Two of the most insufferable media personalities are using this afternoon to square off against each other on this lovely post-holiday Tuesday, and we at Mediaite couldn’t be more thrilled/concerned.

In the right side of the ring, we have conservative Twitter golden boy Ben “Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage“ Shapiro, and in the left, we have noted tentacle-porn spectator Kurt Eichenwald — who apparently no longer works for any of the media entities he claims to.

The beef started several days ago after Eichenwald and Shapiro got into a Twitter spat over the issue of gun control, as the ex-Vanity Fair contributing editor challenged the Daily Wire founder to a debate while insulting his knowledge on firearms and asking, “Do you even own a gun?”

Shapiro then posted an Eichenwald tweet in which he attacked pro-gun Parkland shooting survivor Kyle Kashuv for “trafficking in fantasies.”

Using his textbook “by your logic” thought process, Shapiro called for a boycott of MSNBC — where Eichenwald claimed to work at the time — and tweeted a list of the network’s top advertisers so his followers could demand they drop their ads, since liberals did the same thing to Fox News host Laura Ingraham after she mocked gun control advocate and Parkland student David Hogg for not getting into his preferred colleges. While Eichenwald no longer works for the network, he still listed MSNBC in his Twitter bio as one of his current employers.

After MSNBC denied that Eichenwald still worked for them, he later tweeted an explanation for the misinformation:

Because my contract with MSNBC ended a number of weeks ago, but forgot to take it off my twitter bio. Then when they started calling for boycotts of MSNBC, I realized it was still there. So I removed it and said “Yo, I’m not at MSNBC,” Asked Ben to correct. He didnt. — Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) March 30, 2018

The two continued their back and forth, with many other right-wing personalities jumping in to call for Vanity Fair and MSNBC to lose advertisers — which brings us to today’s controversy.

Eichenwald, who claims he is working on a story about the mental instability of the Second Amendment-supporting Parkland student Kashuv, emailed Shapiro to see if he and the teenager were working in tandem to troll the mainstream press. In the message, he accused Shapiro of using a “troubled kid to advance an agenda” of helping Ingraham.

Eichenwald’s evidence for Kashuv’s “troubled” mental state was an armchair analysis relayed to him by an unnamed psychologist friend.

Shapiro tweeted out the exchange — and from there, things just got worse for the beleaguered neoliberal pundit.

I just received this from @kurteichenwald. There are no words for how wild this email is. @VanityFair is apparently an odd place.I just received this from @kurteichenwald. There are no words for how wild this email is. @VanityFair is apparently an odd place. pic.twitter.com/Ik1bfjoKyl — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 3, 2018

As can be seen in his tweets, Shapiro paid special attention in using Eichenwald’s supposed connection to Vanity Fair to attack the magazine. However, Daily Beast media reporter Max Tani contacted the publication and found that Eichenwald no longer works there. In fact, his last byline for Vanity Fair was published in 2014.

Statement from a Vanity Fair spox: “Kurt Eichenwald is not a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.” — Max Tani (@maxwelltani) April 3, 2018

The drama somehow continued to escalate, as CNN’s Brian Stelter contacted Eichenwald to see if he still thinks he works for the magazine — since it is listed in his Twitter bio — and he responded by initially refuting Vanity Fair‘s account.

DM just now from @kurteichenwald: “I’m a contributing editor.” ? https://t.co/rs0ugB7JyN — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) April 3, 2018

Eichenwald has since admitted to being dropped from the magazine, tweeting his “contract expired and was not renewed” after a new editor took charge.

Hell of a way to find out. I have been a contributing editor – contracted freelancer – with Vanity Fair for 6 years. I live in Dallas & have not been in contact with the new editor in charge. My contract expired and was not renewed. Called my friends there – all of them gone too. — Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 3, 2018

[image via screengrab]

Follow the author on Twitter (@calebecarma).

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