The Daily Wire will be sending 225 of their "Leftist Tears" tumblers to Politico for their staff following much outrage at the news outlet after Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro guest wrote Thursday's edition of Playbook, their daily newsletter.
"I know that a single conservative opinion was enough to make 225 journalists at Politico very sad. We just want to make sure they don’t get their desks wet," Daily Wire co-CEO Jeremy Boreing told Townhall.
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The Daily Beast reported there was internal pushback at Politico after the newsletter went out. One staffer wrote in Slack that Shapiro has a "'long history of bigoted and incendiary commentary,' making it especially inappropriate to elevate him in the wake of last week’s violent attack on the Capitol by rioters," adding that, "It has clearly generated a wave of negative attention, and I fear it’s already overshadowing a lot of great work being done by journalists across this newsroom."
"This is especially confusing given the newsroom’s welcome efforts over the last year to cover issues related to race in a more intentional, elevated, thoughtful way," another staffer wrote.
Outside the newsroom, critics said it was wrong to platform Shapiro because of his past comments about Arabs and Muslims.
The rage at Politico over their decision to let Shapiro guest write was apparently so much that Matthew Kaminski, the company's editor-in-chief, held an all-staff Zoom call in the afternoon to listen to those who were upset, though not all were angered.
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Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple reported the staffers who were fine with Shapiro's guest spot did not voice their opinion because "the sentiment is so heated and one-sided."
There are now upwards of 225 people on the @politico Zoom call convened to hash out the decision to invite @benshapiro to guest-write an edition of Playbook. People are very mad, I am hearing.
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 14, 2021
Just chatted with a pair of @politico staffers who dissent from the prevailing outrage over the @benshapiro guest-hosting gig. They say they didn't speak up on the call because the sentiment is so heated and one-sided.
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 14, 2021
In the end, the anger was all for naught as Kaminski said during the Zoom call, according to the Daily Beast, "We published a piece by a very prominent writer, provocateur, and podcaster. We stand by every word in there, it was very closely edited."
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