I never had the privilege of meeting Andrew Breitbart in person, or interacting with him in any way. I've been a consumer of his news site for a little over three years now and have grown to not just appreciate what he has built at Breitbart.com, but to need it. I believe that a fair number of Americans have also come to expect and demand the kind of Merry Prankster-ish journalism served up by Andrew and his team- maybe a little outrageous, but always using the Left's tactics to expose them and their agendas.
I am certain that Andrew had created a new product sorely needed- one that would drive the "mainstream" news machines into covering stories they really would rather not have to, one that would give young aspiring journalists an outlet for their stories, and one that would take the aggregate news genre to a different level.
Without Breitbart.com, would we have accepted the old newsmedia's insistence that Emanuel Cleaver and John Lewis were spit on or had epithets screamed at them when they taunted angry Americans with forced "Affordable Care Acts" during the summer of 2010? It was Breitbart who offered a $100,000 reward for audio or video proof of the spitting allegation, to be paid to the United Negro College fund. To this day, that reward sits unclaimed, despite the preponderance of AV equipment present that day and in that place, some of it carried by the legislators themselves, prepared to document the anticipated responses to their baiting- responses which never came.
Without Breitbart, would we have ever seen the stark contrasts between the TEA party and their detractors? Would we have ever seen the disappointing mounds of garbage and the thousands of little flags abandoned on the floor of Invesco Stadium once Obama had left the stage and the Greek tragedy's opening act had closed? Would we have seen the pristine grounds of the National Mall as tens of thousands departed after Glen Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in late August, or been able to contrast it to the miniature landfills piled up at the WWII memorial when the Left's "One Nation" rally descended on D.C. just over one month later?
Where would James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles have gotten the same level of exposure for their videos of ACORN workers teaching sex workers how to commit fraud?
Where would Lila Rose have posted her investigation showing Planned Parenthood's inability to provide mammograms, or contact a parent when a pregnant unable-to-legally-consent daughter said the father was quite a bit older?
Would we have ever learned that Shirley Sherrod was just a woman that could not competently do the job she was paid to do, and serve a man who needed help from her department? Would we have ever heard the uplifting tale of how she went from being a closed-minded, bitter racist to a more open-minded class-warfare specialist? Would we have ever seen how easy it is to get a bunch of taxpayer money in your own pocket for saying you "attempted to farm" when your potted tomato plants died from lack of nutrients? I doubt it.
Who else but Andrew Breitbart could rollerblade around an angry mob of anti-capitalists, taunt them, and then invite them all to a post-protest meal at the nearby Applebee's restaurant chain? Andrew didn't shy away from controversy or hate-filled raging mobs, he waded into them as he waded happily into life, engaging cohorts and enemies with the same friendly and determined demeanor.
I and others who never met Andrew in person feel that we have lost a dear friend too soon. We ache on behalf of his wife and young children. Generally, conservatives and other decent folk mourn the early end of a bright and productive personality while most "Progressives" seem to celebrate this death with hateful comments and baseless tu quoque arguments on message boards. A few wags encourage other conservatives to re-Tweet the nasty remarks, saying it would be in Andy's spirit. They're not entirely wrong.
Andrew's last book "Righteous Indignation" told his readers that he was fueled by love of the engagement and of real fairness, not by hatred. And he was as assured of his righteousness as anyone who manages to be true to himself and honest to those with whom he deals because it is the right and decent thing to do.
"I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it."
"At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night."
Good night, Andrew. Well done!
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