Savior of the right and scourge of the left, firebrand publisher Andrew Breitbart once reveled in taking out liberal targets such as Anthony Weiner and ACORN while vociferously criticizing causes like Occupy Wall Street. Forget that his brand of muckraking journalism created controversy after controversy, Breitbart’s successes were seen in an ardent following that spread his conservative message via the power of the internet.
Then last March, Breitbart suddenly collapsed and died of heart failure at the age of 43. Though his torch is still carried by many, his death was a blow to conservative activists everywhere. So legendary was his rise, that even his one-time mentor Matt Drudge and editorial successor Ben Shapiro have been seemingly unable to galvanize the right-wing blogosphere in the same way Breitbart could.
But this week, Hating Breitbart, a new film on how he changed the media paradigm, is scheduled to screen in a handful of theaters across the country. Right-leaning news outlets say the movie will once again vindicate Breitbart’s message; while left-leaning commentators believe his message–and the conservative movement–are too far gone to be saved.
In order to put his legacy into context, consider this 2009 interview with Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution, where Breitbart discusses the dominance of leftist voices on the internet and compares them with the popularity of conservative talk radio.
Left or Right: Who Dominates the Blogosphere? from The Hoover Institution on FORA.tv
In the same interview, he also criticizes the anti-American sentiment found within the film industry. “Movies out of Hollywood are limited in their point of view,” explained Breitbart, “in which people of traditional values or corporations are portrayed as the bad guys.”
Andrew Breitbart Calls Hollywood Anti-American from The Hoover Institution on FORA.tv
