I attended the Breitbart Awards dinner in Providence last night. It was part of the Future of Journalism Summit sponsored by The Heritage Foundation and The Franklin Center.
Jim Hoft has the details on the winners. There were about 100 people in attendance.
Via Jim’s blog, here’s Anne with Jim, Andrew Marcus (HatingBreitbart – award winner) and James O’Keefe:
The Summit was scheduled for Providence in order to be close to Netroots Nation.
As you will recall, Netroots was frustrated that Right Online followed it from city to city each year. So Netroots chose Providence which has only one convention center and limited hotel space as a way to prevent Right Online from holding its annual convention in the same city. Considering what Anne was able to accomplish, Netroots was right to run.
As longtime readers know, I don’t do blog conferences. There are a variety of reasons for that, but mostly it’s me, not them.
I attended the Breitbart Awards because it was in Providence, and it was the Breitbart Awards.
And I’m glad I did. It was nice to meet so many of the people I have read or read about over the three and one-half years of blogging.
More important, it was an emotional recharger.
There was a very moving video about Andrew Breitbart, and many speeches about experiences people had with him.
Multiple people who knew Andrew the best told of his philosophy that he was there to take the fire so that others didn’t have to. While the hateful attacks on him, which were beyond imagination, certainly were not fun, he thrived on being the guy who absorbed what the left had to throw.
That’s a concept I’ve thought about, although not exactly in those terms.
I understand that for many if not most readers, coming out of the conservative political closet is not an option. There are jobs to worry about.
Meeting so many bloggers who blog under their own names, and who endure anywhere from mild criticism to threats, was inspiring.
I may need to rethink my blog conference phobia. I still doubt I’ll attend the really big conferences, but small gatherings of co-conspirators now is a possibility.
(thanks again to reader Patricia for the image)
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Comments
Attend all that you can Professor because you have earned the right to be there and can now inspire others.
“Beauty and the Beasts” 🙂
Thanks for your this post. Thanks for the recent work on “Fauxcahontas” and Brett Kimberlin.
Ace of Spades disabled commenting the day after a lengthy distress call post in which he requested readers contact their Congressional representatives.
Fellow readers, we have an election coming up. Please show up and vote out these arrogant, condescending Progressive politicians. We in California in spite of a low turnout managed to reject another tax and class warfare when Propositions 28 and 29 failed, to the surprise of our pundit overlords.
The values reflected by the founding fathers built this country and the prosperity and hope the world populated by dignified human beings deserve.
Thanks again, Professor.
Ditto. l’ve just started to read you Professor , you’re one of the good guys. l’m a layman , self employed upholsterer. My brother is a retired Prof. He & l have been engaged over the last couple years in a back & forth with several of his lefty Prof buddies. lt surprises me how vacuous they are outside their field.
So, Prof., sounds like the conflicted introvert MAY have to get out more!
It would be good, all around, Prof.
Thanks for sharing that Professor. I finished writing my book that morning and then heard about his death mid-day. I was so stunned at the great loss but also mad. I knew nailing what was really going on in education was just the kind of story he would have loved.
To be the kind of person who still inspires action from beyond the grave is the ultimate definition of greatness. And a life well lived.
What a great individual he was during a time when that very concept is so deeply and effectively under challenge. And using our money against us to boot.
Ace of Spades has gone dark.
http://ace.mu.nu/
I’m so glad that you attended, Professor. It’s a powerful experience to be around like-minded people who are fighting the big fight. Right Online was my first conference last year and I met so many well-known and unknown bloggers, and it was absolutely inspiring.
I hate “group” events too, but that one was worth it because I got to meet some of my heroes like Andrew Breitbart and James O’Keefe.
I would recommend to all of your readers to attend at least one conservative event in their neighborhood.
It will lift up your spirits and make you realize that you are not alone.
I know *exactly* what you mean, Professor.
If ever given the chance, I will introduce myself to you in real life. I blog anonymously because I am particularly vulnerable personally, otherwise.
Actually, I went the other way after CPAC 2011 — and I wrote a rant about it this year. (In sum, it was a meat market and celebrity sideshow … a lot of the important politics got lost in the prestige hierarchy-game among attendees.) But I think you’re right, William. The more intimate events are indeed energy-chargers and we all need those. I’ve been jealous I haven’t been able to be up there in Rhode Island charging after Elizabeth Warren with a video camera!
Maybe next year!
Try Right Online instead. There were break-out sessions for training and I learned a lot. And the speakers were fabulous.
My Dad always told us before church “You gotta’ go to the well to get refreshed”.
Professor,
Take it from a serious social phobic … you’ve got some really weird type of social phobia.
Social phobics loathe small, intimate gatherings. Forever lonely, we satisfy our instinctive human social need with the anonymity of large gatherings.
I love wandering around a crowded casino, people watching, but it almost kills me to sit down and join the small-group intimacy of a blackjack table.
You should be fine at one of the big gatherings.
Wait a minute …
Maybe you’re not a social phobic. Maybe you have a fear of large crowds …
In that case, you have, *** I kid you not ***
Demophobia. Look it up. Demophobia is the fear of crowds.
Not to be confused with Democratiphobia … which we all have.
Dr. LukeHandCool (helping people help themselves with their fears since 1982).
Professor, you have an army behind you who would love to come up and shake your hand. I am one of them!
lol if anything is ever in the middle of Maine I may go. not that anyone would recognize my site name…yet LOL
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/06/occupiers-storm-netroots-2012-video/
OK, SOMEBODY didn’t get the memo…!!!
*snort*
Wow… Had I still lived in RI, I would have gone to this event. It’s hard to count the positives that this blog has generated because there are so many high impact pieces.
Every post is well thought out and executed even though there are times that I might disagree. That’s exactly how it should be.
Keep up the great work!
Professor – You have been one who took up the flag on the field when Breitbart died so suddenly. You were terrific before but inspired with a new mission when we lost Breitbart. Please keep up the passion and stay brave. It really requires courage – and you inspire so many others.
Did anyone notice this? http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/06/bummer-lib-genius-paul-krugman-gives-netroots-speech-to-empty-room/ Hilarious!
Hello, Professor.
What a beautiful tribute Patricia’s “Big Loss” picture is to Andrew Breitbart.
That image looks like the Civil War General, George Henry Thomas. Kevin DuJan at Hillbuzz pointed out the General’s incredible likeness to Andrew Breitbart.
It’s truly amazing.
Andrew Breitbart did what he did because to him it was a matter of Right vs Wrong, Good vs Evil, not liberal vs Conservative, although the conservative side of the issues are on the good and righteous side of the issues. This is what and why he was so passionate and adamant about what he did in facing the subversive and insidious evil of the left head on, as he knew taking the fight directly to them in the left’s lion den, was the only way to expose them for what and who they really are or were.
Andrew Breitbart perceived what he did as righteous as he knew that the far left in the media, as well as all other areas in American society, is at war with the Truth, especially with the election of Obama, aka radical-in-chief, whom have become so brazenly publically out in the open with their war against the Truth, Conservative Americans, America, Freedom, Liberty, the US Constitution, Free Market Capitalism, and the conservative ideology of limited govt that is “Of the People, By the People, and For the People”, of Individual Freedom and Liberty, Property Rights, and Individual Sovereignty in our Democratic Republic that has worked for over 236 years.
Thus his courage and passion was nothing extraordinary to him, just something that needs to be done, like fighting and defeating the Nazis straight to Berlin. And his battle scars from the left’s attacks against him are a badge of honor, like medals of an American Hero.
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