In memory of Andrew Breitbart, The Daily Caller put together a list of six videos illustrating the media mogul’s use of video to tell relevant and impactful news stories that informed the national discussion in the latter years of his life.
1) The ACORN Sting: In 2009, citizen video journalism pioneers James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles conducted undercover stings exposing several instances of employees of the now-defunct Association for Community Organizers Now (ACORN) willing to aid in the creation of an human trafficking ring. The story lead to the firing of several the group’s employees, the revocation of its tax-exempt status and, ultimately, the shutting down of ACORN. Some chapters, however, remain open under different names.
The video was criticized by some in the establishment media for having been “selectively edited.” While the video was not Breitbart’s own, he stood behind the credibility of O’Keefe and Giles’ work, and propelled the video forward into the Internet and the national media conversation.
2) Breitbart confronts SEIU protestors outside of rally: Outside of the Right Nation 2010 conference, Breitbart confronted a protest by the SEIU, and exposed how the union group was organizing an astroturf — or fake grassroots — opposition to the conference. When he asked the protestors why they were at the conference, and what their signs meant, he was met with dumbfounded expressions and confusion. At one point while the protesters were retreating from their encounter with him, a woman called Breitbart a homophobic slur.
After the protest, only one woman — who was not with the astroturf protestors — could confidently explain to Breitbart why she was protesting.
3) Racism at an NAACP event: In 2010, Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the USDA Shirley Sherrod delivered a speech at an NAACP speech confessing that she had once hesitated to give help to a farmer because of he was white (Sherrod is African-American), at which point members of the crowd applauded.
Breitbart posted a clip of the speech to illustrate the hypocrisy of the NAACP’s quest to paint the Tea Party as a racist movement when applause for an apparently racist remark was delivered at one of their own events. Sherrod then went on to explain her realization that the issue was not racial conflict, but about helping the helpless. Breitbart was once again accused of selective editing, but in subsequent interviews Breitbart continued to defend the story — which he maintained was not about Sherrod, but the NAACP — and explained that conservative pundit Glenn Beck had in fact “thrown him under the bus” by editing out the part of Breitbart’s clip of Sherrod’s speech that showed her change of change of heart.
Sherrod was later fired by the Obama administration, only to be offered a new position after the viewing the entire speech. Sherrod is currently in the middle of a defamation lawsuit against Breitbart.
4) Rollerblading through a union protest: In January 2011, Breitbart confronted a mob of anti-capitalist protesters comprised of members of public employee unions, Common Cause and Code Pink with a camera in hand while on rollerblades.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMy31-CPibQAt one point, a protester lashed out and declared that they are socialists and confessed that the protesters had an anti-capitalist agenda.
5) Former New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner’s Twitter scandal: Former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner was caught using his Twitter account to send sexually suggestive photographs of himself to women after he accidentally sent one out to his followers. Several additional photos made it into Breitbart’s hands and were published on his website. Weiner at first denied the photos were of him and insisted his account had been hacked before admitting his misdeeds at a press conference. Breitbart was in the audience, and briefly hijacked the podium before Weiner arrived.
Weiner eventually resigned.
6) Breitbart’s final speech at CPAC 2012: At the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Breitbart delivered a final rousing speech — captured on CSPAN — in which he said that he had videos of Obama from his college days, and that he would vet the president prior to the next election.
On Monday, Breitbart.com launched the first of its series on those videos — and Andrew Breitbart’s final article.