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Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart dead at 43
By James Brady RyanMarch 1st, 2012, 10:52 amComments (22)
Andrew Breitbart, the conservative journalist and blogger who founded a slew of websites including Breitbart.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, passed away shortly after midnight today of natural causes, his attorney confirmed to CNN. He was forty-three years old. A short statement posted to Breitbart.com this morning read, in part:
With a terrible feeling of pain and loss we announce the passing of Andrew Breitbart.
Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles.
We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.
Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.
Breitbart was a well known author and pundit, writing countless articles and lending his voice to shows like Real Time with Bill Maher and Tea Party rallies. He was certainly no stranger to controversy; he launched his website BigGovernment.com with edited versions of the ACORN undercover videos (in which James O'Keefe and a female associate posed as a pimp and prostitute) and posted excerpts of a speech given by Shirley Sherrod which ultimately got her fired from the United States Department of Agriculture. He was also the first to post the explicit photos sent by Rep. Anthony Weiner over his Twitter account. He was a highly influential voice for conservative politics online.
I'm not going to pretend I liked the man, because I didn't. (I imagine each one of you has a similarly strong opinion, one way or the other, as well. This was not a man who inspired mild reactions. Maybe you loved him!) And considering Breitbart had no problem calling Ted Kennedy a "prick" and a "special pile of human excrement" mere hours after Kennedy died, I don't have much of a problem saying that Breitbart was a bigoted bully, and one who presented deliberately misleading information as actual journalism.
That being said, it's impossible not to feel compassion for his wife and four children. It's always a great shame to see someone die at such a young age, and forty-three is certainly too young to go.
Commentarium (22 Comments)
The third paragraph was unnecessary. If you're going to write a tribute article about someone who has just died the fact that they may have been a "bigoted bully" can be left out. It made the piece seem contrite and sarcastic. Being a journalist isn't about criticizing others, it's about criticizing their work - if criticism is needed at all.
It's not a "tribute article." It's a news article. And that is hardly a scathing criticism.
Plus, "bigoted bully[ing]" could easily apply to his work as a journalist as well as his personality.
Andrew never left a chick in his car at the bottom of a body of water to die.
Well, then, surely he was an angel from Heaven.
I'm sure there's a lot of bad things he didn't do. We're more concerned with the crap he did. Groovy Grubworm, your sad commentary bores me. If the only way you have to defend his actions are to point to the bad things he could have done but didn't, why bother commenting at all?
Funny, I remember "news articles" including things like facts. Dropping a turd of opinion in the punch bowl of a death notice is bad form. It is bad journalism if wholly unsupported. There are opportunities in life when people get to out themselves as douche bags. JAMES BRADY RYAN saw his opportunity and grabbed it.
The idea that Nerve is a purveyor of news is ridiculous. Nerve is, at best, a rehasher of old news that hopefully has some sort of editorial wit added to it that will appease what they think is their key demographic. That said, the wishy-washy-ness (yeah, not a real word) of this article is sad. Pick a position and own it.
Keepin's it classy, just like el Rush-bo! After all, if Breitbart once said something nasty about a dead guy, you should say something nasty about him while is corpse is still cooling. Wrong + wrong = Right!
You're right Doofus, because now that Breitbart is dead, we should all pretend he was the nicest, coolest human being on Earth. It's only fair. Death makes great people of us all. It's not nasty to say he was a bigoted bully, but it's pretty nasty being one.
I have no problem with the author's third paragraph, if anything I'd say it speaks to his honesty, and makes the fourth carry more weight. Yeah, Breitbart was an asshole, but his death is news and the author genuinely expressed his sympathies in the final lines of this piece.
Breitbart felt just fine ripping into Ted Kennedy right after his death. Remembering that on the day of Breitbart's own death is perfectly contextual - it actually helps define his own character, the way he chose to live his own life, and his own personal contribution of lowering our country's standard of discourse.
Discussing it is appropriate. It's not about being moderate. Death shouldn't cleanse someone of their sins, especially a man who was so quick to carelessly destroy the lives of others (re: Shirley Sherrod) and drag others through the mud.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26475.html
"Andrew Breitbart, a Washington Times columnist who oversees Breitbart.com and BigHollywood.com, tapped into the anti-Kennedy vein in the hours after the senator’s death was announced, posting a series of Twitter messages in which he called Kennedy a “villain,” a “duplicitous bastard” and a “prick.”
"I'm more than willing to go off decorum to ensure THIS MAN is not beatified,” Breitbart wrote. “Sorry, he destroyed lives. And he knew it." "
Good riddance.
Breitbart was a vicious liar and shameless self-promoter whose relentless lies put ACORN out of business and got Shirley Sherrod fired, even though both had done nothing but help American citizens. By the time his lies were discovered, it was too late for Sherrod and ACORN. And now we'll see a bunk of pretenders to Breitbart's "throne" start showing up with more lies and fake exposes.
Yeah, well at least Breitbart didn't drive a woman off a bridge and hide under the family name.
Thanks for your insightful commentary.
I didn't like Breitbart either, but Teddy was one of the biggest fucking scumbags ever to walk the halls of congress. Everything Andrew said about him was true, and he was holding back.
Never heard of him before now, but I'm still glad he's dead.
Probably poisoned by his own abundant supply of vitriol. That's the difference between a true zealot who actually believes in what he is saying, and the likes of Limbaugh and O'Reilly who would say anything just to be noticed and quoted above the constant din of the pundit sphere. The true zealot outrages himself a lot faster.
*** outrages himself to death a lot faster. ***
quite possible. burns himself right out with hate. eats the innards right up.
to see best of ANDREW BRETBART's work go here http://tinyurl.com/84qc8jl