Good News for Progressives-Breitbart Dies

Andrew Breitbart, conservative activist and blogger, dies aged 43

Karen McVeigh

Conservative internet publisher Andrew Breitbart, the man behind investigations that led to the resignations of New York congressman Anthony Weiner and government official Shirley Sherrod, has died aged 43 in Los Angeles.

Breitbart's website BigJournalism.com announced on Thursday he died of natural causes. His death was confirmed by Breitbart.com editor-in-chief Joel Pollak, who said he was at the hospital, and by the Los Angeles county coroner's office.

He was walking near his house in Brentwood shortly after midnight when he collapsed, his father-in-law Orson Bean told the Associated Press.

Someone saw him fall and called paramedics who tried to revive him. He was rushed to the emergency room at UCLA Medical Center, Bean said.

Breitbart had suffered heart problems a year earlier, but Bean said he did not know what happened.

"I don't know what to say. It's devastating," Bean said.

Larry Dietz, watch commander at the Los Angeles county coroner's office, said the cause of death was unknown and an autopsy would "more than likely" be conducted.

Breitbart is survived by his wife Susannah Bean Breitbart, 41, and four children.

Tributes flooded news and social media sites, the medium which offered the firebrand blogger and activist a platform for his brand of indignat journalism.

Breitbart, an innovator who embraced partisan online journalism early on, was a star of the Tea Party and his devoted followers have lauded him as exposing what they see as left-wing media bias.

Larry Solov, president of Breitbart.com, described him as a "happy warrior and patriot" and announced the news of his passing "with a terrible feeling of pain and loss".

"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."

"RIP 'O Mighty Warrior!" Texas governor Rick Perry said on Twitter, in a message which was soon echoed by Breitbart's legions of fans.

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum described Breitbart as a "powerful force" when he learned of his death from reporters at a rally in Dalton, Georgia.

"He will be a huge loss ... for our country and certainly for the conservative movement and my prayers go out to his family," Santorum said. "I'm really sorry to hear it."

Mitt Romney posted to Twitter: "Ann and I are deeply saddened by the passing of @AndrewBreitbart: brilliant entrepreneur, fearless conservative, loving husband and father."

Newt Gingrich tweeted: "Andrew Breitbart was the most innovative pioneer in conservative activist social media in America. He had great courage and creativity."

A former editor for the Drudge Report, Breitbart helped Arianna Huffington launch the Huffington Post, but they parted ways soon afterwards for ideological reasons. He cited her as an inspiration and a model for what he would later create, describing her in an interview with the New Yorker as "the closest thing I ever had to a collaborator who was working on the same energy levels and with the same kind of skill set".

He launched Breitbart.com, which carried aggregated news from AP, Reuters and other news wires, in 2005, later adding a series of subsites including BigGovernment.com, which, like the Huffington Post's early model, used unpaid journalists to provide content.

Twitter was where Breitbart responded to his critics in excoriating style. His final message called a follower "a putz".

But even among the victims of Breitbart's potent keyboard-lashings and those who had more cause than most to consider him a foe, there were kind words.

In a much-anticipated message, Eric Boehlert, a writer with which Breitbart engaged in what he described as "daily trench Twitter warfare" did not tweet about him directly, but re-tweeted a post directing followers to his watchdog website, Media Matters for America.

A post on the site read: "Media Matters has a long history with Andrew Breitbart. We've disagreed more than we've found common ground, but there was never any question of Andrew's passion for and commitment to what he believed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today."

Sherrod, who sued him for reputation damage last year, also released a statement. She said: "The news of Mr Breitbart's death came as a surprise to me when I was informed of it this morning. My prayers go out to Mr Breitbart's family as they cope through this very difficult time."

A former Georgia state rural development director, Sherrod, who is black, was fired from her job in July 2010 after the appearance of an edited video of her making what appeared to be a racist remark.

She is seen telling a local NAACP group that she was initially reluctant to help a white farmer save his farm more than two decades ago, long before she worked for US government.

Missing from the video was the rest of the speech, intended as a message of racial healing, in which Sherrod said he realised her mistake and helped the farmer.

Sherrod sued Breitbart, his employee, Larry O'Connor, and an unnamed "John Doe" defendant for "defamation, false light and intentional infliction of emotional distress".

When the lawsuit was filed against him, Breitbart said she was fired not because of the film but due to her part in the 11-year-old Pigford case, in which black farmers sued for discrimination against the agriculture department.

Breitbart, an outspoken critic of the mainstream media, said: "I can promise you this: neither I, nor my journalistic websites, will or can be silenced by the institutional left, which is obviously funding this lawsuit."

A lawyer for O'Connor told the Associated Press on Thursday that it is unclear whether the case will proceed for the other two defendants, who were in the process of trying to get the case dismissed from federal court.

It was not the first time he triggered a storm of criticism.

In 2009, he posted an undercover film on one of his websites which brought ridicule to the community group Acorn, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The film, in which a pair of conservative activists posing as a prostitute and her pimp who go to the agency for advice on a brothel to house Salvadorian children, show Acorn staffers offering them advice on taxes and other issues.

An internal review later concluded the videos "feed the impression that Acorn believes it is above the law". The internal investigation and a government accountability office report cleared Acorn of criminal activities.

But Congress defunded Acorn and the group eventually disbanded.

It was also Breitbart who posted the lewd photographs of Anthony Weiner on his website, and said it had been sent from the New York representative's Twitter account to a 21-year-old woman in Seattle.

Weiner initially lied and said his account had been hacked, but was forced to admit the story was true when a second photo was posted and acknowledged further online activity with up to six women.

He told the New Yorker that his online work had changed his brain chemistry "mostly for the better".

He said: "This is the environment I needed in order to become what I needed to become. With the internet, I have communication with large amounts of people, in perpetuity. Always having a new war, a new battle."

Breitbart may have been a POS of a person, but I have no interest in celebrating the death of another American (and Californian at that) simply because he elected to use his constitutional rights to espouse views I disagree with.

Bryant wrote:Breitbart may have been a POS of a person, but I have no interest in celebrating the death of another American (and Californian at that) simply because he elected to use his constitutional rights to espouse views I disagree with.

Yeah, I guess my title makes it seem that I am celebratory, but I'm really not. Some of his beliefs are shared by me, but overall he was an ass.

Yeah...i dont wish death on anyone except may be terrorists. Yall may be surprised, but this guy...I wasnt a big fan. Yes, he did a lot of the stuff they said above and many conservatives loved him. And this might be surprising to some of you, but I kinda felt like he was a little mean-spirited. I put him in a catagory along with maybe Ann Colter. Conservatism is great and I'm all for it, but c'mon. There are ways to get things done and there are hateful ways to get things done. Going around showing radio jocks suggestive pics of anthony weiner is a bit beyond the pale for me. The guy was rude and hateful himself, forced to resign, but Breitbart kicked the man when he was down imo.

A little mean spirited? He got a woman fired from a federal post by editing a video of a speech she gave to intentionally give the false impression that she practiced racial discrimination when he knew she didn't.

Oh yeah...I forgot about that. Yeah, I wasnt a fan of that guy's tactics. Which is why it sickens me to see so many "I actually do admire swoon over him now that he's gone.