ABC News’ misguided plan to use racist blogger Andrew Breitbart as a political commentator on election night continues to backfire.
First, ABC News got an earful about it from the likes of, well, us and many others, which forced them to relegate Breitbart from the main news set to online coverage.
Now, predictably, Breitbart and ABC News are exchanging angry emails about his role tomorrow night:
It was a preposterous move and one that has led to a multitude of black-eyes, like when Sherrod attorney’s likened Breitbart’s ABC invitation to “rewarding a Klansman — giving a Klansman an award for burning a cross on Shirley Sherrod’s house.” The chronic disgust that greeted ABC’s staffing decision forced the network to try to publicly distance itself from Breitbart, stressing that he was only going to contributed to ABC’s online coverage.
But now, in an utterly predictable twist, the brawling has become internal, as it were, with Breitbart battling ABC reps over what exactly his role will be and what he claims it was supposed to be. (He’s published private emails to state his case.)
That’s right, ABC is now publicly feuding with one of its soon-to-be guests, with Breitbart claiming ABC execs lied about what their plans were for him on Election Night, and ABC responding that it’s Breitbart who’s confused about what the emails said and what his participation was supposed to be.
Classic.
