It was weeks ere we could see the wood for the trees, but so soon as the staff [of a newspaper] realised that they had proprietors who backed them right or wrong, and specially when they were wrong (which is the sole secret of journalism), and that their fate did not hang on any passing owner’s passing mood, they did miracles.
Rudyard Kipling, “The Village That Voted The Earth Was Flat.”
Breitbart senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak ordered the conservative website’s staffers to stop defending their colleague Michelle Fields after she was allegedly manhandled by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Internal Breitbart newsroom chats, obtained by BuzzFeed News, show Pollak telling concerned reporters to “STOP tweeting about the story. Stop speculating about the story.” In another message, he reminded them that “you were given explicit instructions.”
– The Daily Beast. More here.
Speaking professionally: I am disappointed in Joel. This was the wrong decision to make, and it will haunt Breitbart dot com for pretty much the rest of its existence. It’s OK for New Media to be partisans; but we should never be minions. Never ever ever.
Joel has now told everyone that works for him that he doesn’t give a[n] [expletive deleted] about them. He’ll soon find out that they will no longer care about him.
The BB sites have steadily worsened since Andrew’s passing, with the exception of Milo. The way they treated Dana Loesch was an early sign.
That’s a fast track to irrelevance, there.
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The truly frightening thing about this, is that he thinks he’s demonstrating leadership.
It’s maddening. I knew Andrew, a bit: hell, I even got one of his patented “call you up for twenty minutes and genially grill you in a rush about something that you just said or suggested online” phone calls, which puts me in a not-exclusive, but damned respectable, club*. He’d be infuriated at what happened to his websites. It’s obscene.
*Shoot, I can’t even remember what it was about.
That’s very cool.
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Gone much too soon. The news caused me every bit as much foreboding as did the more recent passing of Scalia.
The omens are ominous. (I say this not in belief, but neither with the confidence of doubt.)
Since we’re discussing Kipling and current events, this one’s been stuck in my head for a bit. Thought I’d share the cold chill.
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Rudyard Kipling
Macdonough’s Song
“As easy as A B C”–A Diversity of Creatures”
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Whether the State can loose and bind
In Heaven as well as on Earth:
If it be wiser to kill mankind
Before or after the birth–
These are matters of high concern
Where State-kept schoolmen are;
But Holy State (we have lived to learn)
Endeth in Holy War.
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Whether The People be led by The Lord,
Or lured by the loudest throat:
If it be quicker to die by the sword
Or cheaper to die by vote–
These are things we have dealt with once,
(And they will not rise from their grave)
For Holy People, however it runs,
Endeth in wholly Slave.
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Whatsoever, for any cause,
Seeketh to take or give
Power above or beyond the Laws,
Suffer it not to live!
Holy State or Holy King–
Or Holy People’s Will–
Have no truck with the senseless thing.
Order the guns and kill!
Saying –after–me:–
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Once there was The People–Terror gave it birth;
Once there was The People and it made a Hell of Earth
Earth arose and crushed it. Listen, 0 ye slain!
Once there was The People–it shall never be again!
This pairs well with “The Gods of the Copybook Headings”.
And pair them both with Kipling’s two science fiction stories, “With the Night Mail” and “As Easy as ABC.” The latter story, set in 2065, is particularly interesting, as it leaves the reader to infer a very interesting future history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_Board_of_Control
“STOP tweeting about the story. Stop speculating about the story.”
Keep rockin’!