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Andrew Breitbart, RIP

I was stunned to read this news. Andrew Breitbart, one of the movers and shakers in the conservative/libertarian side of the internet media world, has died, at the age of just 43. My condolences to his family and friends.

10 comments to Andrew Breitbart, RIP

  • Midwesterner

    We have lost one of our most important, perhaps the most important, battlefield tacticians and leaders. More than sorrow, my immediate reaction was of the “Oh shit!” variety. Few if any other people have been able to master the media OODA loop the way he did.

    He may not be a familiar face to most of us here, but that is because his work was at the battlefront against the media machine. Already knowing the MSM is a propaganda machine, we tend to ignore it. He was out there demonstrating to its naively trusting audience just how partisan it really is. His primary activity was waking up the sleepwalkers and he was really good at it.

  • I hoped this was a hoax rather like that one about the Stratfor guy resigning when I first saw your post.

    I think he must have been fun to know. His takeover of Weiner’s press conference was comedy gold. More seriously, he brought down the corrupt ACORN organisation. He also showed that the role of the cheeky, muckracking political prankster did not have to belong to the left.

  • Perry de Havilland and I spent a great deal of time with Andrew Breitbart in 2005, and he became a close friend. I am still in shock over this news, and processing it with our shared friends has been both therapeutic and stunning.

    Andrew, whether you agreed with him or not, was one of the most loving, genuine people you could ever meet. He didn’t let politics get in the way of his connection with individuals. He was an individualist both in philosophy and in practice. The world is poorer for his departure.

    Rest in peace, my friend.

  • Hmm

    It is truly shocking news. I hope that he’s inspired plenty of others to pick up from where he was making headway.

    For a man who seemed astonishingly unafraid to shout out to the crowd and against the mob – Andrew Breitbart still somehow managed to make his actions speak louder than his words.

    He was a man writ large.

    I am sorry that I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person, for I greatly appreciated his work on the internet.

  • I met him twice, he struck me as having two essential qualities, friendliness and guts, a nice combination.

    He will be missed

  • Damn, that is grim news indeed. He was a nice man and one of the good guys.

  • Incredible. Same thoughts as you.

  • RRS

    It would be a fitting tribute if some competent person would, using Andrew Breitbart as an example, trace how individuals like him come to be formed and have effects such as his in the identifications of falsehoods.

    For, if you will note, that identification of falsehoods, rather than the advancement of opinion was his great contribution.

  • RRS

    And now James Q. Wilson, at age 80, has gone as well on this 2d day of March 2012.

  • Paul Marks

    Mr Breitbart’s work must be kept alive.

    Read his reports and judge him (and those who worked with him – such as James O’Keefe) on their evidence and their arguments.

    Do not cut them any slack – judge them hard. But judge them fair – do not judge them on the basis of the opinion of government reports and “mainstream” media sneering.

    Mr Breitbart faught against the government/media people – they must not be allowed to have the last word on his work and the work of those who worked with him (as they do on “wikipedia” and other …….).

    Andrew Breitbart worked to his dying day to bring out the truth.

    The truth about the financial corruption and Marxoid worldview of the elite – in the media, acadamia, government (and so on).

    Feel upset about the death of Andrew Breitbart?

    Then carry on his work.

    Find out the truth – and spread the truth.

    Start by buying his book.

    And by looking hard at the next report (this one on Barack Obama’s college Marxism) when it comes out.

    I repeat – cut him no slack just because he is dead. If he made any mistakes then point them out.

    But if he uncovered truth (and Andrew Breitbart often did) then spread the truth and stand by it.

    Whatever the cost.