Staff at Elle magazine spent a bizarre day on the internet trying to persuade a senior Breitbart editor to do a job swap with them.
Writers at the women’s publication tried to tempt Raheem Kassam to “kick it with us girls for a day” so they could write it up for a feature.
Kassam, who runs Breitbart’s London office and has been pictured with President Trump, did not seem moved by the offer to visit.
However, he did invite an Elle UK staffer to accompany him on a planned visit to a Belgian suburb known as a hotbed of Islamic extremism.
The exchange began when the magazine’s account asked him: “We were wondering if you’d be willing to do a job swap.
“So a Breitbart journalist spends a day at ELLE and vice versa. We reckon it could be an illuminating insight into the different ways a feminist versus a far-right publication operate.”
Kassam, who objected to Breitbart being termed “far-right”, ultimately turned them down, saying “We do hard news. You do horoscopes, I’m gonna pass”.
However, he offered an Elle writer the chance to come with him to Molenbeek, a suburb of Brussels, Belgium.
The area was the centre of the hunt for suspects in both the Paris and Brussels terror attacks in 2015 and 2016 – and a far cry from Elle‘s usual patch.
A BBC profile of the area from around the time of the bombings said: “Deprivation, petty crime and radicalisation appear to have gone hand in hand.”
Despite accusing him of trying to “hide behind your computer” (which they later deleted), @ElleUK went quiet after the offer was made.