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Andrew Breitbart: Warrior

By: Ben Howe (Diary)  |  March 4th, 2012 at 10:37 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

On March 1st I ended up in the odd position of offering confirmation of something that I’d only learned of mere moments before.  Andrew Breitbart, star quarterback of the conservative movement, had passed away.

I had a hard time accepting it to be true so I had a quick text exchange with someone close enough to Andrew that I knew his answer would be the God’s honest truth, Chris Loesch.  I said “Please tell me this isn’t true about Andrew.”  Within seconds Chris replied, “It is true.”

I took the confirmation to twitter and within moments was being retweeted and referenced in publications as confirming the tragic news.

It was a very odd feeling.  I’d met Andrew many times, we’d exchanged a few texts and emails in the past and I had the privilege of interviewing him for my podcast.  We were acquaintances, but by no means could I be called a close friend or confidant of Andrew Breitbart.

Yet here I was, confirming to people who adored him and had loved and been friends with him for years, that the worst possible news was true.  Their friend was gone. It was a surreal and unwelcome feeling.  Almost like I had intruded on someone’s private moment.

Before I had a chance to think more about it I received a call that someone really wanted a tribute to be put together in honor of this great man and they wanted me to do it.  I happily agreed and within moments knew what it would be called: Warrior.

To me, that’s what Andrew was.  A warrior.  A soldier.  A leader.  A man that was bigger than life who changed the world just by waking up in the morning.

So while others were grieving and mourning, I found myself poring over his life. Looking at every video, every sound byte, every photo. I kept reminding myself how odd it was that there would be no more. That whatever is out there in the world, is all there will ever be.

Watching the videos, I realized quickly that he fought so much harder than I did. I’ve found myself many times in the position of shouting down protestors or defying orders. But nothing like Andrew. Watching him was like watching a visual representation of passion itself. As though passion had clothed itself in the body of a man and was speaking directly to me through these archives of speeches and confrontations.

I knew that I was right to think of him as a warrior, but I didn’t realize how much more he was.  He was a visionary, with a stated purpose and mission that was as brilliant as it was simplistic and focused: Destroy the mainstream media.  And every day that Andrew hit the pavement, it was with that mission in mind.  And he was damn effective at it as anyone reading this knows.

I knew that if I made a video about him, a tribute, that it had to be less about the personal side of Andrew, because I didn’t know that side of him.  It had to be about his mission.  A mission that I share. A mission that you should share too. We must defeat the narrative, the template designers, the propagandists pretending to be journalists and truth tellers. We must get the culture back and we must do it by exposing the farce of the Main Stream Media.  From everything I know of the man, that’s how he would want to be remembered and that is what I hoped to relay.

I believed, and hope it is evident in this video, that he would’ve wanted his life and his death to be a rallying cry.  A call to arms.  As he said “We have an obligation…to fight back.”

We will.  And you did Andrew.  We thank you.  Let us fight now.  You rest at last, Warrior.

COMMENTS

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  • vangoghssister

    would be the Andrew Breitbart journalism scholarship at a conservative-leaning college (think Hillsdale-like).

    • usedtobelib

      Andrew-like to concentrate on the schools that produce the sloppy-thinking media persons Andrew detested.

      Let us always remember what he said–it’s the media he was after, not progressives, per se.]

      We’ll never get journalism returned to any semblance of intetrity until the big schools that produce “journalists” are transformed.

      Time, maybe, to go after the professors of those schools.

    • independentconservative

      Where is the RS thread on this?

      http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1139847–andrew-breitbart-s-obama-tapes-to-be-released-friends-say?bn=1

      I’ve watched the Hannity show last week and it sounds like it could play at least some role in the election. The guy being interviewed (one of Brietbart’s friends) said that it “will change the election” I have my doubts since I think its probably hyping the release of the tapes, but it could play a role, however minor in some swing states and really that’s all that matters since its the same effect.

      All you have to do is google “Andrew Brietbart, tapes” if you don’t believe this link, or you want more info. I’m only posting what I know which at this point, isn’t much.

      • northeastred

        If Obama is a radical, that makes Nixon a communist. This is silly. Obama is incompetent. That should be the focus. This other stuff is just noise.

        • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

          YOU will go nowhere.

          • northeastred

            I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it will be even bigger than Solyndra. But keep in mind we haven’t had an easy election since Dukakis ran. No one’s buying the liberal, radical nonsense anymore.

          • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

            …particularly on this sensitive site.

          • northeastred

            I shall leave you to your windmills.

        • bs61

          We don’t keep quiet here when their’s a radical in the WH.

  • wolfgang

    …for the Right is something akin to the WWII American Army in Europe losing its General Patton.
    There is hope, like Ulysses in his travels, whenever he dispatched a skeleton, other skeletons would rise up out of the stones to contest him.
    The cancer surgeon very often encounters the same effect after he goes into the body and surgically excises the primary tumor, all of those tiny, one, two, ten, and one hundred cell size metastasies that had broken off from the main tumor, floated downstream and away from the main site, all the while remaining semi dormant, quiescent, very often suddenly spring to life and begin growing wildly. There would be no better way to honor Mr Breitbart than having a million just like him spring to life at least long enough to rid us of this despot and tyrant we are laden with.

    • renl57

      …but I don’t like your analogy.

      Let’s not compare the conservative movement to a metastatic cancer, please?

      The GOP primary process has already given the Left enough political ammo as it is.

  • northeastred

    We all know he favored results over truth, and could be extremely dishonest with his work. Personally, I believe he was maturing out of this as he became more established, and he wasn’t making the same sort of mistakes with idiots like James O’Keefe, or posting out of context videos anymore. He handled the Weiner scandal perfectly, and I think he would have had a great future ahead of him, once he got past his initial growing pains. I really think he would have become a major media force for truth, and I’ll miss him.

    • jstjoan

      The point of that video was never meant to be about Sherrod. It was the reaction of the audience who were members of the NAACP after they’d attacked the Tea Party and called us racists. Breibart proved with this video that THEY in fact were the racist ones for cheering at Sherrods story of how she denied help to the white farmer. Professors Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) and William Jacobson (Legal Insurrection) explain this very effectively here:

      http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/138292/

      “PROFESSOR JACOBSON: Repeat after me: ?The Shirley Sherrod tape was not misleading.?

      No, it wasn?t. And the people who say otherwise either never actually read Andrew?s original post, or are miserable lying pricks. Just to be clear, here. Key point: ?What really was going on was that the crowd reaction to the Sherrod?s comments caught on the tape was very damaging to the NAACP and those who attacked the Tea Party movement as racist. The crowd cheered when Sherrod recounted her long-ago hostility to the white farmer, and that crowd reaction was the real story. Focusing the debate on the editing of the tape was a convenient distraction.?

      #IamAndrewBreaibart

    • Melody Warbington (rwm52)

      Really, if you’re going to throw out a bomb like that, at least offer some proof. That is, if you’re here long enough.

      • northeastred

        Andrew knew what he was doing. Arguing otherwise is an insult to his intelligence. He was a means to an end kind of guy who succeeded in confusing firestorms of media attention. O’Keefe was pure performance art. Feeding the Sherrod video to FOX and O’Reilly was brilliant and it was effective. But he knew what he was doing. Breitbart was never tricked by O’Keefe, or the excerpted Sherrod video that he later said he wouldn’t have posted.

        • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

          …when you falsely claim “O?Keefe was pure performance art.”

          How can you savage such a great-guy, so soon after he died prematurely?

          You are a beast, particularly because you don’t have a leg to stand on, factually.

    • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

      …because you trample instead of honor.

      Andrew explained he’d distributed the video as he had received it, and he has never been shown to have been dishonest; just like the reframing of the “pill” issue from religious freedom to women’s rights, the lefties recast the narrative as anti-conservative.

      If I were any of the moderators, we would not read anything else from your ‘puter.

      • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

        and what, pray tell, was so wrong about the ACORN effort?

        read his book, and you will learn of how carefully he orchestrated the release of this revelation

        be GONE, please

      • northeastred

        Andrew was a showman who aspired to Limbaugh-like success, until he learned that there was more power to being correct, rather than entertaining with enflaming acts and rhetoric. I believe he was on his way toward redefining conservative journalism, and he would have reached a higher, purer level than Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, and any of the others who have litter regard for truth.

        That you want to cling to some saintly Breitbart image as consistently duped gatekeeper of journalism is somewhat absurd. If I were a moderator, I’d probably knock out half of your silly posts.

        • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

          …and justify your ridicule of the ACORN effort.

          And when you can’t, then you should cease posting here.

        • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

          you really are self-marginalizing

          • northeastred

            Perhaps you enjoy and are in agreement with much of what Beck, Limbaugh, and Hannity say. 95% of the time, I am too. But let’s not pretend they consistently present factual-base arguments to arrive at such statements. They make a living out of pandering to our less-educated GOP supporters. As a whole, we pay a price for them, especially when they act up in their own interests, and cowards like Romney and Boehner walk on eggshells, careful not to alienate some voters.

            You and I may be highly entertained with a young Republican dressed as a pimp, arriving at some ACORN office. And we may delight in the fact that ACORN came under a harsh spotlight, rightfully so. But the right does pay a price for these stunts masquerading as journalism, especially when they are manipulative and dishonest.

            George Will is absolutely right with regard to Rush Limbaugh. And Breitbart’s early stunts are not helpful to the party in the long run. At least Breitbart understood this.

          • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

            …for I include myself among those whom you characterize as having been targeted for “pandering to our less-educated GOP supporters.”

            ACORN was no stunt; it was a successful sting.

            And, what exactly did Breitbart “understand” about his media-past that he might have regretted?

          • northeastred

            ACORN is a small organization, smaller now, but it is still around. The only person in those videos who has ever been charged with a crime was the clown, James O’Keefe.

            Most of the rational country views that as a stunt and equates the demise of ACORN with the kind of impact that defunding NPR would have on the budget deficit. It’s too bad Breitbart and O’Keefe didn’t put more effort into finding fraud on Wall Street, where it mattered, rather than pursuing provocative but inconsequential faux-racial stories.

            To Breitbart’s credit, he was moving away from this nonsense in recent months. He nailed Anthony Weiner, legitimately. But he was looking for more legitimacy himself and he was serious about pursuing more serious and unassailable journalism stories. Like the black farmers investigation.

          • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

            …particularly because they are devoid of documentation.

          • http://MichaelHarrington.org creinstein

            Unthinking, unwanted, and unwashed.

            Go away

          • bs61

            I don’t believe that Glenn Beck or Andrew Breitbart did either – just the truth whether it was about an R or a D.

  • stevenroyal

    I really can’t say that I’m going to miss him.

    • Ben Howe

      for apparently no reason other than to interfere with people who will miss him.

    • Bill S

      Putz.

      • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

        for there’s someone else lurking who is deserving of your hook

  • macbookben

    …the mantle that AB carried so well? As the star QB of our movement, who will fill his cleats now? Who would dare?

    • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

      …but having chatted with him for a few minutes in Philly, ~2 months ago, I think I can proffer a reply.

      He “walked the talk” both publicly and privately AND both publicly-externally and publicly-internally.

      What do I mean?

      He explains this in his book, and the multiple accolades [discussing, for example, his praise of his 4 children] testify to the “private” component of this posting.

      Regarding the “public” part, it is obvious that he was developing a external narrative [culminating @ CPAC] that would prompt everyone to recognize that we must oppose all-things-BHO; Sowell’s essay [hyperlinked supra as http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell030112.php3] endorses The Newt, but not before it recounts the grave danger we face. And Breitbart was asking everyone to ensure?above all?that the GOP win the POTUS position in November.

      But the recollections of his colleagues tell another story, one that has been played-out as he has internally-organized his websites and as he had begun to reach-out [recalling potential deal with CNN to co-host...with Weiner...a "point-counterpoint"-style show].

      Thus, the external/internal messaging from Breitbart cannot be lost upon those who lament about the MSM/LSM/ELM…termed by Flagstaff to be “SCUM” (so-called unbiased media)…even as the faults of FNC emerge [and prompt CNN-generated competition].

      And, what is that message?

      We must organize aggressively to focus on the POTUS position; we cannot be distracted by the George Wills of the world, who suggest resource-pivoting to the Congress.

      Andrew would have wanted this outcome, after intense debate, whether it be via a contested convention [listen to his last CNN interview, http://www.breitbart.tv/breitbarts-final-cnn-appearance/] or earlier, via the ongoing primary-battle.

      *

      THEREFORE, perhaps people can invite others to share his book [as I did, with Guzzardi, my cohort-in-crime...and with my son, who says its on his list] and unite in supporting the TEA [Taxed Enough Already] Party Movement in ousting BHO…via both private and public activities, both external and internal.

      Andrew would have wanted nothing less.

  • wbb1950

    this is a war. A war will not be won without warriors. I have tried the studious point by point rebuttal–and it does not work in this image based culture. What works is direct mano a mano confrontation, of the very kind Breitbart offered. A force of nation as someone called him. If you have any doubts about what this battle is about, then please check out this link. It will shed some light on the matter, for those who are inclined to be . . . how shall I put it? . . . ambivalent:
    http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell030112.php3

  • jfree

    Breitbart because it was he who caused me to declare that I am a Conservative. You see, until the 2008 election, I was a member of the “Mindless Middle” (Oly Snow called it the “Sensible Center”, HA!) of American politics. I liked to think that I voted for the person and not the party and often split my vote. But the truth is that I didn’t spend much time thinking about elections (and their consequences) until after our newly elected president proclaimed that they do indeed have (sometimes dire) consequences and that some of us would have to be content just riding the bus instead of driving it. Oh, and sit down and shut up if you don’t like it.
    OT, that brings me to another confession: I voted for BHO. And I have carried the guilt of that action since 2009. I can’t think of another vote in my entire lifetime (and I have voted for four decades) that has caused me such anguish.
    I am so ashamed that I helped foist this radical pretender upon the unsuspecting and trusting folks (MM) who believe that it is not that big a deal who we put in the most powerful office in the civilized world because no matter the party… he is an American and no American would abuse or embarrass us and the nation with his words and actions.
    The point is that I didn’t do enough homework before the 2008 election. What can I say… I was busy. And when it came time to vote I essentially just flipped a coin… hmmm, Gr.pa McCain and the loud mouthed Soccer Mom or the smooth talking black dude? Well, I fell for what the media was putting out. I still thought there was some vestige of integrity in the MSM.
    It didn’t take long once he was in office for my vision to begin to clear. What really happened is that I finally started to pay attention to the world around me. And I discovered Andrew. And TRUTH in journalism.
    Well, folks… he said it (at CPAC this year)… “This is not your mother’s Democratic party”.
    There is no more (moderate) Democratic party that we grew up with. The party has been hijacked by Socialists and radicals and we better fear them. And we better fight back or the America we love will cease to exist because the stated goal is to overturn the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
    I see now. It’s like when you have a scare and the adrenaline is pumping… all of your senses are heightened. Everything is crystal clear and the words (not just the everyday sound of them) coming out as “news” today… their intent and purpose are suddenly and profoundly exposed as the vile propaganda that they are. I never saw or heard any of that before.
    I think I am not alone, either. I believe, with all my heart, that no matter who we nominate there will be such a wave of voters going to the polls, to correct the wrong that they did in 2008, that there may not be words adequate to describe it. It will be EPIC.
    Now, thanks to warriors like Andrew Breitbart, my ears are acutely tuned to the turn of a phrase and I question… EVERYTHING. The scare is not over. The adrenaline is still pumping. I fear for my country and I know that all of us have to take action… TODAY and every day.
    And… thank you, Ben Howe, for taking up the sword. He would be pleased, I think.

    • macbookben

      …on your epiphany and conversion! Breitbart had his during the Clarence Thomas hearings, mine was during the 2000 presidential campaign (having voted for B.C. in the previous generals). Imagine the influx of believers in conservatism, as manifest in the TEA party or elsewhere, when all those #OWS radicals have theirs. It is a powerful thing, indeed!

      • jfree

        but it is never too late to get involved in promoting what is right and good. I can think of no higher calling. But there is a sense of urgency now… and passion… and I shall try to be fearless, like Andrew. I didn’t know him personally but he touched me and that is enough.

        War it is, then.

    • bs61

      Former life long Dem from Chicago – I didn’t realize they were no longer Dem’s! I woke up when both McCain and Obama returned to DC to cast their votes for the bailouts, when I was asking, shouldn’t one of you be voting no?!

  • sybilll

    knew just how many people he empowered. He empowered me. I am a nobody, but Andrew gave me my political backbone. I’ll be forever grateful and he will be forever missed.
    ~War

    • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

      …when you hit the “Post Comment” button!

  • Viet71

    Don’t grasp his lasting contribution to the conservative cause. His main target, the media, is a well known target.

    Some what grasp his innovative approach to internet journalist.

    • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

      …because he will become your Everyman.

  • bs61

    Priceless and true. Thanks for the video.