When word got out that right-wing pseudojournalist and troll Milo Yiannopoulos had been given a weekly column at The Daily Caller, a lot of eyes rolled on both sides of the aisle. After all, Milo had been forced out of his lucrative gig at Breitbart News in February after video surfaced of him seemingly condoning pedophilia.
What little chance of him being able to redeem himself seemingly ended when Buzzfeed revealed the extent to which Milo took part in Breitbart’s effort to normalize hate and bigotry. He went as far as to write a guide to the alt-right with the help of some of the most notorious figures in the white supremacist movement.
Under the circumstances, it came as no surprise that a lot of people wondered what the hell The Daily Caller was thinking–or if it was thinking at all. Well, after a mere 24 hours, The Daily Caller threw Milo overboard, and also dumped one of its editors.
Milo’s first column was a blistering attack on Kevin Spacey, who now faces multiple accusations that he sexually assaulted several people–some of which date back 30 years. However, on Saturday morning, Andrew Blake of The Washington Times noticed that the language about this being a weekly column had been cut out.
Daily Caller has deleted language stating that Milo Yiannopoulos has a "new weekly column." Compare yesterday (left) and today (right). pic.twitter.com/uLdfUkS1Pr
— Andrew Blake (@apblake) November 4, 2017
In response to multiple inquiries, Neil Patel, who co-founded The Daily Caller with Tucker Carlson in 2010 and now serves as its publisher, issued a statement declaring that Milo “does not have a regular column with us.” When Milo saw this, he blew a gasket on Facebook, claiming that Patel and The Daily Caller had “caved to pressure” and scrapped his column.
The evidence seems to be with Milo. On Friday, Daily Caller editor-in-chief Geoffrey Ingersoll told ThinkProgress that Milo would be writing a weekly column for free. Additionally, Milo provided an email exchange between MILO Inc. CEO Alexander Macris and Daily Caller opinion editor Rob Mariani. When Macris pitched the idea of a weekly column, Mariani replied, “That sounds great.”
Initially, Ingersoll seemed to be of the same mind, telling The Wrap that we shouldn’t be lecturing him about giving a mic to Milo when The New York Times ran op-eds from Vladimir Putin and a “Hamas terrorist.” However, it looks like elements of The Daily Caller newsroom were not as enthused. According to CNN’s Oliver Darcy, a number of staffers were not happy at the prospect of Milo having a column under The Daily Caller’s banner.
By Saturday afternoon, Mariani was out of a job as well. Apparently he hadn’t notified Ingersoll and Patel about the deal with Milo. Ingersoll told CNN that Mariani’s “failure to properly convey” this information was unforgivable. Mariani, however, says that “a higher-ranking editor” suggested giving Milo a column, and Ingersoll was enthusiastic about the idea.
Mariani took to Twitter to suggest that there was another reason he took the fall.
https://twitter.com/robert_mariani/status/926971283631431681
https://twitter.com/robert_mariani/status/926971441073008640
A more likely explanation is that Mariani circumvented the safeguards that are intended to prevent media outlets from being brought into disrepute. No matter what Milo may have written, there was no defensible reason for The Daily Caller to come within a city mile of a pedophilia apologist and white supremacist enabler.
Soon afterward, Milo announced that we’ll be hearing a lot from him very soon.
Enjoy it while you can, Milo. When Trump goes down, you’re going down with him.
(featured image courtesy Kmeron, available under a Creative Commons-BY license)
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