Andrew Breitbart

He lacked credibility, professionalism and integrity.

     Andrew Breitbart, the outspoken conservative writer, activist and website operator, has died.   He may have been best known as the conservative who in 2010, posted video excerpts of a 40-minute NAACP speech by U.S. Dept. of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod that appeared to show her making racist comments. Breitbart drew heat when the speech was published in full, showing that selectively edited video had taken the remarks out of context--and Sherrod had been fired for it.

 

     Breitbart  was a media whore of epic proportions, and the scandal involving Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) was a bit of a watershed moment for him. Mainstream media anchors on CNN reacted with shock as Andrew Breitbart pulled a Kanye West on the press conference called by and paid for by Friends of Anthony Weiner, grandstanding to a level possibly never seen before at such an event, demanding “vindication,” and insisting that the circumstance of an elected official having PG-13 cyber flirtations was “news, my friend.”

 

If this was your first Andrew Breitbart rodeo, be grateful. Along with his companion and protege, the uber-slimy James O’Keefe, Breitbart has manufactured several scandals, manipulating the rapid influence of new media to attack, defame and ultimately facilitate the disassembly of organizations with which he ideologically disagrees. Most shamefully, Breitbart does not in any way attempt to hide his disingenuous and intellectually dishonest tactics. He merely gloats when an overly reactionary public greedily consumes his lies, reveling in the damage he’s caused and offering no apologies for distorting the provable truth to those who cannot or do not wish to know the difference.

Breitbart- who has described himself in the past as “Matt Drudge’s bitch”- was the proprietor of the websites Breitbart.com, BigHollywood.com, BigGovernment.com, BigJournalism.com, and BigPeace.com.


But, as you may already know, reinforcing the pervasive misconceptions of the unaware, unwashed and easily terrified was not Breitbart’s only hustle. What he really trafficked in was manufactured outrage- seen on a large scale with the ACORN and Shirley Sherrod journalistic abortions. If you’re not familiar, both were Breitbart-affiliated operations, though the former was orchestrated largely by O’Keefe.

In both, heavily edited clips that were by Breitbart’s own admission deliberately presented to create a false impression, the stated goal was achieved- the firing of Sherrod and dismantling of ACORN- before a full investigation into the claims was made. O’Keefe even plainly stated these objectives:

O’Keefe stated he was out to make a point and to damage ACORN and therefore did not act as a journalist objectively reporting a story. The video releases were heavily edited to feature only the worst or most inappropriate statements of the various ACORN employees, and to omit some of the most salient statements by O’Keefe and Giles.

A lot of writing is about presenting facts from your point of view, but presenting a knowingly false point of view as fact is an entirely different animal. It’s wrong when it’s done on a small scale, and when done on the scale Breitbart has done it, it is criminal.

Breitbart’s bizarre insertion of himself during the Weiner press conference was entirely indicative of his dog in that fight. Breitbart did not attack Weiner because he believes that tweeting a few salacious photos in any way undermines the Congressman’s ability to serve- quite the opposite. He sat back and waited until he could dig up enough dirt to impugn and damage the career of a man who poses a very great threat to his political adversaries due to his intellect, wit and savvy.

Weiner touched on a tangential point in his excellent speech to Congress regarding GOP blocking of a health bill for September 11th first responders. He decried “Republicans wrapping their arms around Republicans rather than doing the right thing,” and blasted the practice of hiding behind procedure to justify a view. Which is exactly why you should hate Breitbart, too. Your truth should be able to stand on its own- without edits, without cuts and without deceptive presentation. And making such practice a new media standard stets an ugly precedent for everyone- readers and writers alike.

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