Conservative Activist Andrew Breitbart Dead at 43

The editor of Andrew Breitbart's Big Government website has confirmed that the outspoken conservative activist and publisher known for targeting liberal figures has died at age 43. Breitbart reportedly passed away shortly after midnight in Los Angeles while walking near his house. No cause of death has yet been disclosed. 

From the Washington Post:

Breitbart was a conservative commentator and Internet entrepreneur who helped launch the Huffington Post, served as an editor for the Drudge Report Web site, and was behind the Breitbart media network, which includes Big Government. He was known for publishing controversial exposes, criticized as “ambush journalism,” that targeted liberal figures and causes. .  .

On his own, Breitbart did the same in controversial investigations of the community activist group ACORN. In his book, he calls the expose of ACORN, which did significant voter registration in urban Democratic strongholds, “the Abu Ghraib of the Great Society.”

In 2010, Breitbart posted videos of a speech by Shirley Sherrod, a regional director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, at an NAACP fundraising dinner. In a blog post on his Big Government Web site, Breitbart said Sherrod’s words amounted to racial discrimination against a white farmer. Sherrod was fired. Breitbart was later accused of taking Sherrod's words out of context, and NAACP said it had been “snookered” by Breitbart. Sherrod was offered a new Agriculture Department job, and sued Breitbart for defamation.

Read more at the Washington Post.

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