Andrew Breitbart: 1969 – 2012
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Andrew Breitbart passed away suddenly at the age of 43 while walking near his home in Brentwood, California leaving behind his wife and four young children. He was a pioneer in creating effective social media from his work as an editor of the Drudge Report, Huffington Post and over the past several years on websites produced by Breitbart’s Big Journalism.com.
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On Fox News this morning there was an interview with Jonah Goldberg who was a contemporary of Breitbart’s and had been one of the founders of National Review On-line. Watch the Fox News Goldberg interview with Bill Hemmer, here.
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Andrew Breitbart, as Jonah Goldberg said in this emotional FoxNews interview, was a larger than life, fearless, happy warrior who delighted in tweaking the noses of his enemies and going after the big story on corruption in the liberal establishment and media. Goldberg said:
- He was one of the most fearless people I ever knew. It’s hard news to take.
He truly loved the fight … One of his favorite pastimes was to retweet all of the hate that people threw at him because he considered it a badge of honor.
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Both Goldberg and Breitbart were the same age, 43, and had been involved in the pursuit of conservative principles and causes.
Breitbart’s family has suffered a devastating loss with his sudden passing. We mourn his loss as an “aux barricades” spokesperson and investigative journalist par excellence. Let us treasure his memory as a guidepost to follow by example. He will be sorely missed for his passion and commitment to just causes.
The Jewish Journal article on Breitbart’s sudden passing focused on his Jewish background and veiled criticism of his conservative journalist track record, to be expected from this megaphone for liberal Jewish interests.
The Jewish Journal article noted:
Breitbart, who once proudly called himself a “biased journalist,” worked at the Drudge Report and the Huffington Post before starting his own family of conservative web-based media outlets. He is best known for publishing the damning photographs in 2011 that forced Anthony Weiner, then a Democratic congressman from New York, to resign.Breitbart was adopted as a child and raised as a Jew, and he enjoyed needling the Jewish community for what he saw as its liberal leanings. At a Republican Jewish Coalition event in June 2011, Breitbart gleefully regaled the audience with the story of his being kicked out of Hebrew school at University Synagogue as a child.“That’s where the battle started with the liberal Jewish community,” he said.[. . .]An ally of the Tea Party, Breitbart’s passing was mourned in messages tweeted on Thursday morning by conservative politicians and media personalities from across the nation.“Andrew Breitbart was the most innovative pioneer in conservative activist social media in America,” Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich wrote. “He had great courage and creativity.”Gingrich was also on hand at the Republican Jewish Coalition event where Breitbart spoke, and at the time, Breitbart called the former House speaker “a very smart man, a very wise man,” but added that he did not want to see Gingrich become the Republican nominee, preferring instead “someone from the Tea Party.” “I hope that he [Gingrich] becomes the top adviser to the future President of the United States,” Breitbart said.Presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum also tweeted in Breitbart’s memory.Breitbart’s media creations included the website Big Peace, which focused on foreign policy and national security, and frequently addressed Israel-related affairs.Speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition event in 2011, Breitbart said journalistic objectivity, when covering Israel, was misplaced.“You cannot be objective when it comes to right and wrong,” Breitbart said. “And Israel is in the right. So I’m a biased journalist, and I’m having a great time doing it.”
Just a few weeks ago Breitbart had attended the CPAC annual meetings in Washington, DC where he clashed with DC Occupiers outside the Marriott Woodman Park Convention Center. Watch this You Tube video of his exchange with the Occupiers and their responses. It was to be one of his last ‘aux barricade’ moments.
Less well publicized were his anti-Jihadist positions. Lisa Benson, a political consultant and stalwart of The United West, sent this note by email today about the episode at the 2012 CPAC and his comment at a conservative Jewish dinner at CPAC:
Andrew Breitbart, moments before meeting our small group for Shabbat dinner on Feb. 10th, was locked out of the hotel. The hotel with 10,000 attendees was on locked down. Gabby and I went to the Tower to meet the Young Jewish Conservatives for Shabbat. We walked into the small room, grabbed our prayer books and we welcomed the Shabbat with 45 others while Occupy protestors were chanting below our window. It was a surreal experience. Andrew was so outraged by their behavior that he yelled at them, “Behave yourselves, Behave Yourselves!” They called him an Anti-Gay bigot.Andrew was the least Anti-Gay human on the planet. The hotel opened the doors to let him in and he immediately joined us for Shabbat and reminded us what we are fighting for. Those protestors were paid by union hacks; some of them were given a script to chant, while others had no clue why they were protesting. That night, all of us in attendance for Shabbat knew we were part of something larger than us. We prayed and drank scotch (customary for Shabbat!) in celebrating our journey to restoring America.A Shabbat that I won’t soon forget. He said to me, “Lisa, you and I share many Anti-Jihad friends as it is a small Anti-Jihad world.”
Breitbart had many admirers and many enemies, the latter of whom engaged in nasty schaden freude –like observations on his passing. To my mind Breitbart exemplified that expression taught me many years ago by a political operative,” You are more often known by the enemies you make than the friends you keep.”
Tales from the crypt
Its a great loss!
Andrew Breitbart was a truly impressive man and he will be sorely missed.The Left are predictably gloating over his passing, sick that they are, but Breitbart’s work will carry on through his web sites and by his colleagues.
My condolences to his wife & children.
A good man lost to contemporary American journalism, from the little I know about Breitbart’s work. Actually, I have been a Jewish Republican since the Eisenhower years of the early 1950s. However, I never have been involved with the Jewish Republican Coalition. I must also admit that I never have heard of the Jewish Republican Coalition until I read about it in Israpundit. And for that matter, I never have read anything Breitbart has written or said until yesterday, when the news came out about his death at age 42.
Oh well…
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI