Breitbart: We Will Win by Losing in Very Public Ways

Breitbart, a site that rotates between hawking lithium deposits, warning readers of the imminent collapse of the dollar, and advertising for Steve Bannon’s personal brand, wants you to know that it’s punching back at the haters. Hard. In an interview with an outlet it obsessively derides as fake news.

Self-styled internet tough guy and Breitbart Editor in Chief Alex Marlow defended his right-wing outlet’s “very brave” and “very bold” coverage of the Alabama Senate election in an interview with CNN published Wednesday. Breitbart stumped early and often for alleged pedophile Roy Moore, who managed the unthinkable by losing to a Democrat in a ruby-red state in the Deep South.

But Marlow claimed to CNN that Breitbart’s front-page splashes, concerted social media campaign, attempts to discredit Moore’s accusers, and bizarre defenses of the Alabama judge on cable programs were all something of a grand strategic feint. In Breitbart’s single-player game of four-dimensional chess, Moore was in fact “a weak candidate” who “ran a terrible campaign,” Marlow said. Forget Breitbart’s post-election analysis that described Moore’s loss as “a shocker.”

“I wasn’t actually as shocked as people would think,” Marlow told CNN. “It made a lot of sense to me.”

It’s almost as if Marlow hadn’t seen any of these headlines, published on the site he runs, Breitbart.com, in the weeks leading up to the election:

Breitbart even took to calling Moore’s opponent, Doug Jones, “Desperate Doug” in its headlines. Doesn’t sound like a winner to me! Polls that showed Jones leading—he wound up winning by 1.5 percentage points—were meanwhile framed as machinations of the biased MSM:

Where does this embarrassing episode leave a site that was clearly in the tank for the loser? Marlow—counterpuncher that he is—told CNN it’s all part of a plan that libs can never match: to win by losing.

As he concluded to CNN:

“I still think that it is quite evident that Bannon and Breitbart are the most feared names in politics,” he said. “And you can see it by the meltdown that so many people are having. The joy, the elation, the perception that Breitbart lost.”

“The perception that this is such a blow is very complimentary in a way,” Marlow added. “People are so desirous to undermine our power. I think this builds us up. I think this builds up Steve’s brand. I think it builds up Breitbart’s brand. Because people want honey badgers. People want fighters.”

Hear that? Breitbart is like a honey badger—small, mean, and part of the weasel family. If that’s not a powerful media brand, then there’s no such thing.