this but comparing this situation to Megan Kelly's situation at Fox. I have to at least give them credit for having the balls to stand against Trump and support their journalist during that whole feud.

Obviously Breitbart lacks the ability to match even Fox's level of integrity.

a reply to: mOjOm

So quick to judge. Why do you believe anything a FOX rep says and if so Why?

originally posted by: awareness10
a reply to: mOjOm

So quick to judge. Why do you believe anything a FOX rep says and if so Why?

I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know about any Fox Rep or anything else Fox has to say about anything because I don't like Fox.

But at least they didn't sell out Megan Kelly when Trump and her had their little feud after that debate. They defended their host and journalist like they should have done and she is still there.

Breitbart obviously has sold their loyalty to Trump even against their own reporters.

Honestly I don't like Breitbart or Fox and never have. But I was at least giving Fox credit for standing by their employee when it was needed.

a reply to: Boscowashisnamo


Good!

I had some problems when I heard about this. I pretty much didn't believe her story. Gut feeling i guess, it was too
convenient with all that was being thrown at Trump.

And the "sold out the legacy" thing is kind of a juvenile thing to say.

Go Breibart!

a reply to: Boscowashisnamo

She was definitely grabbed. Look at the C-SPAN video below at about 4 secs in. You can see a man reach for her.



Picking up at this supposedly "damning video" you can clearly see her forward momentum stops as she's grabbed and looks at him.

The argument from Joel Pollak:

Fields was indeed hurt in the altercation, and published a photograph of her bruises. Yet the available evidence from WPTV and ABC suggests that it was unlikely that Lewandowski was the person who caused her injuries.

Given the similarity in appearance between Lewandowski and the security official, and given the fact that Lewandowski was walking on the other side of Trump from where Fields was at the time, the possibility of mistaken identity cannot be ruled out. Indeed, given Lewandowski’s adamant denials (coupled with statements inappropriately impugning Fields’s character), it is the likeliest explanation.

In addition, the injury may have been accidental, owing simply to the chaos of the press scrum. A video filmed by a local CBS reporter earlier in the evening shows Fields standing near Trump and the same security official, with no concern or alarm on the part of Trump campaign staff.

So Pollak went with an explanation that it probably wasn't Lewandowski but rather a member of security and that it may have been accidental.

Let's examine this claim:

However, Lewandowski was not the only “man with short-cropped hair and a suit” walking near Trump. And he was walking on the opposite side of Trump from Fields, and Terris.

A photograph by Washington Post photographer Jabin Botsford, Terris’s colleague, released by ABC News World News Tonight, and taken seconds before the altercation took place, shows two men with short-cropped hair.

One, to Trump’s left, is Lewandowski. The other, behind Trump and to his right, is a security official, who resembles Lewandowski and is slightly taller.

I refer back to the C-SPAN video that clearly shows who grabbed her. Advance the video a few more seconds and you'll see that it's Lewandowski and that the security officer Pollak is trying to pin this on never even turns his head.

The grab:



Notice it's the shorter man in the darker blue shirt with the lighter hair.



Clearer still, notice security officer hasn't moved from Trump's right and is facing forward. If it's still not clear, advance the video to 32 seconds and you'll see both men's faces and that the uploader labeled them both. You'll also see Washington Post journalist Ben Terris in the middle of the frame.



There is no mistaken identity.

EDIT:

Also, look at the video you posted again OP and you'll see that the person that grabs her is not the one with the ear piece. So now you have to ask yourself, wtf is Pollak's game?

a reply to: theantediluvian

I am sorry, I just don't see any hand grabbing that woman.

Can you circle his hand grabbing her arm and repost the image?

Just goes to show that even the alt-right media has been infiltrated by special snowflakes. Doesn't look all that serious to me, and if someone wants to be a real reporter and get in the press "scrum" up close to the candidate, being able to handle a less than gentle pull away from the candidate while in the scrum would seem to me to be a job requirement. As far as the bruises go, my daughters get worse than that playing outside.

Nice take down of the story here .

Oh and did anyone see the response posted by breitbart before they took it down. That was some funny stuff.

Go Breitbart!

Go straight to Hell!

They have sold their souls to Trump

Trump owns their souls

I also do not see any arm-grabbing in any of these videos.

As for the above mention of Megan Kelly - before Trump ever said anything about her during that debate, I was also thinking, geez, the evil looks she is giving Trump look like if she could shoot fire out of her eyes at him, she would. Her questions to him were unprofessional and hostile. Trump was being honest in his remarks to her. FoxNews should have called her out on her unprofessionalism, and perhaps they did in private.

I am glad that Breitbart is not blindly supporting a false accusation by one of their reporters. I wonder if she and her colleague actually quit, or if they were asked to quit in lieu of being fired.

originally posted by: jefwane
Just goes to show that even the alt-right media has been infiltrated by special snowflakes. Doesn't look all that serious to me, and if someone wants to be a real reporter and get in the press "scrum" up close to the candidate, being able to handle a less than gentle pull away from the candidate while in the scrum would seem to me to be a job requirement. As far as the bruises go, my daughters get worse than that playing outside.

Nice take down of the story here .

Oh and did anyone see the response posted by breitbart before they took it down. That was some funny stuff.

It was some funny stuff?

Taking aim at Shapiro by using his dead fathers seudonym to write the hit piece on the two who are leaving Breitbart? Are you serious? Thats not funny thats despicable.

You Trump supporters scream about the media being bought off by politicians and being an echo chamber, but your hypocrisy knows no bounds when it appears that Trump is doing the same damn thing.

For someone whose not suppose to be "establishment" he sure has hell follows the same MO.

Someone call Jim Jones on the other side and let him know he has a Rival to his crown.

I've been looking at those videos and I don't see any aggressive grabbing of Michelle. There's a crowd and maybe she didn't like being pulled away. Hence the story.

Sometimes co-workers will pull me back when I walk too fast at conferences and they can't catch up. I bruise easily if I don't eat well. There are times when I see bruises that I don't even know how they got there.

How is this reporter claiming assault?! I didn't see anything like that.

The story smells to me.

ETA: I'm not a Trump supporter.

a reply to: Boscowashisnamo

This is all we need to know about this situation. She initially said that Lewandowski pulled her to the ground, then changed her story to they tried to pull her to the ground. She now admits not seeing who grabbed her.

Michelle Fields Speaks Out After Claiming Trump Campaign Manager Assaulted Her, Segment 1


Katrina Pierson Reacts to Michelle Fields Claim of Lewandowski Assault, Segment 2


At the end of segment 2 Kelly allows Michelle to respond AGAIN, very unusual...

If she has a book coming out this is a good way to get attention

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

I was unaware of the significance of the pseudonym until about an hour ago, but I'm not going to apologize for laughing at it. I laugh at what Bill Maher says all the time. Edit: Oh and I don't think Shapiro's father is dead he actually writes for Breitbart under that pseudonym.

I see absolutely nothing in Fields claims deserving of anything other than scorn or condescension. It's a rough world most reporters would gladly suffer some bruising like that on the chance of getting a candidate to acknowledge them. With Fields, I get the impression she'd rather be a part of the story than just covering it. Shapiro and the guy from the post White-Knighting over her seems to me to be at least as much about that impressive cleavage as it is about principle.

This is a reporter trying to get a pay day. Look out after the election for her getting a cushy job or a sudden influx to her bank accounts. Shes pretty. She might try to get a TV movie made about her.

Ive been in a crowded hallway before and been accussed of th esame thing before. UNLESS she has direct evidence such as DNA and witness testimony of him specifically grabbing her she could be lying.

originally posted by: mOjOm
I can't believe I'm actually going to say this but comparing this situation to Megan Kelly's situation at Fox. I have to at least give them credit for having the balls to stand against Trump and support their journalist during that whole feud.

Obviously Breitbart lacks the ability to match even Fox's level of integrity.

I don't know how she even survived this violent assault without a broken arm. I don't know how she got back up after being thrown to the ground like that. It's unfathomable that her Breitbart employers thought she embellished the incident . I think a cat being sushed off the sofa cushion has suffered more abuse.

There appears to be an internal war at Breitbart. Leaked emails, someone with editorial privileges posting that response under a weird web address. I hear the current owner of Breitbart has spent something like $31 million on Cruz this election cycle. Probably establishment infiltrators angry that with the exception of Shapiro and a couple of others didn't jump on the #neverTrump bandwagon.

Oh, I guess since I brought it up, here's a link to what someone at Breitbart put up overnight. Someone tell me it's not funny!

web.archive.org...://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/14/futures-markets-wrap-dow-continues-uncertai n-climb/

Notice the naming of the thread in the address. Someone with editorial power put that up with a title not matching the content. Breitbart is under attack from internal forces for whatever reasons. My opinion is that since they are mostly covering the GOP race impartially, establishment forces are attempting to destroy them.