Andrew Breitbart, R.I.P.

    Andrew Breitbart 

(February 1, 1969 – March 1, 2012):  

an American publisher, commentator for the Washington Times, author, occasional guest commentator on various news programs, served as an editor for the Drudge Report Web site. 

His stated goal: to "destroy the institutional left."

Mr Breitbart died of an apparent heart attack yesterday.

 From the  Huffington Post : 

 Breitbart considered his charge to expose corruption, hypocrisy and media bias, and leveraged his network of websites to reach for that goal.

Breitbart cut his teeth in the freewheeling world of online media as an editor of the Drudge Report, working in Los Angeles. He also worked with liberal blogger Arianna Huffington, playing an early role in the creation of the Huffington Post, which was founded in 2005.

Matt Drudge, founder of the Drudge Report, said in a message on his website on Thursday that he remembered Breitbart as "a constant source of energy, passion and commitment."

"I still see him in my mind's eye in Venice Beach (in Los Angeles), the sunny day I met him. He was in his mid 20s. It was all there. He had a wonderful, loving family and we all feel great sadness for them today," Drudge wrote.

Mickey Kaus, a liberal writer who blogs at website The Daily Caller, said Breitbart and Huffington managed to collaborate despite their political differences.

From Reuters:

His work helped generate a number of prominent news stories. Those included undercover videos posted on his website about ACORN  and his role in bringing to national attention a sexually suggestive photo Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner of New York posted through his Twitter page.  That scandal eventually led to Weiner's resignation last year.

In targeting ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Breitbart posted videos in 2009 by conservative activists who secretly taped employees of the group giving tax advice to a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute.

The controversy led Congress to deny federal housing funds to ACORN, which disbanded in 2010.

From the  L.A. Times.com

  Before launching his own media empire, Breitbart worked for two other industry titans. For 10 years, he worked anonymously as an editor for the Drudge Report. From there, he teamed with Arianna Huffington, whose website the Huffington Post now has a distinctly liberal bent. It was ideological differences with Huffington that led to a break, though he credited her for showing him how to survive vicious attacks with grace.

His own site, Breitbart.com, began as an aggregation site. Soon it branched out, with the launch of Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism and Big Peace, all designed to counter what Breitbart described as the "bully media cabal" that ignored stories at odds with prevailing liberal orthodoxy.

After Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts died in 2009, Breitbart tweeted, "Rest in Chappaquiddick" and called him "a special pile of human excrement." 

 

Andrew recently wrote a new conclusion to his book, Righteous Indignation:

I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.

He will be greatly missed.