Andrew Breitbart, One of the Original FReepers

Thursday, March 1, 2012 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

Andrew Breitbart had a long history with Free Republic, from its early days and first FReeper gathering Los Angeles to the present.

Using the screen name andrew, Breitbart joined FR on February 9, 1998 after lurking "long before" then.

Andrew's posting history is captured back to September 8, 2001. His last post on FR was September 15, 2004. Even though he stopped posting to FR, Andrew maintained relations with people he met through FR and always had a kind word to say about the site when FR was brought up.

I wrote for Andrew's Big sites and had limited dealings with him as the editors of the respective Big sites were naturally the main points of contact. But we had met before then and knew of each other. The last phone call I was on with him about a Big article project he spoke fondly of his days on FR and how active the FReepers were in those days.

Andrew attended the first FReeper gathering, in late spring/early summer 1998 at the Cheesecake Factory in Los Angeles.

As a poster, he commented on the threads much more than he originated them.

Reading though Andrew's comments, one sees that he was the same person he was before he became 'Breitbart.'

On March 9, 2002, Andrew wrote about his conversion from liberal to conservative--a story he has told many times since becoming 'Breitbart.'

To: f.Christian

i was one too. i still pretty much have my same small 'L' libertarian ideals, but in college the left tapped into that and basically implored me to be paranoid that the religious right was working overtime to take away my rights. all the while campus speeh codes and political correctness were being instituted around me in the name of diversity and multiculturalism. when i graduated in 1991, i had an epiphany, a conversion of sorts, as i watched in horror the clarence thomas hearings. 'those guys are on my side?' i thought as i watched the dems attempt to assassinate a good man. since then my libertarian instincts have been buffered by an attraction to the moral clarity of the conservative movement. happily just voted for bill simon last tuesday here in california.

18 posted on Saturday, March 09, 2002 3:37:27 PM by andrew

From January 23, 2002:

To: BC21

I worked at E! Online from '96-'97, and yes -- DUH!!! -- E! is biased. Nearly every one there was an amped up knee-jerk liberal (a few seemed apolitical, and then there was me, on the technical side, of course). The editorial and art depts were strangled by completely unreasonable and bitter lesbians who knew they could hire their own, and force their very strong opinions on the completely compliant male staff.

I lost it during the sensitivity/sexual harrassment training video in which a guy was brought to his knees for having a bikini calendar. The instructors said the man needed to go to sensitivity training. I retorted that the minority that would be offended by the calendar should be put in desensitivity training. Didn't get any laughs. I was dead serious.

6 posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2002 3:58:42 PM by andrew

Later that year, Andrew wrote about his music-exploring youth:

To: Bella_Bru

My teen years were spent in LA traveling around to see X, and other local bands like Fishbone and the Chili Peppers. Clearly, X, during the Billy Zoom years, were the best of the bunch. I ended up going to college in Louisiana and in the Fall of 87 the Chili Peppers were starting to get a national following and appeared at Storyville in the French Quarter on their 'Rock Out with Your (xxxx) Out tour. That night X opened and Exene was like 8 months pregnant. X was huge here. their vaguely countrified punk rock sound did wonders for drowning out the Sunset Strip scene of the time (Poison, Ratt, etc.) I have seen X in recent years at the House of Blues here in LA and it is a pleasant event, but kinda sad to see how we've all aged and how the spirit of your teens and 20s can't be replicated.

On another note, I hope they gave a nod to Liz Phair. she has sorta waned in recent times, but her first two albums, Exile in Guyville and WhipSmart were excellent.

102 posted on 11/23/2002 6:31:23 PM PST by andrew

A month before, Andrew ripped Sean Penn a new one on FR over a newspaper ad the actor took out attacking President George W. Bush:

To: Pharmboy

Dear Mr. Penn,

When you stop attacking photographers and tying up your wives and holding them hostage for hours, and maybe, but hardly likely, we'll start to take you seriously.

'I Am Sam' is your 'legacy of shame and horror,' and you owe me $9.50 for that stinker.

And by the way, this silly 'in the name of patriotism' canard the left keeps throwing out is getting old. Bush has never said nor implied that dissenters are unpatriotic. Lord knows most of you Hollywood lefties are unpatriotic and would prefer Daniel Ortega in the White House, but that argument is pretty much is the sub-subtext of our problems with you guys. And you know it's the truth.

To your credit, you seem to be the only one who has had the guts to take your criticism stateside. In recent Tourettes-like political proclamations, your peers Jessica Lange, Robert Altman, Woody Harrelson, et al have taken to spewing their vile rhetoric to likeminded appeasers over bottles of Pellegrino in Europe.

Your 'sincere' tone, unfortunately, is the giveaway. There is nothing sincere about your criticism of Bush. I live here. Right near you and your Hollywood elite buddies. There is no such thing as a social get-together here where you all don't rip him to pieces, challenging even his basic humanity and mental acuity. And on top of it, you make anyone who thinks otherwise a pariah. (Usually they're the workers who get paid 1/100th what you get paid and quietly go about their business on the set.)

And if the society you guys have created out here in Hollywood is any preview of what you'd have in store for the rest of the nation if your politics were to be realized, I'd cross the 405 to take up arms for the other side and fight a bloody civil war-like battle against you elitist nightmares. Each and every one of you. That means your buddies, Julia and Eric Roberts, too.

Now, please, concentrate on picking decent flicks that don't patronize the audience. You are a good actor and your inflated sense of self has caused you to make too many tragic choices in recent times. Get off your soap box, stop doing Charlie Rose and Actor's Studio-like I-AM-AN-ARTIST crap, call your agent, and tell him to concentrate on getting you palatable work. Fast Times 2 sounds about right.

Sincerely,
Your Neighbor

54 posted on Friday, October 18, 2002 1:42:09 PM by andrew

This was during the time of the national debate on going to war with Iraq. Like many FReepers, Andrew posted his own reporting of an event he witnessed:

MASSIVE Anti-War Rally in Westwood, CA Right Now
10/06/02 | Me

Posted on Sunday, October 06, 2002 7:17:17 PM by andrew

At approximately 3:15 I drove through Westwood, though diverted by closed streets and a huge police presence, I was able to see the makings of the largest Anti-War protest and march I have ever seen in person. I was able to see the march's origins, about a mile plus away from the Federal Building near Federal and Wilshire (ironically near the U.S. Army Reserve and large Veterans Administration facilities.)

What looked like thousands, and possibly tens of thousands, were marching towards the Federal building, site of many a protest in the past -- notable an anti-Impeachment rally featuring Barbra Streisand.

I could see the usual suspects on my drive-by: old hippies, professor types, westside lefties, anarchists looking types, certain folks pretty overt about their Marxist leanings, etc. But it could have been worse. I even yelled, "Loser" to one lady sitting with a sign on the NW corner of Sepulveda and Wilshire. (I give myself a zero for wit, but they really have me pissed off.)

I was unable to find anything in the media on this even, and even a Google newsgroup search didn't even show an announcement of this event, so I am somewhat flummoxed as to how this came to be.

I am walking there right now, and will come back to this thread later to report.

Click here to read Andrew's follw-up report on the march>

Years before he wrote Righteous Indignation, Andrew co-wrote Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon -- The Case Against Celebrity ,. In 2004, Andrew took to FR to talk about NBC canceling promo appearances on the Today Show and MSNBC:

Hey Freepers, this is my book, and I am in New York right now trying to publicize it. Our publisher Wiley had us booked not only on Today and Norville -- only to cancel once they saw the book indicts media for its complicity in promoting celebrity idiocy and madness -- but tonight outr confirmed booking on Scarborough Country was dropped. Say it ain't so, Joe! Looks like NBC has put the kabash on a book that explores the deepest, darkest parts of the celebrity world including a look at the Scientology cult, not to mention celeb nannies declare their their bosses unfit parents and worthy of being sterilized. This book also reams them for their politics (Chapter title 'Reds' says it all...) CNN, MNBC boycott... Today we did Fox News Live and tomorrow Fox and Friends: You do the math!

If anyone knows anyone at Scarborough, tell them Ebner and I (Andrew Breitbart) would like to know (possibly through back channels) how NBC corporate brass told them to rudely cancel us after we traveled to NYC for the appearance.

Even without his support "Hollywood, Interrupted" is hovering around 100 at Amazon right now -- ahead of that Ezsterhas guy's 800 page tell-all.

If you are fed up with celebrities and their insane sense of entitlement, insane behavior and insane politics (if they cant govern their own lives, how can why do they feel compelled to tell us how to govern ours?) then this is a good book for you.

Thanks for hearing my media gripe... Andrew

1 posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2004 6:23:43 PM by andrew

Andrew responded on the thread to supportive FReepers

To: Travis McGee

First of all, I cant thank you all enough, But you are what you are and you know it: good, decent people, the very people who are treatred with contempt by Hollywood. (I am from the place; I know.) As for book placement, you've got to check it out! At Barnes and Noble we are front and center: behind the counter... a separate "Hollywood, Interrupted" display, central placement on yet another central table. This is at the store in Manhattan at 67th and Broadway, the heart of the liberal beast. Wiley, our publisher, even gave us an awesome billboard on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood: "What This Town Needs is An Intervention!' Very in your face. Fun. This very mainstream publisher has been a dream, and the bookstores have not pulled back from what I hear. Thanks, again -- off to do Fox and Friends at 7:45 EST. Haven't even slept today! Did 3 hours of radio starting at 1am with Joey Reynolds on WOR AM. If you see me, keep that in mind -- serious sleep deprivation!!!

40 posted on Thursday, February 26, 2004 5:17:44 AM by andrew

And after appearing on Fox & Friends:

To: Quilla

Boy, that sure was fun. My face is all painted up right now. They use a blowtorch to put on the pancake makeup. Was so much fun. The exec producer was unbelievably nice to us and gave Mark and me very sincere media pointers. We only touched the tip of the iceberg on the subject. Will be doing Laura Ingraham's show at 11:35am EST. If anyone is in Manhattan, Mark and I will be signing books at Borders at 461 Park Avenue at 57st Street from 6:30 - 7:30pm Thursday night. Thankis for the support.

52 posted on Thursday, February 26, 2004 8:39:26 AM by andrew

In 2002, Andrew asked FReepers for suggestions about places to move to from Los Angeles. (He never did make the move):

My wife and I are contemplating a move somewhere -- anywhere, but somewhere better than LA -- to raise our two young children.

I thought there'd be no better place than Free Republic to get an interesting thread going that could serve a utility for beyond my needs.

(Because we have friends and family in New York City, we were thinking maybe somewhere in the Hamptons. So I could be in hissing distance of Alec Baldwin, too.)

1 posted on Friday, March 22, 2002 1:42:47 AM by andrew

There are many more comments to read and enjoy. I'll leave with this by Andrew from 2001 on retaking the universities:

To: Enough is ENOUGH

I was an "American Studies" major in college and graduated in 1991. I never really understood what hit me quite frankly, but the last 10 years have been an intense unlearning of what in retrospect was clear Marxist indoctrination. The head of the department was so smart. Such a hipster, too. And she played up the roloe of understanding older sister versus the domineering mother or father figure. All of the European names from above: Adorno, Marcuse, Fromm, Lukacs, etc. were part of my curriculum. And "deconstruction" was the name of the game. And to be honest with you, I think I was saved because I plum didn't understand it -- at all.

By the end of my Junior year, I was confused and just wanted to graduate. At a friends graduation from Stanford, his religious studies department graduation was held with the 'American Studies' Dept. I half jokingly asked one of the Am studies grads: "So what exactly is 'American Studies'?"

His response was just as confusing as my own interpretation of what it was.

In retrospect it was clearly subversive anti-Americanism built up with a name that was probably meant to draw in young, impressionable dupes like me.

Part of me is angry at myself that I was not up for the challenge to take on the drivel at the time, bt I was not as armed as I am today. And part of me wants to give back the degree which cost my parents a pretty penny.

But my resolution is keeping up with a true education on what it is to be truly American. And to study America is not to add up slavery with the Japanese internment and multiply it by Jim Crow.

I do think my obligation is to tell people, anyone who will listen, that getting back the universities is as important as getting back the media. I think that David Horowitz is clearly the most knowledgable leader on this front, but there needs to be a Bernard Goldberg and a Tammy Bruce from within the Ivy Walls with a liberal pedigree who helps to break down the dam.

And tying the academia to the media as the main culprits in the degradation of American values and standards could be legitimate goals in the Culture War in the coming years.

The current period in which we live (heightened patriotism) has put THEM on the defensive. We have control and should not shrink from the responsibility. It is time to go on the offensive and the publishing this piece in a college publication is a nice start.

9 posted on Saturday, December 29, 2001 4:08:18 PM by andrew

Click here to read Andrew's comments on Free Republic. You'll learn about his favorite comics, off-beat movie comedies, sports and more about his politics.

God bless you and your family, Andrew. Thanks for everything.

[McGruff]

Thanks for posting this. I never knew Andrew had roots here. Once a Freeper, always a Freeper.

[thesearethetimes...]

Thank you Kristinn. And thank you Jim and John for FR, where the eagles of freedom can gather.

May God guide our course.
Tatt

[tomkat]

Excellent post, Kristinn .. thanks very much !

RIP AB

(send us a hint now and then :-)

[SunTzuWu]

Bump for later reading.

[stayathomemom]

Thanks for posting these Kristinn. I have it bookmarked now. What a warrior he was!

[Excellence]

I didn't know Tony Snow was a Freeper until he died, and now I find out Andrew was a Freeper. I had hopes of meeting Andrew because I wanted to encourage him to get BigEducation up and running. The domain is still just sitting parked. Even reading his posts I can see he felt opening up education to scrutiny was/is important.

[DollyCali]

thanks for the thread and info kristinn!

[#1CTYankee]

So glad you got to meet him. Andrew was a patriot and although I never met him, a true FReeper true and true.

FReegards, Yankee.

[Matchett-PI]

Thanks so much for posting this thread, kristinn. RIP Andrew. Prayers for his dear family, and all who loved him.

“The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.” ~ (old proverb)

There is an apropos comment, with which I’m sure we all wholeheartedly agree, at Red State in response to Eric Erikison’s commentary with the most fitting title:

A Supernova Now Dark
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/03/01/a-supernova-now-dark/
Posted by Erick Erickson Thursday, March 1st at 10:04AM EST

<>

Comment at above link by Gary Thompson:

“When a star explodes (goes nova) the remnants of that star are sent into the cosmos and they recombine with other matter until eventually there is enough mass and the new star ignites (and the process starts all over). This next generation star is made of more complex elements than just Hydrogen because these elements were fused in the stars that had previously gone nova. Our Sun is as least a 2nd generation star and was formed from the deaths of other stars.

Mr. Breitbart’s passing will cause others to take up the sword and become inspired by listening to his speeches or reading his commentaries.

Let his life be the inspiration to light the fires of thousands of new stars that will pick up the Conservative fight.”

<>

“On the plains of “Hesitation”… lie the blackened bones of countless millions… who… at the dawn of victory…sat down to rest… “ ~ Anonymous

<>

In Breitbart’s memory, WE WILL NOT STOP TO REST.

[matginzac]

Not a surprise that “andrew” was a Freeper...makes his loss abit easier but that much sadder...
a total shock, to the point where, yes, I’d start entertaining conspiracy theories a la Vince Foster...
AB was fresh off his CPAC speech stating he had some goods on O’bummer...situation is VERY interesting...

[SharpRightTurn]

Thanks for a good memoriam of this gentleman.

[Upstate NY Guy]

A great tribute! Thanks for all you work on this Kristinn.

Rest in Peace Andrew Breitbart.

[lonestar]

Those are some names from the past!

The good old days when FR was a place where some of our most creative minds met...Tony Snow, Barbara Olsen.

[Matchett-PI]

BTTT

[ScottinVA]

Many thanks, Kristinn.. The hard work you do is very much akin to that of Andrew. Glad to have you on our side!!

[afraidfortherepublic]

Believe me, when I heard the news the very first thing I thought about was s passerby with an umbrella.

Indeed! You are not alone with those thoughts.

[basil]

You have some beautiful memories, CAL-—I know you will always cherish them, and thank you for telling us about them.

When you get down my way, let me know, and I’ll drive wherever you are if you have time for lunch-——

[PfromHoGro]

bfl

Yes, thank you Kristinn.

To quote Ron Simmons, DAMN.

[basil]

Very well said, friend.

Hope you are doing well.

[Mountain Mary]

Great idea, Yaelle.