Worksheet

Born: February 1, 1969, Los Angeles, CA

Died: March 1, 2012, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

Andrew James Breitbart (/ˈbraɪtbɑːrt/; February 1, 1969 – March 1, 2012) was an American conservative journalist^[1] and political commentator who was the founder of Breitbart News and a co-founder of HuffPost.

After helping in the early stages of HuffPost^[2] and the Drudge Report,^[3] Breitbart created Breitbart News, a far-right^[4] news and opinion website, which has been described as misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist by academics and journalists.^[5] He played central roles in the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, the firing of Shirley Sherrod, and the ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy.^[6] Commenters such as Nick Gillespie and Conor Friedersdorf have credited Breitbart with changing how people wrote about politics by “show[ing] how the Internet could be used to route around information bottlenecks imposed by official spokesmen and legacy news outlets”.^[7][8]

Breitbart has been lauded for his role in the “evolution of pioneering websites” including The Huffington Post and The Drudge Report, and later, for Breitbart News. Journalists such as Nick Gillespie and Conor Friedersdorf have credited Breitbart with bringing new voices to debates about politics and culture. Breitbart told Reason in 2004 that, after feeling ignored by existing outlets, “We decided to go out and create our media.” Described as “a series of do-it-yourself demonstration projects” and “conversation pits”, the Breitbart websites have been both criticized and praised for their role in various political issues.^[8][22] Breitbart has been recognized for adopting an inclusive stance with regard to the participation of gay people in the conservative movement. He has also been credited with helping to derail conspiracy theories about Barack Obama’s citizenship.^[8]

---

It’s all of us and Breitbart helped create and grow a series of do-it-yourself demonstration projects through which we can all speak more loudly and more fully. Breitbart is dead, but the conversation pits he built will live on.” Perhaps they’ll even improve with time like The Huffington Post, which started out as a glorified online diary for celebrities. It’s now publishing Radley Balko investigations. Breitbart also deserves credit for speaking in favor of including gays in the conservative movement and against its idiotic Birther faction, which he helped to pillory and marginalize. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/andrew-breitbarts-legacy-credit-and-blame-where-its-due/253953/