Who is Andrew Breitbart? The news world knows hims as Andrew Breitbart an American publisher,
[2] commentator for the
Washington Times, author,
[3] an occasional guest commentator on various news programs who has served as an editor for the
Drudge Report website. He was a researcher for
Arianna Huffington, and helped launch her website,
The Huffington Post.
[4]
He currently runs his own news aggregation site, Breitbart.com, and five other websites: Breitbart.tv, Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism, and Big Peace.
Early life
Breitbart was born February 1, 1969. Breitbart is the adopted son of Gerald and Arlene Breitbart, a restaurant owner and banker respectively, and grew up in a family with
secular liberal views, in upscale
Brentwood, Los Angeles. He was raised
Jewish (his adoptive mother had
converted to Judaism when marrying his adoptive father).
[5][6] He explains that his birth certificate indicates his biological father was a folk singer, and that he is ethnically Irish by birth.
[5] His adopted sister is
Hispanic.
[5] He changed his political views after experiencing an "
epiphany" during the
Clarence Thomas hearings, and now describes himself as "a
Reagan conservative" with
libertarian sympathies.
[2]
Breitbart earned a
B.A. in
American studies from
Tulane University in 1991, graduating with a "C" average and with "no sense of [his] future whatsoever".
[7] His early jobs included a stint at
cable channel
E! Entertainment Television, working for the company's
online magazine, and some time in film production.
[6]
Public life
Authorship, research and reporting
In 1995 Breitbart saw the
Drudge Report and was so impressed that he emailed
Matt Drudge. Breitbart said, "I thought what he was doing was by far the coolest thing on the Internet. And I still do."
[4] Breitbart described himself as "Matt Drudge’s
bitch"
[8] and selected and posted links to other news wire sources. Later Matt Drudge introduced him to
Arianna Huffington (when she was still a
Republican)
[6] and Breitbart subsequently assisted her (after she became a
progressive) in creating
her website.
Breitbart's work has been published in the
Wall Street Journal,
National Review Online and the
Weekly Standard Online, among others. He writes a weekly column for
The Washington Times, which also appears at
Real Clear Politics. Breitbart also co-wrote the book
Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon with
Mark Ebner, a book that is highly critical of U.S.
celebrity culture.
[9] On January 19, 2011, the
conservative gay rights group
GOProud announced Breitbart had joined its Advisory Council.
[10]
Breitbart recently authored
Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World, which discusses his own political evolution and the part he took in the rise of
new media, most notably at the Drudge Report and
at The Huffington Post.
Breitbart has said that his next launch will be called "Big Education," and will take on the "academic establishment".
In June 2011 Breitbart was involved in the
Anthony Weiner Twitter photo scandal posting photographs of Weiner on his websites.
[11]
Breitbart has appeared as a commentator on
Real Time with Bill Maher and
Dennis Miller. In 2004 he was a guest commentator on
Fox News Channel's morning show and frequently appears as a guest panelist on
Fox News's late night program,
Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld. Breitbart also appeared as a commentator in the 2004 documentary
Michael Moore Hates America.
[12]
On October 22, 2009, Breitbart appeared on the
C-SPAN program
Washington Journal. He gave his opinions on the mainstream media,
Hollywood, the
Obama Administration and his personal political views, having heated debates with several callers.
[2]
In the hours immediately following Senator
Ted Kennedy's death, Breitbart called Kennedy a “villain,” a “duplicitous
bastard,” a “prick”
[13] and "a special pile of
human excrement."
[14][15]
In February 2010 Breitbart received the
Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award during the
Conservative Political Action Conference in
Washington, D.C. During his acceptance speech, he responded directly to accusations by
New York Times reporter Kate Zernike that
Jason Mattera, a young conservative
activist, had been using "
racial tones" in his
allusions to President
Barack Obama, and had spoken in a "
Chris Rock voice." From the podium, Breitbart called Zernike "a despicable human being" for having made such allegations about Mattera's New York accent.
[16]
Activism
Breitbart often appears as a speaker at
Tea Party movement events across the U.S. For example, Breitbart was a keynote speaker at the first National Tea Party Convention at Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville on February 6, 2010.
[17] Breitbart later involved himself in a controversy over
homophobic and alleged
racial slurs being used at a March 20, 2010 rally at the
United States Capitol in
Washington, D.C. by asserting that slurs were never used, and that "It was a set-up" by
Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party. Breitbart offered to donate $100,000 to the
United Negro College Fund "for any audio/video footage of the
N-word being hurled", claiming that they made it up. Breitbart insisted
Congressman John Lewis and the several other witnesses were forced to lie, concluding that "Nancy Pelosi did a great disservice to a great civil rights icon by thrusting him out there to perform this mischievous task. His reputation is now on the line as a result of her desperation to take down the Tea Party movement."
[18][19]
Websites 2010[20]
Breitbart has launched a number of websites, including Breitbart.com,
[21] BigHollywood.com,
[22] BigGovernment.com,
[23] BigJournalism.com,
[24] and BigPeace.com.
[25]
Breitbart launched his first website as a news site; it is sometimes linked to by the
Drudge Report and other websites. It features wire stories from the
Associated Press,
Reuters,
Agence France-Presse,
Fox News,
PR Newswire, and
U.S. Newswire, as well as direct links to a number of major international newspapers. Its Blog & "Network" links tend to run to the
right within the U.S. political spectrum (e.g.,
National Review and
Townhall.com). The site also features a
search engine powered by Lingospot and a finance channel powered by
FinancialContent. In 2007, Breitbart launched a video blog, Breitbart.tv.
[26]
In 2008 Breitbart launched the website "Big Hollywood," a "group blog" driven by some who work within
Los Angeles, featuring contributions from a variety of writers, including politically conservative entertainment-industry professionals.
[27] The site, an outgrowth of the column "Big Hollywood" that Breitbart wrote for the
Washington Times, addresses issues facing conservatives who work in
Hollywood.
[28] In 2009, the site used audio from a secretly recorded conference call to accuse the
National Endowment of the Arts of encouraging artists to create work in support of Barack Obama's domestic policy agenda.
[29][30]
Breitbart launched BigGovernment.com on September 10, 2009.
[31] He hired Mike Flynn, a former government affairs specialist at
Reason Foundation,
[32] as Editor-in-Chief of Big Government.
[33] The site premiered with hidden camera video footage taken by
Hannah Giles and
James O'Keefe at
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now offices in various cities, attracting nationwide attention resulting in the
ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy.
In January 2010, Breitbart launched Big Journalism. He told
Mediaite:
[34] "Our goal at Big Journalism is to hold the mainstream media’s feet to the fire. There are a lot of stories that they simply don’t cover, either because it doesn’t fit their world view, or because they’re literally innocent of any knowledge that the story even exists, or because they are a dying organization, short-staffed, and thus can’t cover stuff like they did before." Big Journalism was edited by
Michael A. Walsh, a former journalism professor and
Time magazine music critic.
[34] It is now currently edited by
Dana Loesch. The site has a fictional contributor named "Retracto, the Correction Alpaca" who posts items requesting corrections from the traditional media.
[35]
BigPeace.com debuted July 4, 2010. The site covers topics such as international issues and foreign policy, the ongoing wars in
Iraq and
Afghanistan,
terrorism,
Islamic extremism,
espionage, border security, and energy issues.
Controversies
On July 19, 2010, Breitbart posted two short videos showing excerpts of a speech by
Shirley Sherrod at an NAACP fundraising dinner in March 2010. The videos ensuing controversy resulted in Sherrod being fired from the
United States Department of Agriculture on July 19. After Breitbart was criticized for taking Sherrod's words out of context, he posted the complete 40-minute video of the speech.
[36][37][38] The NAACP stated that the video excerpts aired by Breitbart were deliberately deceptive and said that he had "snookered" the group.
[37][38] Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack later apologized to Sherrod and offered her a new job.
[39] In 2011, Sherrod brought suit against Breitbart for
defamation.
[40]
Breitbart was also involved in the
2009 ACORN video controversy.
Hannah Giles[41][42] posed as a prostitute seeking assistance while
James O'Keefe portrayed her boyfriend, and clandestinely videotaped meetings with
ACORN staff.
[43] Subsequent criminal investigations by the Brooklyn District Attorney's office and the California Attorney General found the
videos were heavily edited in an attempt to make ACORN's responses "appear more sinister",
[44][45][46] and contributed to the group's demise.
[47][48] Breitbart then provided a forum for O'Keefe on his BigGovernment.com website
[49] and defended his actions on
Sean Hannity's Fox News Channel program.
[50]
Breitbart has also been embroiled in a controversy within the conservative movement related to the participation of
gay group
GOProud in the
Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual conference held in Washington, D.C. by the
American Conservative Union. In 2011 he was the primary host of a party that served to "welcome" the "homocons" to the convention (though it was the second year they had been participants). This flew in the face of a boycott staged by a few social conservative groups that were offended by the inclusion of GOProud within the conservative fold. Writer, producer, and publisher Roger L. Simon referred to the group as a "game-changer" for the Republican party, and asserted that it represented a turning point in the appeal that the conservative movement might hold for young people. Breitbart is now on the Advisory Board of
GOProud.
[51]
Personal life
Breitbart is married to Susannah (Susie) Bean, the daughter of actor
Orson Bean, and has four children.
[4][52]
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Who is Benjamin Eager? The professional Hockey world knows Benjamin Eager as a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger who currently plays for the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League (NHL).
Eager born January 22, 1984 in Ottawa, Ontario. He attended Immaculata High School in Ottawa. He was drafted in the 1st round, 22nd overall by the Phoenix Coyotes in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. He was later traded by the Coyotes along with Sean Burke and Branko Radivojević to the Philadelphia Flyers for centre Mike Comrie.
Eager scored his first Stanley Cup playoff goal in Game Two of Chicago vs Vancouver on May 2, 2009 in Vancouver. This led to the Blackhawk's first victory against the Canucks and evened the series 1-1. Eager scored his second Stanley Cup playoff goal on May 31, 2010 in Game Two of the Stanley Cup Finals against Philadelphia. His goal ended up being the game winner, as the Hawks won 2-1. On June 9, 2010, he and the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, defeating the Flyers 4-3 in overtime in Game Six.
On June 23, 2010, Eager was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers along with Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Sopel, and Akim Aliu, for the 24th overall pick, the 54th overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, Marty Reasoner, Joey Crabb and Jeremy Morin.[1] During the 2010–11 season Eager delivered a "sucker punch" to the Maple Leafs' forward Colby Armstrong. Eager received a five minute major, a match penalty for intent to injure, and was ejected from the game. The NHL further suspended him for four games due to the incident.[2] Midway through the season, he was traded to the San Jose Sharks for a fifth round pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.[3]
