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Vanity Fair distances itself from Kurt Eichenwald after journalist launches attack on Parkland student

By Joe Concha - 04/03/18 06:40 PM EDT
Vanity Fair distances itself from Kurt Eichenwald after journalist launches attack on Parkland student
© Getty

Vanity Fair distanced itself from journalist Kurt Eichenwald on Tuesday after he called a Parkland, Fla., shooting survivor "in desperate need of psychiatric help" in a series of emails that were published on Twitter. 

In emails to conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Eichenwald described himself as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair — a claim that set off a firestorm of criticism for the magazine after Eichenwald's emails criticizing the Parkland student were published. But Eichenwald has not appeared on the magazine's masthead for more than a year, with his last piece for the publication running online in 2014, according to a Vanity Fair source.  

"Kurt Eichenwald is not a contributing editor at Vanity Fair," a spokesperson for the magazine told The Hill. 
 
Eichenwald, 56, emailed Shapiro in an effort to determine if the "Daily Wire" founder was using Parkland survivor Kyle Kashuv, who has established himself as a vocal opponent of gun control after the shooting, to "advance an agenda" regarding Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who faces a boycott after attacking another Parkland student, David Hogg. 

Shapiro shared the exchange with Eichenwald with his 1.29 million followers on Twitter. 

"I just received this from @kurteichenwald. There are no words for how wild this email is. @VanityFair is apparently an odd place," wrote Shapiro as a caption to the email exchange.

As Vanity Fair pushed back on Eichenwald's claim that he's a contributing editor at the magazine, Eichenwald claimed on Twitter that he was only just learning that he no longer had a position. Vanity Fair changed editors in late 2017, with Radhika Jones replacing longtime editor Graydon Carter.
 
"Hell of a way to find out. I have been a contributing editor - contracted freelancer - with Vanity Fair for 6 years," Eichenwald said in a tweet. "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." 
Last week, Eichenwald was forced to reveal he was no longer a contributor with MSNBC despite stating that on his Twitter biography, following another incident that saw him criticize Kashuv.
 
Kashuv, 16, had called for a boycott of MSNBC based on exchanges with Eichenwald, and appeared to believe he worked for the cable news network. 
 
"For those - like @benshapiro - who are taking my entire situation with @KyleKashuv to push a lie (I thought he was someone else) - stop going after @MSNBC. My contributor contact with them expired more than a month ago. Not with them. Need to edit my profile," he wrote on Mar. 30. 
In the email exchange with Shapiro, Eichenwald claimed he had reached out to an unnamed psychiatrist to conduct a long-distance evaluation of Kashuv’s mental health.

“I consulted a friend of mine who is a psychiatrist  – a political conservative, since that seems so important to you – and based on what he read, the psychiatrist said the following,” Eichenwald wrote to Shapiro. “Kyle is in desperate need of psychiatric help or support.”
 
The Hill has reached out to Eichenwald for comment.