On Wednesday, a gunman went on a rampage at Fort Hood, Texas—the site of a mass shooting in November 2009—killing three people and injuring at least 16 others before taking his own life. The soldier was being treated for depression and anxiety. His motive remains unclear, and the Fort Hood commanding general told reporters that “there is no indication that this incident is related to terrorism.”
When awful things happen, people sometimes express themselves on Twitter. Here’s how conservative filmmaker Patrick Dollard, who on Twitter identifies himself as a “contributing journalist” at Breitbart, chose to respond to the news:
Following this genocidal tweet, Dollard also wrote, “Yeah, Obama’s ‘heartbroken‘ over Ft. Hood because it wasn’t Muslim terrorism.”
Dollard is a former Hollywood agent who has since embedded with US Marines in Iraq and become an aggressive right-wing presence online. “In 2004, having made his name as Steven Soderbergh’s agent, Pat Dollard was the stereotypical Hollywood operator: coked-up, Armani-sheathed, separated from his fourth wife, and rapidly self-destructing,” according to a 2007 Vanity Fair profile.
We asked the editor of Breitbart, Alex Marlow, and the site’s publisher, Stephen Bannon, for a comment on Dollard’s slaughter-Muslims tweet. Within minutes, Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for Breitbart News, called and said, Dollard “was not a paid contributor and has not contributed for three years. He should not call himself a contributor.” Asked if Breitbart would consider publishing future articles submitted by Dollard, Bardella replied, “We have no plans to accept anything. We haven’t ruled anything out. But he is not a Breitbart contributor.”
