The original illustration for Breitbart’s vicious attack on Shapiro and Fields

It’s no secret that the people who run Breitbart “News” are right wing creepazoids, but today they took the creepiness to a whole new level, posting a nasty personal attack on Ben Shapiro (who resigned in protest over their shabby treatment of reporter Michelle Fields) using the pseudonym of Shapiro’s father. Yes, they really did this.

“Former Breitbart News editor-at-large Ben Shapiro announced Sunday evening via left-wing Buzzfeed that he is abandoning Andrew Breitbart’s lifelong best friend, widow, hand-picked management team and friends in pursuit of an elusive contributorship at the Fox News Channel,” the story begins. “It was business as usual for the ambitious conservative gadfly, who is known to live on the edge, courting and then leaving a series of companies over the past several years.

In an interview Shapiro denied he was looking to work for Fox News and that he has “never received” a job from the network. Shapiro, who is a Ted Cruz supporter, also said he did not violate his employment contract as the piece originally noted, since he is an “at will” employee.

The unusual piece, which can be read in full here, was even more shocking for Shapiro because it was posted under the pseudonym his father used while writing for the site — William Bigelow.

Shapiro’s father, the writer David Shapiro, also resigned from Breitbart on Sunday evening.

The ugly attack piece (right wing “humor” at its finest) is now gone, and in its place Joel Pollak posted a smarmy apology; but in the HTML code, the page title still shows the original headline: Ben Shapiro Betrays Loyal Readers, Listicles - Breitbart.

Statement from Breitbart News Editor-at-Large and In-House Counsel Joel B. Pollak:

The article was written by me as part of an effort to make light of a significant company event, and was published as a result of a misunderstanding without going through the normal editorial channels.

I apologize to Michelle Fields, my friend Ben Shapiro, and to everyone concerned.

Yeah, he was just “making light” of a company event, folks! Happens at every media site. (Not.)

Here’s the full article Pollak retched up in the first place, saved by someone at archive.is. Note that the title of the piece was evidently edited at least once, because the saved version shows the title as: Ben Shapiro Betrays Loyal Breitbart Readers in Pursuit of Fox News Contributorship.

More resignations from the hate site Andrew Breitbart built:

JUST IN - Jordan Schachtel and Jarrett Stepman have also resigned from Breitbart pic.twitter.com/ViA1PFuDJr

— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) March 14, 2016