There are few people on Earth who have positively effected the liberty movement as much as Andrew Breitbart. He encouraged conservatives and libertarians to be bold in the face of overwhelming opposition from the media and, in fact, make the media less and less relevant by becoming the media ourselves. That’s why it was such a terrible loss when he was found dead one year ago today.
From Breitbart.com
I see Andrew every day. When I fire up my buddy list there is Bodiaz bringing his dose of happy-sad. Thanks, someone, for not turning his computer off.
On the one-year anniversary of his death, many folks will speak of Andrew’s loss to the cause. Go ahead and cube that vacuum a few times. It’s true, in some measure he lives on in all of us. When I was out campaigning for Romney last year, all my tough decisions were decided by a simple What Would Andrew Do?
Love or hate, he kept you on your toes. His death was surprising and unfortunate at such an early age. His life was infuriating sometimes—especially if your name was Anthony Weiner. But he left his mark.
We were running a kind of happy cult when Andrew was in charge, and when Andrew died everyone had an incentive to spin what they thought he was up to. If he knew he was going to die, I’m sure he would have called a dinner the night before and given us the tablets or something. … But he didn’t.A former Breitbart.com employee • Discussing the disarray that the site has faced since its firebrand founder, Andrew Breitbart, died earlier this year. Buzzfeed, which has (by its count) faced 396 separate attacks from the site, has a nice long-form piece describing the problems the Breitbart empire currently faces. To be fair, Breitbart.com may be mad that Buzzfeed scooped their founder’s final scoop.
Looking to spend $3,999 on a painting of recently-deceased hellraiser Andrew Breitbart in a coat of armor? May want to rethink that decision, based on this allegation that the armor is actually copied from an Assassin’s Creed video game. (So in other words, this story, in reverse.) Oops.
Breitbart’s big scoop has been downgraded to a hug. A. HUG.
In 1991, Barack Obama, then a student at Harvard, stepped into the fray of a major on-campus debate. Obama publicly supported a professor named Derrick Bell, who was at the center of a fight over diversity and the denial of tenure to a black female professor. Bell, however, was a controversial figure for spearheading an academic discipline called Critical Race Theory, which read issues of race and power into a legal context. This video became a major issue in recent weeks, as Andrew Breitbart, who died last week, planned to release this video as evidence of a major gotcha on Obama. But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum … Buzzfeed beat them to their own scoop. A roundup of what happened:
» Allegations of selective editing … overruled: Breitbart’s folks claimed that the clip acquired by Andrew Kaczynski was selectively edited, and that their clip offered details that his didn’t. However, the PBS clip, posted hours later, appears to show the exact same scene, validating Kaczynski’s find. Now, Breitbart’s John Nolte has gone from attacking the veracity of BuzzFeed’s video to attacking editor-in-chief Ben Smith. Kaczynski says that, whatever the case, he was looking for this video long before Breitbart announced his find, totally punching holes in the whole thing. But here’s the thing that really kills it: You could watch this video and not even know it was controversial. (We watched it and saw a guy who looked like he was going to be president 20 years ago.) Perhaps a fitting end for Breitbart, a man whose journalistic legacy was at times flawed.
If we catch anything particularly crazy or notable, we’ll add it over here.
Rep. Louie Gohmert paid a 14-minute tribute to Andrew Breitbart on the floor of Congress today. ”He figured out a way to deal with these issues and to address what was sucking the nutrients and life from this host country. It’s really a cancer,” he said. “He figured out how to shine sunlight inside offices of what was happening, and gave a good dose of chemotherapy to the cancer.” He also compared the conservative firebrand to John Quincy Adams, whose abolitionist efforts later convinced Abraham Lincoln to end slavery. That’s a pretty strong reaction.
The front page of the Drudge Report ran a message above the lead image today in honor of Andrew Breitbart, who played a key role in building the site:
DEAR READER: In the first decade of the DRUDGEREPORT Andrew Breitbart was a constant source of energy, passion and commitment. We shared a love of headlines, a love of the news, an excitement about what’s happening. I don’t think there was a single day during that time when we did not flash each other or laugh with each other, or challenge each other. I still see him in my mind’s eye in Venice Beach, the sunny day I met him. He was in his mid 20’s. It was all there. He had a wonderful, loving family and we all feel great sadness for them today… MDRUDGE
Breitbart has a mention on HuffPo’s front page and a brief mention in this article of his role in building the site. EDIT: Dave Weigel reports via Twitter that the “Big” media empire he’s built will likely continue without him.
“Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands—who knows?—of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.” Here’s a clip of Andrew Breitbart doing what he did best, holding an impromptu press conference of his own just before Anthony Weiner admitted he sent lewd pictures of himself on Twitter — a story that Breitbart’s site famously broke.
Andrew Breitbart, the conservative blogger and political pundit seen here during CNN’s election night coverage on Tuesday, has died at the age of 43, ABC News reports.
Breitbart made headlines last year after exposing several provocative photos of former US Rep. Anthony Weiner, which led to the politician’s resignation.
(Video: Andrew Breitbart’s last television appearance, on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” Tuesday, February 28, 2012)
As far as provocateurs go, few were as good at the job as Breitbart. Rush Limbaugh can yell, sure, but Breitbart could yell and drive the news cycle. That is a gift.
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
Congrats Tumblr!
Don’t screw this up Yahoo.
In 2007, I was...
I started tumblr when I was at one of the lowest points of...
RIP Andrew Breitbart: He died unexpectedly last night. Which is crazy. He wasn’t that old. Say what you will about the guy, but he was one of the architects of two of the Web’s most widely-read sites — The Drudge Report and HuffPo. So he left a huge mark.
Look who is intolerant now.
Andrew Breitbart Loses It At Occupy Protesters outside CPAC (by bornofstardust)
h/t David Badash
This is easily the best video you’ll see from CPAC all weekend. Don’t look at this as anything more than it is: Really entertaining theatre.
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