Of, perhaps, the breakup of the conservative media bloc as journalists who understand the importance of ethics engage in critical actions. From CNN/Money:
Reporter Michelle Fields and at least three other staffers have resigned in opposition to [Breitbart News‘] coverage of Trump and to its handling of an alleged assault on Fields by a top Trump aide.
Fields, who has claimed that she was yanked and bruised by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and Ben Shapiro, one of the site’s top editors, told BuzzFeed late Sunday night that they would be leaving the company.
Then on Monday, Breitbart editor Jarrett Stepman and national security correspondent Jordan Schachtel announced they were also resigning in protest.
“Today I informed the management at Breitbart News of my immediate resignation,” Fields said on Sunday. “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.”
When old Pravda is used in comparison, you have to wonder just how big the lies have grown.
Of course, there’s a practical component as well. If they do not exercise their ethics, they risk their careers as the lies become more and more brazen. For those Breitbart News employees they leave behind, the risks become even greater as the publicity of their former colleagues becomes well known. They must fear becoming known as hacks, as journalists in only the loosest sense of the word.
American civil society is not built for cultural warfare as has been advocated by those on the fringe right; it is constructed such that disparate groups that obey a common ethics, often defined by the law, can live side by side with minimal friction. That is the goal of the Founders. When Breitbart News breaches journalistic ethics to the extent that top people begin leaving abruptly, all in the name of propelling a chosen candidate onward to a nomination with little concern about truth and honesty, by the Founders’ rules, Breitbart News risks being tarred with disrespect, with the tar that stinks of distrust, and a tar that sponsors may abhor.
I’ll be fascinated to see Breitbart’s fate. Fox News reportedly is losing influence in the race as Rubio fades and no other candidate particularly cares about them. Is Fox now too liberal for the candidates? Or do they not trust Fox, an organization whose concern for fair and accurate reporting is so poor that it must proclaim its adherence to it from the rooftops?
