‘STAND BY EVERY WORD’

‘Mischief Making’: Politico Boss Defends Handing Over Playbook to Right-Wing Bombthrower Ben Shapiro

Several staffers expressed dismay over handing the keys to the outlet’s influential newsletter product to a pundit with a “long history of bigoted and incendiary commentary.”

Maxwell Tani
Media Reporter
Updated Jan. 14, 2021 5:48PM ET / Published Jan. 14, 2021 12:27PM ET

Politico is facing backlash on Thursday—both internally and externally—for handing over the keys to its signature news product for the day to Ben Shapiro, an oft-incendiary right-wing commentator.

“We published a piece by a very prominent writer, provocateur, and podcaster. We stand by every word in there, it was very closely edited,” the outlet’s top editor Matt Kaminski said as part of his response to staffers during a Thursday meeting.

At another point, the top editor added, “Mischief making has always been a part of Politico’s secret sauce. We were an upstart. Some of that sensibility is always going to be a part of this publication.”

Hours later, during a staff-wide Zoom call to address the controversy, staffers were vocally upset and demanded answers for why company brass published Shapiro the day after Congress voted to impeach President Donald Trump for the second time. “We’re not going to back away from having published something because some people think it was a mistake to do so,” Kaminski told the employees, according to multiple sources on the call.

Over the past several weeks, Politico has filled the temporary editorial vacancy atop the Playbook by inviting high-profile political reporters and commentators to author the highly influential morning political newsletter and tip-sheet for Beltway insiders. The tipsheet in recent weeks has been authored by well-known TV hosts like MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, as well as reporters like CBS’s Weijia Jiang, PBS’s White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, and the Washington Free Beacon’s editor-in-chief Eliana Johnson. NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd is also expected to guest-author the Playbook in the coming weeks.

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