Media

Breitbart editor slams ‘absurd’ story about dispute with Bannon over coverage

by Joe Concha - 03/08/17 8:59 PM ET

A Breitbart senior editor slammed a Wednesday report that Breitbart News and its former executive chairman Steve Bannon, now a top Trump adviser, have clashed over Bannon’s attempts to steer White House coverage.

“This is absurd and fake news,” Breitbart Washington political editor Matthew Boyle told The Hill on Wednesday evening. “I never said those things and such instructions never happened since we are a proudly independent news organization.”

Boyle was responding to a Business Insider report based on unnamed sources published Wednesday that Bannon, who serves as chief strategist to President Trump, and Boyle had fought after Bannon “instructed” Boyle not to write any more articles critical of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.

“Bannon further aggravated Boyle that week when he instructed him not to publish additional articles critical of Priebus,” reads the Business Insider story, “prompting the Washington editor to tell others Bannon had betrayed Breitbart and was guilty of ‘treason,’ according to a source.”

Boyle had written a scathing story on Feb. 14 regarding Priebus’s future in the Trump administration due to infighting, citing sources close to the president.

The Business Insider story also says the “honeymoon with establishment wing of Trump White House may be over.” But since the story about Preibus possibly being replaced, Boyle has since interviewed White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Preibus’s deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh.

Sources told Business Insider that the White House tried to smooth over tensions with Boyle by offering him access to key staffers.

Breitbart News, which was staunchly pro-Trump during the campaign, has been at odds with the White House on a Republican bill introduced this week to repeal and replace ObamaCare championed by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

“Obamacare 2.0 Guts Enforcement, Gives Illegal Aliens Health Care Through Identity Fraud,” read a Breitbart headline shortly after the bill was made public.

The 28-year-old Boyle was promoted to Washington political editor in 2015.

He has interviewed Trump numerous times as a candidate and most recently sat down with the president in an Oval Office interview on Feb. 27.

The Hill has reached out to Bannon for comment.

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