OPINION:
Following his cryptic Tweet identifying Steve Bannon’s new benfactor, enigmatic Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, Matt Drudge followed up on Twitter with a personal and impassioned plea for a new direction at Breitbart News:
The terrific Larry Solov and Susie Breitbart will take Breitbart into the fresh future. Has it really been 10 yrs since Andrew told me on Santa Monica pier he was going to do it?! His first hire Alex Marlow [he was 21] became one of the best news editors in the world! MORE pic.twitter.com/7fhsVxlNty
— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) January 4, 2018
The message accompanying a photo of the late Andrew Breitbart reads: “The terrific Larry Solov and Susie Breitbart will take Breitbart into the fresh future. Has it really been 10 yrs since Andrew told me on Santa Monica pier he was going to do it?! His first hire Alex Marlow [he was 21] became one of the best news editors in the world!”
Larry Solov was Breitbart’s long-time friend (they were neighbors in Brentwood. CA and had been pals since the age of four) and business partner who became the President and CEO of Breitbart News after Andrew’s sudden and tragic death in 2012.
On paper, Solov actually runs Breitbart. Bannon’s role as Executive Chairman was always supposed to be an advisory and board-related function but over the years his influence and management of the staff and operations became evident.
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After Wednesday’s events involving President Trump’s public dressing down and humiliation of his former staffer, it seems untenable for Bannon to remain at the reins of the site that has become a clearing house for pro-Trump reporting and analysis.
Drudge’s message to Solov and Andrew’s widow, Susie Breitbart, suggests the new media mogul has some level of insight into the internal conversations at the highest levels of Breitbart News.
In fact, Drudge’s message suggests that a Bannon ouster is a fait accompli. With his assertion that Solov and Breitbart “will take Breitbart into the fresh future” Drudge is sending the message that decisions have already been made and Solov (along with Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow) are already taking back the reins of the site they helped create long before Bannon was anywhere on the media or political radar.
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