Why Is Breitbart Failing?

“Breitbart was supposed to be on its way to becoming a media behemoth in the Trump era,” reports Tina Nguyen, and, as recently as November, I would have also guessed the purveyor of fake news and prominent administration influencer was around to stay. But today, such a short time later, as she writes in this piece for Vanity Fair, “The numbers have a different story to tell.”

A dramatic bar graph says it all. May saw a historic plummet for Breitbart traffic. Why the sudden dip? According to one conservative media editor Nguyen asked, the problem is one of playing offense vs. defense: while Trump-haters have the opportunity to constantly indulge negative news about the president, conservative outlets like Breitbart are continually parrying blows, trying to “explain or defend or continue to back the guy”. Defending someone from sensational news is a lot of work. Anti-sensationalism, it turns out, is not so sensational.

The twist in Breitbart’s fate is strong (and hopeful, perhaps) evidence that a news culture based on attack may not be sustainable. After reading Nguyen’s piece I could only wonder whether liberal-leaning media can learn from this. Offensive attack, right now, is extremely easy with such a bumbling target as the Republican party, but as soon as the tables turn, which they undoubtedly will, we now know from experience that the right wing has no scruples about hitting below the belt.