Buzzfeed is standing by a report alleging a Breitbart tech editor uses a team of dozens of interns to produce his work, even as most reporters mocked the claim as a gag.
“We stand by it and have faith in it,” Buzzfeed editor Mat Honan told the Washington Examiner’s media desk Friday.
Buzzfeed’s Joseph Bernstein reported this week that Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos, who is known best for his often inflammatory remarks on modern culture and his opposition to the so-called “social justice warrior” movement, doesn’t actually write or produce his own articles.
Rather, Buzzfeed reported, Yiannopoulos has a team of “about 44” interns — “a mix of paid and unpaid” — who produce articles bearing his name. This small army also reportedly does all of Yiannopoulos’ research for him.
The story alleged the Breitbart tech editor directs his minions through private conversations on a chat service called Slack. Buzzfeed reported it obtained a minute-and-a-half-long video seemingly showing Yiannopoulos throwing out orders to his supposed crew of writers and researchers.
Bernstein’s report was based on the say-so of two anonymous sources that claim to have “worked directly” with Yiannopoulos.
As a well-known anti-“social justice warrior,” Yiannopoulos has made an impressive number of enemies in media, and the Buzzfeed article soon caught the attention of reporters, who eagerly circulated the story on social media.
“Weird that Milo Yiannopoulos is literally just an aggregation of 4chan trolls,” said the Washington Post’s Philip Bump.
The BBC’s Anthony Zurcher added, “Milo Yiannopoulis assimilates interns. Resistance is futile.”
“Healthy labor market continues, led by strong growth in the Milo Yiannopoulos intern sector,” said New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait.
However, not long after Bernstein’s report was published, some started to question the article’s claims, namely that Yiannopoulis has “about 44” interns at his disposal.
“[T]he more I think about it, it’s plausible this is Milo & co. trying to take down or punk BuzzFeed,” said the Daily Beast’s Andrew Kirell.
Along with being anti-modern feminism, and along with penning defenses of the “alt-right,” Yiannopoulos and his colleagues are known for “trolling” mainstream media outlets. It wasn’t too long, then, before reporters and pundits started to question whether Yiannopoulos and his supporters had duped Buzzfeed.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes said, “This Milo story has to be some elaborate troll/prank, right?”
“Just seen this BuzzFeed story about Milo Yiannopoulos. I’m in that Slack, weirdly, but Milo does write his own stuff,” said Business Insider’s James Cook.
SB Nation’s Kevin McCauley was more blunt in his analysis of the report, saying, “Milo pulled an April Fool’s prank and got Buzzfeed to publish some false sh-t.”
Despite these widespread doubts, however, Buzzfeed said it absolutely stands by the story.
“Joe’s reporting has been ongoing for a couple of weeks,” Honan told the Examiner. “Milo already confirmed what Joe’s sources told us, it’s in the story.”
At least one reporter alleged Friday that the Buzzfeed story rings true.
“[Bernstein’s] story isn’t a hoax. When Breitbart offered me a job I was told interns would do heavy lifting for me,” said the Daily Dot’s William Turton. “This was a selling point.”
Yiannopoulos himself told Buzzfeed that he does indeed have people helping him write for Breitbart.
“Two people write Breitbart stuff for me,” he said, adding that, “ghostwriting is too great a word.”
He said his interns mostly perform research tasks for him, and a few will occasionally write speeches for him.
“I have two books coming out this year,” he said. “It’s completely standard for someone with a career like mine to have researchers and assistants and ghostwriters.”
Yiannopoulos did not respond to the Examiner’s multiple requests for comment.
