Reporter David Ng visits the Los Angeles offices of Breitbart News, where CEO and co-founder Larry Solov runs the site.
From the Los Angeles Times:
It all began a little more than 10 years ago in a basement in Westwood: a small army of young employees in T-shirts and shorts huddled over their laptops, determined to launch a news site that would shake up the world of conservative media.
At first, the site started by Andrew Breitbart was a simple news aggregation service. But in a few short years it evolved into an idiosyncratic voice combining original reporting, incendiary commentary and outright trolling, in keeping with the rambunctious spirit of its founder, who died in 2012.
…
Others laughed it off as a journalistic lightweight catering to a far-right fringe known as the alt-right. No one’s laughing anymore.
…
In a series of interviews, leaders sounded a confident and defiantly unapologetic note. As a company, it is aiming for no less than the world. “The goal is to become a global news network,” said Larry Solov, the company’s president and chief executive officer.
…
A recent visit showed that Breitbart retains its startup flavor, with mostly young reporters typing away on laptops. The door to the main conference room is emblazoned with the hashtag #War — a mantra Breitbart instilled in his team. The company even has a mascot: the honey badger, the carnivore and YouTube star known for its tenacious attitude and thick skin — qualities that the newsroom has adopted as its own.
…
[Editor-in-Chief Alex] Marlow sees an opportunity to lure Trump supporters put off by Fox News’ ambivalent take on the Republican candidate, since “so much of their audience feels betrayed by how they covered this presidential race.”
…
“We think we were influential in the election and people are resentful of it,” said Solov, noting that he is Jewish, as was Breitbart.
“We are a nationalist website. How the word ‘white’ got tacked on is part of a coordinated media smear campaign,” said Marlow. “We like that we have a border — we don’t want to cede our country to unelected global bureaucrats. It has nothing to do with skin tone.”
Read the rest of the story here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.