The Daily Wire removed a controversial Columbus Day video from its Facebook and Twitter accounts on Tuesday that depicted Native Americans as cannibals until the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
The conservative website’s editor-in-chief, Ben Shapiro, issued a statement on Twitter saying that the video has been “justifiably removed” and he apologized for leaving it up for 24 hours.
My statement on the Columbus Day video that went up on Daily Wire’s Twitter and Facebook yesterday. It has now been justifiably removed. pic.twitter.com/ja6h8cW2af
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 10, 2017
Shapiro added that the video was “bad satire,” and that he had no input in the content of the animated video which he claims was posted while he was on vacation.
Many journalists, media outlets, and Twitter users were outraged at the video’s racist overtones and the glossing over of atrocities committed by Columbus and other European settlers against Native Americans.
When Shapiro was asked by a Twitter user if he would “take action regarding editorial practices” to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again, Shapiro responded, “You bet your ass I will.”
