More than 100
Politico employees signed a letter addressed to publisher Robert Albritton complaining about his decision to allow a big meanie named Ben Shapiro to guest-author an edition of the site’s Playbook newsletter. The staffers indicated that they did not approve of the decision because Shapiro says mean things that they don’t like. The letter was given to Albritton just before naptime and right after their diapers were changed.
One editorial staffer told
RedState that Shapiro should not have been invited to author the newsletter because he said bigoted things in the past. When informed that the conservative podcaster had apologized for his comments, the
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Today marks the first full day of
Joe Biden’s tenure as 46th President of the United States. President Biden has repeatedly sought to rally American confidence by insisting the country “is back.” But as his foreign policy team surely knows, reputation is a lagging indicator. Outgoing Secretary of State
The Ideological Emptiness of “PlayBook”
The controversy over Politico’s decision to publish Ben Shapiro reveals the lengths media outlets will go to prove they listen to both sides.
MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images
Ben Shapiro almost certainly got what he wanted out of a stint guest-hosting Politico’s flagship “Playbook” newsletter last Thursday. His turn at the helm he followed Chris Hayes, Ken Burns, Yamiche Alcindor, James Bennet, and others, all of whom were filling in before a new quartet takes over on Inauguration Day was, by his standards, unspectacular. Shapiro, who at 37 resembles a sadistic junior camp counselor, has in the past claimed that 800 million Muslims were “radicalized” around the world and that Arabs “like to live in open sewage,” while suggesting that Trayvon Martin deserved to be murdered. In “Playbook,” however, he merely argued that Republicans oppose Trump’s impeachment because “members of the opposing political tribe want their d
Ben Shapiro guest-write Thursday’s Playbook newsletter: Politico editor in chief
Matt Kaminski told staff that there will be no such apology.
Politico also released a statement defending its decision to have Shapiro write the newsletter, obtained by
The Washington Post’s
Erik Wemple.
Shapiro’s byline on the daily newsletter which is being guest-written by prominent media personalities this month sparked a backlash on Twitter.
“We have taken great care to assemble a roster of guest authors who are prominent thinkers and writers and represent a range of perspectives,” the Politico statement said. “What sets Politico apart in this intense political and media moment is that we rise above ideological warfare – even as many seek to drag us into it. It’s a core value of the publication that is unchangeable, and that above all protects our ability to do independent journalism. It’s a part of our mission.”
YAF
The “Playbook” is an early morning newsletter published by Politico. Started by founder Mike Allen in 2006, Playbook arrives via email to anyone who signs up to receive the column each day. Playbook developed a large base of readers, and was credited through the Obama Administration with, in some ways, setting the political agenda for each day with the topics it covered. Allen received assistance from other Politico reporters over the years, and authorship of Playbook was taken over by others in 2016 when Allen departed Politico.
Recently, Politico has had guest editors put out the newsletter, and the guest editor this morning was Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro, a conservative opinion writer with 3.3 million followers on Twitter. Howls of outrage have been heard from inside Politico’s newsroom as a result apparently, the invitation to Shapiro to be a guest editor of today’s Playbook wasn’t widely known inside the publication.