Here's How Breitbart And Milo Smuggled Nazi and White Nationalist Ideas Into The Mainstream

[Breh13]

In August, after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville ended in murder, Steve Bannon insisted that "there's no room in American society" for neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, and the KKK.

But an explosive cache of documents obtained by BuzzFeed News proves that there was plenty of room for those voices on his website.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart courted the alt-right — the insurgent, racist right-wing movement that helped sweep Donald Trump to power. The former White House chief strategist famously remarked that he wanted Breitbart to be “the platform for the alt-right.”

The Breitbart employee closest to the alt-right was Milo Yiannopoulos, the site’s former tech editor known best for his outrageous public provocations, such as last year’s Dangerous fakkit speaking tour and September’s canceled Free Speech Week in Berkeley. For more than a year, Yiannopoulos led the site in a coy dance around the movement’s nastier edges, writing stories that minimized the role of neo-Nazis and white nationalists while giving its politer voices “a fair hearing.” In March, Breitbart editor Alex Marlow insisted “we’re not a hate site.” Breitbart’s media relations staff repeatedly threatened to sue outlets that described Yiannopoulos as racist. And after the violent white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, Breitbart published an article explaining that when Bannon said the site welcomed the alt-right, he was merely referring to “computer gamers and blue-collar voters who hated the GOP brand.”

These new emails and documents, however, clearly show that Breitbart does more than tolerate the most hate-filled, racist voices of the alt-right. It thrives on them, fueling and being fueled by some of the most toxic beliefs on the political spectrum — and clearing the way for them to enter the American mainstream.

It’s a relationship illustrated most starkly by a previously unreleased April 2016 video in which Yiannopoulos sings “America the Beautiful” in a Dallas karaoke bar as admirers, including the white nationalist Richard Spencer, raise their arms in Nazi salutes.

These documents chart the Breitbart alt-right universe. They reveal how the website — and, in particular, Yiannopoulos — links the Mercer family, the billionaires who fund Breitbart, to underpaid trolls who fill it with provocative content, and to extremists striving to create a white ethnostate.

They capture what Bannon calls his “killing machine” in action, as it dredges up the resentments of people around the world, sifts through these grievances for ideas and content, and propels them from the unsavory parts of the internet up to TrumpWorld, collecting advertisers’ checks all along the way.

And the cache of emails — some of the most newsworthy of which BuzzFeed News is now making public — expose the extent to which this machine depended on Yiannopoulos, who channeled voices both inside and outside the establishment into a clear narrative about the threat liberal discourse posed to America. The emails tell the story of Steve Bannon’s grand plan for Yiannopoulos, whom the Breitbart executive chairman transformed from a charismatic young editor into a conservative media star capable of magnetizing a new generation of reactionary anger. Often, the documents reveal, this anger came from a legion of secret sympathizers in Silicon Valley, Hollywood, academia, suburbia, and everywhere in between.

"I have said in the past that I find humor in breaking taboos and laughing at things that people tell me are forbidden to joke about," Yiannopoulos wrote in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "But everyone who knows me also knows I'm not a racist. As someone of Jewish ancestry, I of course condemn racism in the strongest possible terms. I have stopped making jokes on these matters because I do not want any confusion on this subject. I disavow Richard Spencer and his entire sorry band of idiots. I have been and am a steadfast supporter of Jews and Israel. I disavow white nationalism and I disavow racism and I always have.”

There’s more in the article, it’s pretty lengthy.

Here's How Breitbart And Milo Smuggled Nazi and White Nationalist Ideas Into The Mainstream

Good to see what everyone knew with some evidence. It’s funny to see cacs feign surprise that something is racist when it was obvious from the get-go. “Smuggled”.

These “liberals” looking funny in the light as usual.

All those important guys at left-leaning websites giving tips and attack subjects.

 

[TheKid55]

We been saying this

But now that Russia & Bannon have weaponized their talking points, cacs wanna cry foul

Case in point:



Keep burying your heads in the sand tho

 

[Breh13]

All the Soros bogeyman stuff and the true devil concocting all this shyt is Mercer.

Literally bankrolling all this shyt.

 

[AndroidHero]

All the Soros bogeyman stuff and the true devil concocting all this shyt is Mercer.

Literally bankrolling all this shyt.

And don't forget Peter Thiel, and yet for some reason people (mostly right-wingers) focus on Soros even though Koch, Adelson and Thiel have more power and influence.

Guess you are the devil if you support progressive causes.

 

[AndroidHero]

I said it in the TLR thread, this is huge and very important, good on Buzzfeed for this exposé, this is great journalism.

 

[afterlife2009]

Article was really good. The emails between Milo and Bannon were interesting to read

Dan Lyons getting destroyed on Twitter

 

[AndroidHero]

Milo Yiannopoulos sings “America the Beautiful” in a Dallas karaoke bar as admirers, including the white nationalist Richard Spencer, raise their arms in Nazi salutes.



His response to this video.





I couldn't see these Nazi salute because I have severe myopia.

 

[AndroidHero]

Here Are the Most Insane Details to Emerge From Buzzfeed’s Breitbart Blockbuster



BuzzFeed has just come out with an absolute blockbuster of a story that reveals how closely Breitbart worked with neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and alt-righters and incorporated their ideas into the site’s content. The bombshell highlighted how former tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos recruited the help of white nationalists to put together Breitbart’s big March 2016 featureon the alt-right, ‘An Establishment Conservative’s Guide to the Alt-Right.’

Now, this behemoth of a piece by BuzzFeedis a must-read on its own due to how much it exposes about Milo, ex-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, the site’s association with white nationalism, and the financing behind the news outlet. However, what we will helpfully do for you is highlight some of the craziest details in the report.

Milo Sings ‘America the Beautiful’ — To Nazi Salutes

There is a previously unreleased video of Yiannopoulos singing the patriotic song at a Dallas karaoke bar in April 2016. And well-known white supremacist Richard Spencer was there with other Milo admirers. And, yep, they raised their arms and gave Nazi salutes at his performance. However, Yiannopoulos claimed he never saw the salutes:

He added that during his karaokeperformance, his “severe myopia” made it impossible for him to see the Hitler salutes a few feet away.

Milo Tried to Take Sole Credit on the Alt-Right Guide

Yiannopoulos’ writing partner, Allum Bokhari, apparently did most of the actual work on the comprehensive guide. However, Milo wanted all the credit because of course. He wrote emails to Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow asking if he could take all the glory while telling Bokhari that management just wanted his name on the piece.

Also, there was another sensitive issue to be raised: credit. “Allum did most of the work on this and wants joint [byline] but I want the glory here,” Yiannopoulos wrote back to Marlow. “I am telling him you said it’s sensitive and want my byline alone on it.”

Minutes later, Yiannopoulos emailed Bokhari. “I was going to have Marlow collude with me … about the byline on the alt right thing because I want to take it solo. Will you hate me too much if I do that? … Truthfully management is very edgy on this one (They love it but it’s racially charged) and they would prefer it.”

Bannon Tears Milo a New One

Yiannopoulos was upset about a story that Breitbart London had published that claimed anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller had been threatened by a London college student. Milo emailed Bannon complaining about the article, calling it “horseshyt” and recommending that it be pulled because Geller herself said it was “rubbish.” He also told Bannon in the email that they should win with the truth. Bannon was NOT happy.

Six minutes later, Bannon wrote back to his tech editor in a fury. “Your [sic] full of shyt. When I need your advice on anything I will ask. … The tech site is a total clusterfukk—meaningless stories written by juveniles. You don’t have a clue how to build a company or what real content is. And you don’t have long to figure it out or your [sic] gone. … You are magenalia [sic].”

(Geller clarified to BuzzFeed News in a statement that she believed it was “rubbish” that the London university characterized the threats against her as “fake.”)

Bannon Urged Milo to be More Extreme in Public and Offered Private Security From the Mercers

After a live event at a Chicago university featuring Milo ended with Black Lives Matter activists storming the stage, Yiannopoulos confided in Bannon that he was legitimately scared and thought he was going to get punched, stating that he needed protection. Bannon told him he agreed and that he’d use the private security team of the site’s investment partners, billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah.

“Agree 100%,” Bannon wrote. “We want you to stir up more. Milo: for your eyes only we r going to use the mercers private security company.”

Copied on the email was Dan Fleuette, Bannon’s coproducer at Glittering Steel and the man who acted for months as the go-between for Yiannopoulos and the Mercers.

Milo Had to be Told Not to Host Avowed Racists on His Podcast

Marlow had to step in and tell Milo that he could not have the system administrator for the most notorious white supremacist site on the web, The Daily Stormer, as a guest on his podcast.

“Great provocative guest,” Yiannopoulos wrote. “He’s one of the funniest, smartest and most interesting people I know. … Very on brand for me.”

“Gotta think about it,” Marlow wrote back. “He’s a legit racist. … This is a major strategic decision for this company and as of now I’m leaning against it.” (Weev never appeared on the podcast.)

Milo Used Blatantly Racist Passwords

Just read this passage:

In an April 6 email, Allum Bokhari mentioned having had access to an account of Yiannopoulos’s with “a password that began with the word Kristall.” Kristallnacht, an infamous 1938 riot against German Jews carried out by the SA — the paramilitary organization that helped Hitler rise to power — is sometimes considered the beginning of the Holocaust. In a June 2016 email to an assistant, Yiannopoulos shared the password to his email, which began “LongKnives1290.” The Night of the Long Knives was the Nazi purge of the leadership of the SA. The purge famously included Ernst Röhm, the SA’s gay leader. 1290 is the year King Edward I expelled the Jews from England.

Milo Claimed Donald Trump Parroted His Rhetoric Via Bannon

In an email exchange that featured tweet from a renowned white nationalist celebrating Trump claiming he’d protect free speech on campuses, Yiannopoulos bragged that Trump was using his phrases and that Bannon was feeding them to him.

These are just a small handful of what this utterly insane BuzzFeed piece contains. Do yourself a favor and check it out now for the whole story. Also, check out video of Milo singing at the top of this post, via BuzzFeed.

 

[AndroidHero]

2 big takeways from a scandalous report on internal Breitbart documents

A scoop from BuzzFeed News’s Joseph Bernstein, based on internal documents from Breitbart, show how the far-right site gave white nationalists and neo-Nazis a media platform while simultaneously courting reporters at the very liberal outlets that frequently criticized it.

BuzzFeed’s reporting is based on a cache of documents that include emails between Milo Yiannopoulos, the alt-right agitator and former Breitbart News tech editor, and top names in media and far-right politics.

The story contains a slew of salacious details — including Yiannopoulos’s penchant for anti-Semitic email passwords. But one big takeaway is that despite Breitbart’s public insistence that it is not a “hate site,” its editors and writers were well aware they were offering white nationalists and neo-Nazis a platform.

And while Breitbart is publicly viewed as on the fringe of far-right media, the BuzzFeed report shows a friendly give-and-take with reporters at other outlets, who at times fed Yiannopoulos information and ideas for hit pieces.

Until recently, Breitbart had a presence in the West Wing with Breitbart executive Steve Bannon, who served as Trump’s campaign CEO as well as White House chief strategist. These documents and exchanges give a more detailed look at the ideology that spurred so much of Trump’s presidential candidacy. The story is worth reading in full, but here are some of the most striking findings:

The racism behind Breitbart’s mission is explicit

The reporting reveals that the push to cultivate an audience around racially charged and offensive content was explicit — from a video showing Yiannopoulos singing to a crowd of neo-Nazis to an insistence from Bannon that the site “save western civilization” by targeting black activists and female leaders with social media attacks and critical coverage.

Bannon’s instructions to Yiannopoulos used apocalyptic terms:

“Dude---we r in a global existentialist war where our enemy EXISTS in social media and u r jerking yourself off w/ marginalia!!!! U should be OWNING this conversation because u r everything they hate!!! Drop your toys, pick up your tools and go help save western civilization.”

“Message received,” Yiannopoulos wrote back. “I will do a Week of Islam next week.”

“U don’t need that,” Bannon responded. “Just get in the fight---ur Social Media and they have made it a powerful weapon of war. … There is no war correspondent in the west yet dude and u can own it and be remember for 3 generations--or sit around wasting your God-given talents jerking off to your fan base.”

There is a video of Yiannopoulos singing “America the Beautiful” as white nationalist Richard Spencer and neo-Nazis in the crowd raise their arms in Nazi salutes. (Yiannopoulos said he could not see the salutes do to poor vision).



Breitbart wasn’t left among the fringes. Some in liberal media played a helping hand.
More telling, however, is that Yiannopoulos was let in by a few in the liberal media world. Some, including a senior staff writer at Vice’s women’s channel Broadly, Mitchell Sunderland, would send him pitches that only outlets like Breitbart could run. Others would spill background information about some of Yiannopoulos’s targets:

• Sunderland asked Yiannopoulos to mock New York Times columnist Lindy West, whom he called a “fat feminist.”
• Dan Lyons, a tech reporter and editor, suggested story ideas and speculated, BuzzFeed wrote, about “the birth sex of Zoë Quinn, another GamerGate target, and Amber Discko, the founder of the feminist website Femsplain.”
• David Auerbach, a former tech reporter for Slate, “passed along on background information about the love life of Anita Sarkeesian, the GamerGate target; ‘the goods’ about an allegedly racist friend of Arthur Chu, the Jeopardy champion and frequent advocate of social justice causes; and a ‘hot tip’ about harsh anti-harassment tactics implemented by Wikipedia.”

Yiannopoulos’s courting of the mainstream got results: At least two of those tips — Sunderland passing along a Broadly video about the Satanic Temple and abortion rights, and Auerbach’s tip about Wikipedia — turned into Breitbart articles.

 

[AndroidHero]

And of course a lot of these Gamergaters are Alt-right white supremacists.



'Ethics' in game journalism.

Any GameGaters here come explain yourselves.

 

[AndroidHero]

Read This: How Milo Yiannopoulos served as a bridge between pissed-off tech bros and white supremacists

For those of us who had yet to realize that 2016 was the year we had to start looking out for a fresh, hip new breed of Nazi wannabes, Milo Yiannopoulos came as something of a shock. Openly gay, extremely outspoken, and absolutely committed to a) building his brand, and b) spreading his employer Breitbart News’ worldview, Yiannopoulos burst onto the scene during the run-up to last year’s election, rising from “right-wing tech editor” to “would-be demagogue” with alarming speed.

And while Yiannopoulos—who resigned from Breitbart earlier this year over comments implying that he held a favorable opinion of sex between gay teenagers and older men, and who lost his recent book deal with Simon & Schuster at roughly the same time—appears to have been at least temporarily defanged, it’s worth taking a look at how he got to his national position in the first place. That’s exactly what a new Buzzfeed piece does, charting Yiannopoulos’ rise at Breitbart, and specifically his role as a flashy, outspoken bridge between the Steve Bannon-led news outlet and the fringes of the conservative movement—specifically, white supremacists and the then-nascent “alt-right.”

Buzzfeed built its piece from a number of acquired internal Breitbart emails, which show Yiannopolous asking a number of self-described white nationalists and Daily Stormer staffers for their opinions on his (or, rather, his ghostwriter’s) pieces for the site. (There’s also footage of him enjoying a night of karaoke alongside white supremacist and internet-favorite-punch-receiver Richard Spencer.) Meanwhile, conversations with Bannon and Breitbart’s editor, Alex Marlow, show how carefully the site walked the line of outright racism, cutting explicitly anti-Semitic or racist jokes while letting the implications linger.

"Editing a September 2016 Yiannopoulos speech, Marlow approved a joke about “shekels” but added that “you can’t even flirt with OKing gas chamber tweets,” asking for such a line to be removed. Marlow held a story about Twitter banning a prominent—frequently anti-Semitic and anti-black—alt-right account, “Ricky Vaughn.” And in August 2016, Bokhari sent Marlow a draft of a story titled “The Alt Right Isn’t White Supremacist, It’s Western Supremacist,” which Marlow held, explaining, “I don’t want to even flirt with okay-ing Nazi memes.”

“We have found his limit,” Yiannopoulos wrote back."



More surprising than Yiannopoulos’ personal “dog whistle” collection, though, were the identities of some of the people who served as his sources. His status as an “alt-right magnet” positioned him not just as a contact point for overt or outright racists, but also for men in liberal-leaning fields who vented to Yiannopoulos about their feelings of “oppression.” According to the Buzzfeed emails, former Silicon Valleywriter Dan Lyons sent Yiannopoulos questions about the gender of GameGate target Zoe Quinn. (Kumail Nanjiani, one of the HBO show’s stars, tweeted today that he was “sick to his stomach” over the report.) Meanwhile, former Slate writer David Auerbach passed Breitbartinformation about feminist games critic Anita Sarkeesian. And, perhaps most shockingly, Mitchell Sunderland, a senior staff writer for Broadly, Vice’s site focused on women’s rights and issues, sent Yiannopoulos a message asking him to write a hit piece on New York Times columnist Lindy West, writing, “Please mock this fat feminist.”

Buzzfeed’s piece is a long, measured look at the manufacturing of a right-wing star, complete with the ways Yiannopoulos was encouraged to rub shoulders with—and serve as a bridge to his more rabid fans for—the conservative elite. (Most prominently Bannon, but also former White House staffer Seb Gorka, Breitbart financiers in the Mercer family, and Silicon Valley mogul Peter Thiel.) It’s also a thoroughly disheartening reminder that he wasn’t (and isn’t) some anomaly blotting out the online media landscape, but a natural outgrowth of the angry, bitter resentments that still power so much of its uglier side.

 

[Mook]

That fakkit is a Jew too. Makes no sense.

 

[DlAMONDZ]

Auerbach playing the victim card. How predictable

 

[Gains]

That fakkit is a Jew too. Makes no sense.

plenty of white supremacist jews

also Indians

 

[Breh13]

Those Bannon emails tho.

Grown ass man typing like that.