Andrew Breitbart

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Andrew Breitbart
Speaking at CPAC, February 2012
Born
Andrew James Breitbart

(1969-02-01)February 1, 1969
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DiedMarch 1, 2012(2012-03-01) (aged 43)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeHillside Memorial Park Cemetery
Alma materTulane University (BA)
Occupations
  • Writer
  • columnist
  • journalist
  • publisher
Years active1995–2012
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Susannah Bean
​
(m. 1997)​
Children4
Websitewww.breitbart.com
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Andrew James Breitbart (/ˈbraɪtbɑːrt/; February 1, 1969 – March 1, 2012) was an American conservative journalist[1] and political commentator who was the founder of Breitbart News and a co-founder of HuffPost.

After helping in the early stages of HuffPost

xenophobic, and racist by academics and journalists.[5]

Breitbart played central journalistic roles in the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, the firing of Shirley Sherrod, and the ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy.[6] Commenters such as Nick Gillespie and Conor Friedersdorf have credited Breitbart with changing how people wrote about politics by "show[ing] how the Internet could be used to route around information bottlenecks imposed by official spokesmen and legacy news outlets".[7][8]

Early life

Breitbart was born to Irish American parents in Los Angeles on February 1, 1969.

Bar Mitzvah.[13] Theologically he was an agnostic.[11]

Breitbart attended

Hymietown" comment, his parents left the synagogue in protest.[11]

Breitbart would remain "proudly and playfully Jewish" throughout his life, although not always religiously observant. He would sing Hebrew songs at work while also teasing his Orthodox Jewish colleagues for keeping to a kosher diet.[14] Joel Pollak wrote: "He carried his faith as he carried all his convictions: with a lighthearted touch but a deep commitment."[14] Breitbart later said of his profession: "I'm glad I've become a journalist because I'd like to fight on behalf of the Israeli people... And the Israeli people, I adore and I love."[14][15]

While in high school, Breitbart worked as a

E! Entertainment Television, working for the company's online magazine, and some time in film production.[12] He was a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute in 2009.[18][19]

Previously left-leaning in his politics, Breitbart changed his political views after experiencing "an epiphany" while watching the late 1991 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, due to what he considered unfounded attacks on the part of liberals based on former employee Anita Hill's sexual harassment accusations.[20] Breitbart later described himself as "a Reagan conservative" with libertarian sympathies.[1]

Listening to radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh helped Breitbart refine his political and philosophical positions, igniting an interest in learning that he had suppressed as a result of his distaste for the "nihilistic musings of dead critical theorists"[21] that had dominated his studies at Tulane. In this era, Breitbart also read Camille Paglia's book Sexual Personae (1990), a massive survey of Western art, literature and culture from ancient Egypt to the 20th century, which, he wrote, "made me realize how little I really had learned in college."[21]

Public life

Authorship, research, and reporting

Breitbart has been lauded for his role in the "evolution of pioneering websites" including

The Huffington Post and The Drudge Report, and later, for Breitbart News. Journalists such as Nick Gillespie and Conor Friedersdorf have credited Breitbart with bringing new voices to debates about politics and culture. Breitbart told Reason in 2004 that, after feeling ignored by existing outlets, "We decided to go out and create our media." Described as "a series of do-it-yourself demonstration projects" and "conversation pits", the Breitbart websites have been both criticized and praised for their role in various political issues.[8][22] Breitbart has been recognized for adopting an inclusive stance with regard to the participation of gay people in the conservative movement. He has also been credited with helping to derail conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's citizenship.[8]

In 1995, Breitbart saw The Drudge Report and was so impressed that he e-mailed

bitch"[23] and selected and posted links to other news wire sources. Later, Drudge introduced him to a then still-Republican Arianna Huffington[12] and Breitbart subsequently assisted in the creation of The Huffington Post.[24]

Breitbart wrote a weekly column for

Real Clear Politics. Breitbart also co-wrote the book Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon with Mark Ebner, a book that is highly critical of U.S. celebrity culture.[25] On January 19, 2011, the conservative gay rights group GOProud announced Breitbart had joined its Advisory Council.[26]

In April 2011, Grand Central Publishing released Breitbart's book Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World, in which he discussed his own political evolution and the part he took in the rise of new media, most notably at the Drudge Report and The Huffington Post.[citation needed]

Breitbart News

Main article: Breitbart News

Breitbart launched his first website as a news site; it is often linked to by the

right within the U.S. political spectrum.[27] In 2007, Breitbart launched a video blog, Breitbart.tv.[28]

In February 2011, Breitbart and one of his editors Larry O'Connor were sued for defamation by Shirley Sherrod, who had been fired after Breitbart posted a video of a speech given by Sherrod. The video had been selectively edited to suggest that she had purposely discriminated against a white farmer, while in reality the unedited video told the story of how she had helped that farmer.[29][30] Breitbart himself maintained that he stated this in his article about it, and that the purpose of the video was to show the crowd's positive reaction to Sherrod's statements about discriminating against the white farmer.[31] In July 2015, it was reported that Sherrod and Breitbart's estate had reached a tentative settlement.[30] It was reported October 1, 2016, that the lawsuit was settled.[32]

In June 2011, Breitbart's websites broke the story that congressman

sending underage females revealing photographs of himself.[33]

Commentaries

In 2009, Breitbart appeared as a commentator on

Fox News Channel's morning show and frequently appeared as a guest panelist on Fox News's late night program, Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld. Breitbart also appeared as a commentator in the 2004 documentary Michael Moore Hates America.[35]

On October 22, 2009, Breitbart appeared on the C-SPAN program Washington Journal. He gave his opinions on the mainstream media, Hollywood, the Obama administration and his personal political views, having heated debates with several callers.[1]

In the hours immediately following Senator Ted Kennedy's death, Breitbart called Kennedy a "villain", a "duplicitous bastard", a "prick"[36] and "a special pile of human excrement," adding, "Sorry, he destroyed lives. And he knew it," referring to Kennedy's actions during the Chappaquiddick incident, the Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination, and the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination.[37][38]

In February 2010, Breitbart received the

Georgetown Law Center discussion on race featuring Kevin Martin, John Derbyshire, and Jared Taylor, the last of whom founded American Renaissance
, a white supremacist online magazine. Neither O'Keefe nor Breitbart endorsed Taylor's views.

In 2011, Breitbart said that "of course" Donald Trump was not a conservative, adding:

But this is a message to those candidates who are languishing at 2 percent and 3 percent within the Republican Party who are brand names in Washington, but the rest of the country don't know ... celebrity is everything in this country. And if these guys don't learn how to play the media the way that Barack Obama played the media last election cycle and the way that Donald Trump is playing the election cycle, we're going to probably get a celebrity candidate.[41]

These comments resurfaced after the controversy of Donald Trump hiring

White House Chief Strategist.[41]

Activism

See also:
Tea Party movement

Breitbart often appeared as a speaker at

United Negro College Fund "for any audio/video footage of the N-word being hurled," claiming that the several Congressmen made it up. Breitbart insisted Congressman John Lewis and several other witnesses were forced to lie, concluding that "Nancy Pelosi did a great disservice to a great civil rights icon by thrusting him out there to perform this mischievous task. His reputation is now on the line as a result of her desperation to take down the Tea Party movement."[43][44]

In February 2012, a YouTube video showed Breitbart yelling at Occupy D.C. protesters outside a Washington hotel hosting a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The video showed security escorting Breitbart back to the hotel while he told the protesters to "behave yourself", and alluding to reported assaults of women at Occupy encampments, he repeatedly yelled, "Stop raping people", and called the protestors "filthy, filthy, raping, murdering freaks!" David Carr said with the incident Breitbart had caused his last "viral storm on the Web."[45][46]

Breitbart appeared posthumously in Occupy Unmasked, a documentary film by Steve Bannon that contends that the Occupy Wall Street movement of "largely naïve students and legitimately concerned citizens looking for answers" is actually orchestrated by sinister, violent, and organized leaders with the purpose of not just changing, but destroying the American government.[47]

Breitbart Doctrine

The Breitbart Doctrine is the idea that "politics is downstream from culture" and that to change politics one must first change culture.

Chris Wylie (formerly of Cambridge Analytica) stated in an interview with The Guardian: "The reason why he (Steve Bannon) was interested in this is because he believes in this idea of the ‘Breitbart Doctrine,’ which is that if you want to change politics you first have to change culture because politics flows from culture. If you want to change culture, you have to first understand what the units of culture are, and the people are the units of culture. So, if you want to change politics, you first have to change people to change culture."[48] Breitbart considered this idea an important one and often spoke of it in interview or cited it in print.

Political views

Breitbart described himself as “eighty-five per cent conservative and fifteen per cent libertarian”.[49] Breitbart had previously described himself as a Democrat but shifted towards being conservative after witnessing the Democrats' treatment of Clarence Thomas during his senate confirmation hearing.[50][51]

He supported legalization of

gay rights, and drug liberalization.[53] He was an opponent of multiculturalism and political correctness.[54] Breitbart argued for US military intervention in Syria, North Korea, Iran, and China for humanitarian reasons. He was also a supporter of Israel.[55]

Breitbart was a proponent of the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory, claiming there are academics attempting to undermine western culture.[54]

Personal life and death

Breitbart was married to Susannah Bean, the daughter of actor Orson Bean and fashion designer Carolyn Maxwell, and had four children.[2][56][57]

At around 11:30 p.m.

Los Angeles County Coroner's Office showed that he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with focal coronary atherosclerosis and died from heart failure, which had been diagnosed the year before.[59][61]

Tributes

Rick Santorum, Reince Priebus, Mitt Romney, Jonah Goldberg, Joel Pollak, Sarah Palin, Matt Drudge, Sean Hannity, Michael Steele, Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Newt Gingrich paid tribute to Breitbart.[62][63][64][65] Santorum called Breitbart's death "a huge loss" that strongly affected him.[62][66] Romney praised Breitbart as a "fearless conservative," while Gingrich remembered him as "the most innovative pioneer in conservative activist social media in America".[62] A special episode of Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld aired the day after his death as the host and panelists paid their tributes and showed clips from his appearances on the show.[67]

Works

  • Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World.
    ISBN 978-0-446-57282-8 – via Internet Archive
    .
  • ISBN 978-0-471-70624-3
    .

References

  1. ^ a b c Andrew Breitbart, Breitbart.com Publisher Archived October 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine C-SPAN, October 22, 2009. Breitbart referred to the "Democrat-media complex" several times...
  2. ^ a b c "Breitbart.com has Drudge to thank for its success". Cnet news. November 2005. Retrieved July 29, 2009.
  3. ^ Ng, Christina. "Publisher and Author Andrew Breitbart Dead". ABC News. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  4. ^ Multiple sources:
  5. ^ Multiple sources:
  6. ^ Dobuzinskis, Alex (March 2, 2012). "Conservative activist Andrew Breitbart dead at 43". Reuters. Retrieved February 12, 2021.
  7. ^ Gillespie, Nick (March 2, 2012). "How Andrew Breitbart changed the news". CNN.
  8. ^ a b c Friedersdorf, Connor (March 8, 2012). "Andrew Breitbart's Legacy: Credit and Blame Where It's Due". Politics. Atlantic Media. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  9. ^ a b Farhi, Paul (March 1, 2012). "Andrew Breitbart built Internet empire by combining new media, partisan slant". The Washington Post. United States. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  10. ^ Peters, Jeremy W. (March 1, 2012). "Andrew Breitbart, Conservative Blogger, Dies at 43". The New York Times. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  11. ^ a b c d e Christopher Beam. "Big Breitbart: Andrew Breitbart is messing with you". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on March 22, 2010. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  12. ^ a b c Taranto, James (October 16, 2009). "The Weekend Interview With Andrew Breitbart: Taking On the 'Democrat-Media Complex'". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 20, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  13. ^ Lowenfeld, Jonah (March 1, 2012). "Andrew Breitbart, Republican Jewish media mogul, is dead at 43". Jewish Journal.
  14. ^ a b c "Comment: Andrew Breitbart, Israel and Judaism" By Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post, April 3, 2012
  15. ^ "Andrew Breitbart, the unabashedly 'biased journalist'” by Jonah Lowenfeld, June 13, 2011, Jewish Journal
  16. ^ Righteous Indignation, page 17
  17. ^ McCain, Robert Stacy (May 29, 2007). "'News addict' gets his fix". The Washington Times. Retrieved July 27, 2009.
  18. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  19. ^ "Lincoln Fellowship Alumni". www.claremont.org. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
  20. ^ "Take AIM: Andrew Breitbart". May 5, 2011. Archived from the original on February 19, 2023. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  21. ^ a b Righteous Indignation, p. 36
  22. ^ Gillespie, Nick (March 2, 2012). "How Andrew Breitbart changed the news". CNN. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  23. ^ "Lists: What's Your Source for That? Where Andrew Breitbart gets his information". ReasonOnline.com. October 2, 2007. Archived from the original on September 19, 2008. Retrieved October 1, 2008.
  24. ^ "How Andrew Breitbart Helped Launch Huffington Post". Buzzfeed. March 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
  25. ^ "Wiley: Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon – The Case Against Celebrity – Andrew Breitbart, Mark Ebner". wiley.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2009.
  26. ^ "Conservative Media Mogul Andrew Breitbart to Join GOProud's Advisory Council". Goproud.org. January 21, 2011. Archived from the original on August 3, 2011. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
  27. ^ "Where Breitbart's Audience Fits on the Political Spectrum". Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. October 21, 2014.
  28. Post-Gazette
  29. ^ Zeleny, Jeff; Wheaton, Sarah (February 13, 2011). "At Gathering, Ron Paul Is No. 1 for 2012". The New York Times. pp. A21. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
  30. ^ a b Gerstein, Josh (July 1, 2015). "Breitbart, Sherrod near libel settlement". Politico. Retrieved August 18, 2015.
  31. ^ Stephen Reader (May 11, 2011). "Breitbart on ACORN, Sherrod, and 'Gotcha' Journalism".
  32. ^ Tierney Sneed (October 1, 2015). "Ex-USDA Official Settles Her Lawsuit Over Breitbart Video That Got Her Fired". Talking Points Memo. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  33. ^ Daly, Corbett D. "Conservative website posts private pictures of Anthony Weiner." CBS News. June 6, 2011.
  34. ^ "BREITBART: 'My Real Time With Bill Maher'". Washington Times. March 16, 2009. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  35. ^ "National Review Online". nationalreview.com. Retrieved November 2, 2009.
  36. ^ "Not all Kennedy critics hold fire". Politico. August 26, 2009. Archived from the original on August 27, 2009. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
  37. ^ "Compromise: what Pennsylvania lawmakers could learn from Ted Kennedy" (editorial), The Patriot-News (Pennsylvania), August 28, 2009. Retrieved September 24, 2009.
  38. ^ "Opinion: Ted Kennedy, the liberal adversary to the conservative movement". digitaljournal.com. Archived from the original on October 3, 2009. Retrieved September 24, 2009.
  39. ^ Beam, Christopher, "'Media Is Everything. It's Everything.' Slate's 2010 profile of Andrew Breitbart", Slate.com, March 15, 2010.
  40. ^ "Max Blumenthal confronted by Andrew Breitbart and Larry O'Connor/Stage right at CPAC 10". YouTube. February 20, 2010. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
  41. ^ a b Weigel, David (August 17, 2016). "Five things to know about Breitbart, the new force in the Trump campaign". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
  42. ^ Breitbart Keynote Part 1 of 4, Nashville, February 2010 Archived December 30, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Part 2 Archived December 30, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Part 3 Archived January 20, 2022, at the Wayback Machine Part 4 Archived January 20, 2022, at the Wayback Machine
  43. ^ Breitbart, Andrew (April 2, 2010). "Barack Obama's Helter-Skelter, Insane Clown Posse, Alinsky Plans to 'Deconstruct' America". Big Journalism. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012.
  44. ^ Alexander, Andrew (April 11, 2010). "Allegations of spitting and slurs at Capitol protest merit more reporting". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
  45. ^ Carr, David (April 13, 2012). "The Life and Death of Andrew Breitbart". The New York Times.
  46. ^ Sources that describe the confrontation with Occupy protesters at CPAC 2012:
  47. ^ "About-Us". www.occupyunmasked.com. Archived from the original on September 22, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  48. ^ https://www.elephantjournal.com/2018/03/cambridge-analytica-the-breitbart-doctrine-be-afraid-be-very-afraid/
  49. ^ "Looking at Breitbart". The New Yorker. March 1, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  50. ^ "Take AIM: Andrew Breitbart". Accuracy in Media. May 5, 2011. Archived from the original on February 19, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  51. ^ Friedersdorf, Conor (April 18, 2011). "Why Breitbart Started Hating The Left". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  52. ^ Memmott, Mark (March 1, 2012). "Andrew Breitbart, Controversial Web Provocateur, Has Died". NPR. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  53. ^ Pareene, Alex (March 1, 2012). "Andrew Breitbart, 1969-2012". Salon. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  54. ^ a b Beauchamp, Zack (August 24, 2016). "Breitbart, explained: the conservative media giant that wants Trump to burn down the GOP". Vox. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  55. ^ "Comment: Andrew Breitbart, Israel and Judaism". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. March 4, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  56. ^ Saad, Nardine (February 8, 2020). "OBITUARIES Actor Orson Bean, local theater mainstay who rose to fame as a 1950s TV personality, dies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  57. ^ "Celebrity Actor-comedian Orson Bean, 91, hit and killed by car in LA". Associated Press. February 8, 2020 – via Yahoo!.
  58. ^ Carr, David (April 13, 2012). "The Provocateur". New York Times.
  59. ^ a b "Andrew Breitbart autopsy report" (PDF). Autopsyfile.org.
  60. ^ Ng, Christina (March 1, 2012). "Publisher and Author Andrew Breitbart Dead".
  61. ^ Blankstein, Andrew (May 16, 2012). "Andrew Breitbart died of heart failure, narrowing of artery, coroner finds". L.A. Times.
  62. ^ a b c Beth Fouhey; Philip Elliott (March 6, 2012). "Limbaugh and the GOP: The media stars and politics". Associated Press. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
  63. ^ "Tucker Carlson Gives A Heartfelt Tribute To Andrew Breitbart". Mediaite. March 1, 2012. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  64. ^ Mak, Tim (March 2012). "Breitbart's death stuns media, pols". POLITICO. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  65. ^ Couch, Aaron (March 1, 2012). "Andrew Breitbart Remembered By Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck (Video)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  66. ^ CBS News. March 1, 2012. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012.
  67. ^ Red Eye Remembers Andrew Breitbart. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved September 3, 2016.

External links

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