Breitbart’s
European offensive: all talk, no action
The
provocative website promised to conquer the Continent — but has yet
to roll out sites in France or Germany ahead of elections.
By NICHOLAS VINOCUR
AND ANDREW HANNA 2/22/17, 4:30 AM CET Updated 2/22/17, 7:56 AM CET
PARIS — So much
for the American alt-right’s shock and awe media campaign.
In the wake of
Donald Trump’s surprising election victory, a top editor at
Breitbart put Europe on notice: The provocative website that
galvanized support for Trump would soon launch in France and Germany,
aiming to get populists elected there too.
The announcement by
Alex Marlow, editor-in-chief of the Breitbart News Network, made
waves across the Atlantic. Accused of publishing misleading, racist
and misogynistic material, Breitbart proved to be a powerful force in
the insurgent movement that backed Trump. Its former boss, Steve
Bannon, now Trump’s chief strategist in the White House, has
described Breitbart as “the platform for the alt-right.”
In Europe, Breitbart
wanted to fuel French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s run for the
presidency and undermine the reelection campaign of German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, whom Breitbart’s London editor has mocked as a
“lunatic” on his Facebook page.
With just two months
to go until the French election, the likelihood of a launch before
polling day looks very slim. Breitbart also shows no sign of being
close to establishing a German edition.
“Breitbart
would be welcome if they showed strong support for Le Pen, but there
are many outlets in French that already occupy the same space as
them” — Guy Deballe, National Front official
People involved in
the expansion effort told POLITICO that difficulties in recruiting
journalists, questions about which language to use and a desire to
make a high impact on launch have all slowed down efforts to
establish French and German editions.
“I personally
think it’s unlikely that they will be up and running before the
election,” said Vivien Hoch, who runs a Trump support committee in
France and helped Breitbart identify potential hires. “It’s
obviously a process that takes time, and there are a lot of things
that need to be considered.”
The editor of
Breitbart’s three-year-old U.K. operation Raheem Kassam, who is
leading the foray into continental Europe, said he wanted to make a
big splash right at the start in France, with ambitious reporting and
investigations from day one.
“In London we were
too coy when launching,” Kassam told POLITICO in a Facebook chat in
late January. “We were slow to start. I’d prefer something more
punchy.”
Kassam did not reply
to subsequent questions about the launch date of Breitbart’s French
and German sites. Marlow and a spokeswoman for the firm did not
respond to requests for comment.
Parlez-vous
Breitbart?
Breitbart has
already completed one phase of international expansion. It opened an
office in London in 2014, and another in Jerusalem in 2015. But
launching in France and Germany poses an additional obstacle. Readers
in both countries overwhelmingly prefer to read news in their own
language. International outlets as diverse as Russia’s RT and
Buzzfeed opted to publish in local languages when they entered the
French and German markets.
Kassam told POLITICO
that Breitbart had not yet made up its mind. “We are exploring the
native language and translation issue,” he said.
Supporters in France
have no doubt that Breitbart should be speaking their language. “If
they want to have an influence on the campaign, or an influence on
the world, then I think it makes sense for them to publish in the
language of the country where they will be based,” Hoch said.
Le Pen’s National
Front agrees. A fierce opponent of American-led globalization, Le Pen
has accused one of her rivals in the presidential race, centrist
Emmanuel Macron, of selling out by speaking English abroad.
Last November, a
tweet by Marion Maréchal-Le Pen — a prominent National Front
official who is also a niece of Marine Le Pen — fueled speculation
about a link-up between Breitbart and the party. Maréchal-Le Pen
said she had an accepted an invitation to work together with Bannon,
who has described her as a “rising star.” But Bannon, through an
associate, denied having reached out to Maréchal-Le Pen. Asked if
there had been contact with Breitbart since then, an aide to
Maréchal-Le Pen said: “No, nothing. But Bannon is in the White
House now. A lot is changing.”
Still, National
Front officials have stopped pining for the upstart site. “Breitbart
would be welcome if they showed strong support for Le Pen, but there
are many outlets in French that already occupy the same space as
them,” said Guy Deballe, a National Front official who will run for
a parliament seat in Paris during June elections. He added: “From
what I understand, there is very little chance they will be up and
running in time for the election … The project lacks clarity.”
Contacts, but no
contracts
So far, no
journalist in France or Germany has publicly confirmed that they are
willing to work for Breitbart. According to a report in Le Monde,
representatives of the site approached two French journalists,
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, former managing editor of the right-leaning
web site Atlantico, and Michel Gurfinkiel, of the hard-right
Dreuz.info.
But Gobry told
POLITICO via email that he had declined the offer after an “extremely
brief” discussion due to other commitments, while Gurfinkiel said
he had never been approached and Le Monde’s report was “totally
wrong.”
Hoch said Breitbart
had been in contact with other journalists in France in recent days.
He declined to say when hiring announcements would come. “The
discussions are preliminary,” he told POLITICO. “No contracts
have yet been signed … but it could go very quickly.”
In Germany, two
journalists — one formerly with the conservative Die Welt newspaper
and the other with public broadcaster ARD — have reported being
approached about jobs by someone claiming to represent Breitbart.
Both thought the calls sounded like hoaxes.
Breitbart has more
time to join the campaign fray in Germany as the general election
there is not until September 24. But its reputation in the country
took a hit in January, when Breitbart reported that a “1,000-man
mob” of men chanting “Allahu Akhbar” had attacked police and
set fire to a church in the city of Dortmund on New Year’s Eve.
Police and media outlets said Breitbart had distorted and exaggerated
various events to create a highly misleading account of the night.
The church fire, for example, was a small blaze caused by a firework
and police said there was no indication it had been deliberately
thrown at the church. Breitbart never took down the story, which was
shared more than 17,000 times on Facebook.
The Breitbart.fr
domain was bought by a student and leads to a page with a picture of
a potted cactus.
In France, Breitbart
will have to build a following in the face of strong competition in
the same ideological space. Sites such as Atlantico, Boulevard
Voltaire, Fdesouche and others all occupy the right edge of the
political spectrum.
“French readers
aren’t necessarily waiting for an American website to come along to
start getting informed and finding alternative news sources,” said
the National Front’s Deballe.
A smaller hurdle is
posed by opponents of Breitbart who have hijacked possible domain
names for the French and German sites. Breitbart.fr was bought by a
student and leads to a page with a picture of a potted cactus. The
URL www.BreitbartFrance.fr leads to a web page alleging Trump is
corrupt. Shortly after the U.S. presidential election, a Berlin-based
photographer bought the domain “www.breitbartnews.de” and
visitors to the site are directed to a blog that counters far-right
propaganda.
Hoch brushed off
these stunts, saying they would have no effect on Breitbart. “They
use the format Breitbart.com/london, so it doesn’t make much of a
difference,” he said.
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