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Andrew Breitbart Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 01, 2015 12 Comments
On March 1, 2012, Andrew Breitbart died. My post upon hearing the news tried to capture what many of us were feeling, including reactions from friends and foes, Andrew Breitbart dead. We've tried our best to remember his death each anniversary: As well as his legacy: Later in the day on March 1, 2012, I wrote A personal note on the death of Andrew Breitbart. There's not much I can add to it now:
I only spoke once with Andrew Breitbart. He reached out to me, and we spoke by phone. The topic is not important, but I was shocked that he even knew who I was; but as I’ve come to learn, Andrew seemed to know who everyone was in the conservative blogosphere. He was just that way. Since my wife called this morning to let me know of Andrew’s death, it has been hard to focus on anything else. In her words, we don’t have that many bright media lights, and to lose him hurts.

Posted by Amy Miller on February 02, 2015 9 Comments
Yesterday was Andrew Breitbart's birthday. It's amazing to me to see how that man's legacy has lived on, even as the conservative movement has changed so much over the past few years. I listen to the stories and wild career paths of activists and bloggers who were inspired by him, and I can't help but wonder where we would all be had Andrew not made the conscious decision to be brave in the face of what sometimes seems like insurmountable bias and recriminations from the media and the institutional left. I wrote yesterday about Scott Walker's ridiculous interview with Martha Raddatz, and while I was writing, I slid down the 2008/2012 rabbit hole remembering the disparate treatment of the conservative candidates who dared to challenge Barack Obama and paid for it with chunks of their reputations. Obviously, we're in for more of the same as the race to 2016 heats up, and it's important to remember that the same sort of bias we saw in previous cycles has already begun. Walker's Radditz-ing was just the start. Progressives are freaking out over his breakout performance---wasn't he supposed to be the boring midwestern governor that would never break out of the middle of the pack? But strong candidates like Walker, and creative firebrands like Rand Paul, are already causing trouble for an increasingly desperate Democrat narrative.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 10, 2014 34 Comments
We have written many times about the Shirley Sherrod case against Andrew Breitbart (now his wife is substituted as defendant) and Larry O'Connor over an "edited" video which Sherrod alleges unfairly depicted her as racist leading to her firing by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Sherrod's claim, repeated mindlessly by the media, is that the full video showed that Sherrod was not racist, but merely relating a story about how her initial ill-will towards a white farmer decades ago was overcome by the realization that race should not be a factor. I have analyzed the video frame by frame, and in fact Sherrod's alleged revelation that she overcame those racial feelings was in the "edited" video, as this screen capture shows: http://youtu.be/t_xCeItxbQY Sherrod was fired precipitously by the USDA, despite her telling USDA that she felt the "edited" video was misleading. In emails produced in the case, USDA pretty much took the position that it didn't care, the political blowback was too strong not to fire her.  (These emails were obtained from the public court docket via PACER.) Shirley Sherrod Email July 15 2010 1143 am re full video Sherrod Case - Email Chris Mather July 19 2010 re video at Hot Air

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 01, 2014 11 Comments
On this second anniversary of Andrew Breitbart's death, Legal Insurrection and others are remembering Andrew. Some of Andrew's enemies in life, however, continue their efforts in his death. I seriously thought about not calling attention to such people, but that would be a cop out. At the Breitbart Awards in Providence in 2012, the only blogger conference I've attended so far, numerous people spoke to how Andrew thought of himself as the point man in the movement, the person who drew the fire so that others didn't have to. It's important to remember what and who Andrew faced. When I scrolled through a Twitter search for Andrew Breitbart's name, I saw a tweet by Max Blumenthal referring to Andrew reaching his "tweet limit" and linking to an article by Blumenthal from May 2013 mocking how "it was convenient that Breitbart's heart exploded when it did...." I didn't remember what the beef was between Andrew and Blumenthal. So I did a search and found this video by Lee Doren (via an Erick Erickson post) explaining the whole incident and confrontation at CPAC 2010:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 01, 2014 15 Comments
Two years ago today, Andrew Breitbart died. The entire conservative blogosphere was in shock, and even some opponents of Andrew, such as Eric Boehlert of Media Matters, paid their respects. There's not much I can add, two years later, to my post, A personal note on the death of Andrew Breitbart:
I only spoke once with Andrew Breitbart. He reached out to me, and we spoke by phone. The topic is not important, but I was shocked that he even knew who I was; but as I’ve come to learn, Andrew seemed to know who everyone was in the conservative blogosphere. He was just that way. Since my wife called this morning to let me know of Andrew’s death, it has been hard to focus on anything else. In her words, we don’t have that many bright media lights, and to lose him hurts. Andrew lived in a world without restraints. He could be who he wanted to be, a luxury few bloggers have, particularly those who blog under their own name and work for others. I live in a world of restraints, and I envied Andrew’s freedom more than you can know. Andrew is irreplaceable, but we would serve his memory well to aspire to more freedom of thought and more freedom of action. I’ve often wondered where to go with this blog. I now know.
This interview of Breitbart by Prof. Glenn Reynolds and Dr. Helen Smith still is one of my favorites:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 27, 2013 13 Comments

While looking for something else, I stumbled up this interview by Prof. Glenn Reynolds and the Insta-Wife of Andrew Breitbart from February 2010. It may be the best interview of Andrew I've ever seen. And it's as relevant, if not more so, now as it was back then. There's...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 11, 2013 19 Comments

I followed Shirley Sherrod's lawsuit against Andrew Breitbart and Larry O'Connor over an edited video of Sherrod's speech to an NAACP chapter very carefully early on, demonstrating beyond doubt that the core of Sherrod's claim, that she was falsely portrayed in a short video Breitbart released,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 01, 2013 5 Comments

As Lee Stranahan notes, it took the NY Times to vindicate Andrew Breitbart against the attacks led by Media Matters: Many have noted the irony of Andrew Breitbart's tireless work to expose the fraud and corruption in Pigford being vindicated by the liberal New York Times--but...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 29, 2013 6 Comments

The Editors of National Review have an excellent entry today in which the Pigford scandal is explained, Pigford Forever. Here is a key point which is not often understood, that the payments were tied to Obama's political maneuvering (emphasis mine): But as the Times reports in great...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 27, 2013 20 Comments

I don't claim to be real good with the computer and the internet.  So it is entirely possible that I missed Media Matters' mea culpa and apology now that even the NY Times has vindicated Andrew Breitbart on the Pigford fraud. Please help me find Media Matters'...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 10, 2013 18 Comments
Anthony Weiner is being rehabilitated in preparation for a run for Mayor of New York City. Seth Mandel at Commentary:
When a popular Democratic politician leaves office under the cloud of scandal and disgrace, the foremost question on his mind is when–not if–the media will begin reconstructing his career for him. There was the lionized Bill Clinton, who was impeached. Then there was former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, whose rehabilitation included a CNN show and a regular spot in Slate, where he proved to be an utterly conventional polemicist and shallow political thinker. And now we have the effort by the New York Times to resuscitate Anthony Weiner, whose congressional career was marked by erratic public temper tantrums and an inability to control himself or the volume of his voice. He left Congress after being caught in a sex scandal involving a college girl, and then falsely accused conservatives like Andrew Breitbart of making the story up. At every step in the scandal Weiner chose the least honorable path. Before the scandal ended his congressional term, Weiner was considered by some to be a favorite for the next New York City mayoral election. Now, two years after the scandal, he says he still wants to be mayor, and may in fact run for the Democratic nomination this year for the fall general election. Could he actually win?
The NY Times rehabilitation of Weiner comes at the expense of reality, which is that Andrew Breitbart was the one who held Weiner to account, and Weiner fessed up only after lying and accusing others, and only when there was no choice:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 03, 2013 10 Comments

Rush Limbaugh's broadcast a year ago on the day of Andrew Breibart's death, March 1, 2012. One of the best memorials I've heard. (h/t Stix Blog) For background on the lies told about Breitbart's Shirley Sherrod tape, and how it supposedly was misleading, see my post Repeat after...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 01, 2013 8 Comments

Andrew Breitbart's mother died last night, In Memoriam: Arlene Mae Breitbart, 1925-2013. One year ago today, at 9:35 a.m., I posted the news which had just begun spreading throughout the blogosphere: Andrew Breitbart dead Very sad news to report, just breaking.  Andrew Breitbart is dead. Via Big Journalism: Andrew passed...

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