Andrew Breitbart dead at 43

Andrew Breitbart dead at 43
By Ross Kaminsky on 3.1.12 @ 10:02AM

In the most shocking news of the day, conservative new media superstar Andrew Breitbart has died "unexpectedly of natural causes" at the age of 43.

Brietbart's web site has posted a statement:

With a terrible feeling of pain and loss we announce the passing of Andrew Breitbart.

Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles.

We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.

Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.

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.

Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I've lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I've gained hundreds, thousands-who knows?-of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.

Andrew is at rest, yet the happy warrior lives on, in each of us.
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What others say....

Andrew Breitbart, rest in peace
by Jason Mattera
Posted 03/01/2012 ET
Updated 03/01/2012 ET

Andrew Breitbart was a fearless warrior for truth. His passing at the young age of only 43 is a devastating loss, a reminder of how fleeting and precious life is. He leaves behind him a beautiful family.

Andrew was a patriot and social media entrepreneur.

He was a rebel. He was a rabble-rouser.

He created chaos for professional liberals and he relished every second of it.

Andrew’s life was proof positive that he didn’t just talk a good game -- he walked it out, through and through.

Besides authoring two New York Times best-selling books, Hollywood Interrupted and Righteous Indignation, Andrew was the publisher of four powerful websites: Big Government, Big Hollywood, Big Journalism, and Big Peace -- the BIGs, if you will.

They certainly lived up to their names.

Andrew used his online army as a wrecking ball against the liberal establishment.

He helped take down ACORN. He forced Rep. Anthony Weiner to resign in disgrace. And he wasn’t afraid to call out reporters to their face.

I saw his contempt for the liberal press firsthand. After a 2010 speech I gave to the Conservative Political Action Conference critical of Barack Obama, New York Times reporter Kate Zernike maliciously claimed that I had used “racial overtones.” It was her first dispatch from CPAC. Her “evidence” was so embarrassingly threadbare that she retreated to arguing that I employed a “Chris Rock voice” to mock Obama.

Andrew was also at CPAC, and, shortly after the smear-piece went live, I told him about it. He was just as outraged.

Vintage Breitbart was about to go on display.

“I'm just going to show you what I had to deal with today,” Andrew began to tell the crowd gathered to watch him accept an award.

"Kate Zernike of the New York Times, are you in the room?”

She was in the room indeed.

“You're despicable. You're a despicable human being…You came to CPAC to get your prey and here's your prey: Jason Mattera from HotAir.”

“[You’re] the one that correlated his voice to Chris Rock. He happens to be from Brooklyn. He's using his voice."

Andrew never backed down from a fight. And he enjoyed starting them.

He broke stories and set the media narrative on his terms. As a result, he made even many Beltway conservative mouthpieces uneasy -- for rather than blather about the news of the day only, he actually took steps and set stories in motion that influenced culture.

He was after scalps. He got them.

I knew Andrew for many years, even before he became the rock star that he was. He was the same back then as he was before he left us -- gregarious , passionate and always looking to nurture future leaders.

He never turned down an opportunity to speak to young audiences, encouraging them to advance the cause of freedom and to fight against the false narratives thrust upon conservatives by the image-makers in Hollywood and the media.

When the shocking news broke of his unexpected passing, Twitter and Facebook erupted with notes from people all across the country who proclaimed their personal appreciation for Andrew. He was their hero. He earned the respect of so many because he did what too few can: Confidently and authoritatively speak their minds.

It was a pleasure for me to fight alongside Andrew. He will be missed.

Rest in peace, brother. Rest in peace.
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Andrew Breitbart, R.I.P.
By Aaron Goldstein on 3.1.12 @ 12:48PM

I couldn't believe Ross Kaminsky's post when I saw it.

But it's true. Andrew Breitbart is dead at the age of 43. He apparently collapsed while taking a walk near his home in Los Angeles just after midnight and never regained consciousness.

I don't know if he had any health problems. But I do know that sometimes death comes arbitrarily, cruelly and in an instant.

Yet he did leave an imprint. A disciple of Matt Drudge, he would branch out on his own and launch Breitbart.com and over the years scores of other websites such as Big Government and Big Hollywood providing a voice not only for himself but many others in the conservative blogosphere. If not for Breitbart, chances are James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles would have had little chance to expose the shenanigans of ACORN.

I never met Breitbart but if there is one thing I remember him for more than anything else is when he offered to donate $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund if anyone could produce videotaped evidence showing Tea Party activists shouting racial epithets at African-American Democratic Congressmen such as John Lewis and Andre Carson during demonstrations against Obamacare outside Capitol Hill in March 2010.

Nobody took Breitbart up on his offer. Here is what he wrote on April 26, 2010 after Ben Smith of Politico told him he had "pretty much won this one":

But how does that "win" manifest itself? On April 15, the day of the Tax Day Tea Party in front of the White House, and being interviewed by ABC's Terry Moran for Nightline set to air Tuesday night, I passionately defended the movement against the powerful racism charge that has been greatly pushed by the Congressional Black Caucus's accusation of a 1960 Selma-like incident near the Capitol.

At least twice during the spirited questioning by Moran, bystanders screamed "racist" at me.

The power of the propaganda. The power of the repeated accusations. The power of the relentless race-based line of questioning. They are all adding up to the liars and slanderers getting exactly what they wanted. The Tea Party is marred by racism charges while Congressman Carson, at the least, should be facing an ethics investigation, and a civil rights legend should be asking for forgiveness for allowing the hateful lie to stand.

The "win" Ben Smith speaks of comes in the form of silence. Our nation is split down the middle and the press has chosen to play for one side and one side only.

The liberal media and their apologists have moved heaven and earth to characterize anyone who disagrees with President Obama from the right, be the Tea Party or any other individual or organization, as being motivated solely by malice towards his race. The liberal media can do better than this but they won't. It is far easier to caricaturize a significant segment of the populace as violent racists rather than a community of people who legitimately disagree with President Obama's policies. The liberal media is content to judge certain people by the color of their skin rather than by the content of their character. While many conservatives (myself included) challenged this fallacious premise, it was Breitbart who put his money where his mouth was.

So the next time a liberal calls a conservative a racist (and believe me there will be a next time) remember Andrew Breitbart's $100,000 challenge and go boldly.
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On Breitbart
By Quin Hillyer on 3.1.12 @ 12:03PM

I won't pretend to have been good friends with Andrew Breitbart. I met him just twice, in passing, and corresponded or spoke to him on the phone just a few other times.

But here's what I know: People who enter the arena with verve and good humor, and with personal decency even while playing hardball, and who truly believe in their cause, and who can play hardball but don't take cheap shots... well, those people are gems.

Breitbart was a gem -- and a remarkably happy warrior for the cause.

RIP.

Peace, and God's love and joy forever.
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Click here to view an interview with Jonah Goldberg on Andrew's passing.
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To read an article by Andrew Breitbart, click here.