Activist Andrew Breitbart dead at 43
Conservative activist Andrew Breitbart (an influential voice in Republican circles known for his online media attacks on liberals) died unexpectedly of natural causes in Los Angeles early on Thursday, his family said. He was 43.
Breitbart, the founder of a news website named after himself, was walking late on Wednesday near his Los Angeles home when he collapsed, said his father-in-law, actor Orson Bean.
“He collapsed on the sidewalk and the paramedics were there very quickly and they couldn’t revive him”, Bean told Reuters in a phone interview.
A friend of Breitbart told Reuters he had a history of heart problems and is believed to have suffered a heart attack.
The brash and outspoken blogger and commentator, who published politically inspired photos and undercover videos and aimed much of his ire at Hollywood liberals, was at the center of several news websites including www.Breitbart.tv, www.breitbart.com and www.biggovernment.com.
Breitbart relished the role he cast for himself as an embattled conservative on the margins of the mainstream media he called “the Complex.” Even so, he gained fans as a frequent guest on television news shows.
His work helped generate a number of prominent news stories. Those included undercover videos posted on his website about ACORN, a grass-roots group that offered housing assistance and other aid to the poor, and his role in bringing to national attention a sexually suggestive photo Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner of New York posted through his Twitter page.
That scandal eventually led to Weiner’s resignation last year.
Andrew Breitbart.
Conservative journalist and firebrand Andrew Breitbart died unexpectedly early this morning, reportedly from natural causes. He was 43. He’d visited Washington just last month to confront CPAC demonstrators who were attempting to disrupt that conservative organization’s meeting in the nation’s capital.
According to a report in this morning’s online LA Times, Breitbart “collapsed while walking near his Brentwood home.” The Times reports that Brietbart “Breitbart was rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center about midnight, where he was pronounced dead of natural causes.”
An AP report stated that actor and longtime Hollywood fixture Orson Bean, Mr. Breitbart’s father-in-law, indicated that a neighbor saw his son-in-law collapse and called for emergency services. According to Mr. Bean – Mr. Breitbart was known to have heart issues.
Staffers at the Breitbart websites are currently refraining from comments. But Mr. Breitbart’s main website, BigGovernment.com, published the following statement today:
“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.”
Andrew Breitbart used the Internet relentlessly to ignite political scandal and expose what he saw as media bias, even if he sometimes had to edit the facts to do it.
The fiery online publisher and blogger who collapsed and died Thursday at 43 relished public combat with liberals — a YouTube clip last month shows him bellowing at Occupy Wall Street protesters: “Stop raping people, you freaks!” Yet the conservatives and tea party activists who loved him said he exposed corrupt leaders and what he called the hopelessly liberal “old media guard.”
The converted Hollywood lefty who partied his way through Tulane University was also a soft-spoken father of four. The conservative warrior chose to live on enemy turf, Brentwood, the tony Los Angeles enclave favored by the Hollywood elite he so often mocked.
Breitbart used his website to promote a hidden-camera video with actors posing as customers that led the downfall of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. He posted explicit photos of former Rep. Anthony Weiner that caused the New York congressman to resign in a sexting scandal, and an edited video that caused former U.S. Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod to resign over since-reversed perceptions she was a racist.
In a new media age, Breitbart argued that anyone with a laptop could reshape public discourse. He used his skills at sites like Big Journalism and Big Government and his takedown of Weiner established him as a conservative media star.
He was filled with contradictions. A self-avowed enemy of the mainstream media, he loved to eyeball photos from afar from the venerable Associated Press, to which he subscribed. “It’s a love-hate relationship” – he confided at a quiet moment. He pleaded with conservatives to drive relentlessly forward — walk into the line of fire, he would say — yet the final sentence from his prolific and often caustic voice on Twitter was, ironically, an apology for calling a follower a “putz,” just in case he misunderstood a message to him.
His business partner and lifelong friend, Larry Solov, once said Breitbart had two speeds – lighthearted jokester and fiery culture warrior. “They flip back and forth” – Solov said. “And there is not that much in between.”
Breitbart died after collapsing shortly after midnight during a walk near his home. He was rushed to the emergency room at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Breitbart suffered heart problems a year earlier, but his father-in-law, actor Orson Bean, said he could not pinpoint what happened. Larry Dietz, watch commander at the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, said an autopsy was likely.
“It’s devastating” – Bean told the AP.