Andrew Breitbart death sparks conspiracy theories

[kong]

Andrew Breitbart death sparks conspiracy theories
Andrew Breitbart's unexpected death on Thursday has sparked a swift outpouring of grief and remembrances--but also the inevitable conspiracy theories about the timing of the outspoken conservative's demise.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., last month, Breitbart claimed he had damning videos of Barack Obama, and planned to release them before the general election.

"[We] are going to vet [Obama] from his college days to show you why racial division and class warfare are central to what hope and change was sold in 2008," Breitbart told the CPAC crowd.

Steve Bannon, producer of "The Undefeated" and a friend of Breitbart's, told Fox News' Sean Hannity on Thursday that the tapes of Obama at Harvard do exist, and that they would be released "in a week or two."

The news quickly sent conservative bloggers--still shocked by Breitbart's sudden death--into a frenzy.

"In a stunning coincidence," Paul Joseph Watson wrote on InfoWars.com, "it appears Andrew Breitbart suffered his untimely death just hours before he was set to release damning video footage that could have sunk Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign."

Conservative blogger Lawrence Sinclair referenced a conversation he had with Breitbart in Washington D.C. three weeks before. "Andrew said, 'Wait til they see what happens March first,'" Lawrence Sinclair wrote.

Sinclair also took issue with the wording of Breitbart's death announcement as it was posted on BigGovernment.com.

"Claims that Andrew died of 'natural causes' are the opinions of his attorney Joel Pollak and not the statements of any medical personnel from UCLA or the L.A. County Coroners office," he wrote. "L.A. Assistant Chief Medical Examiner Ed Winter says autopsy to be done tomorrow (Friday March 2, 2012) and no official cause of death has been determined."

But the coroner's office told Yahoo News on Thursday that it is unclear when the results of an autopsy would be released.

With conspiracy theory allegations floating around Sinclair's website, the comments escalated into more predictions of foul play.

"I do not believe Breitbart died from natural causes," one commenter on Sinclair's site wrote. "He died for speaking the truth...He probably should not have announced he had videos of BO's college days... I find it quite interesting that he died alone on a street. There will be an autopsy and they will decide on natural causes, but there is a way to induce a heart attack in human beings."

Wrote another commenter: "One thing is for sure. 43-year-old people don't die from 'natural causes.'"

But it wasn't just Sinclair News that housed conspiracy theorists. Conservative site InfoWars.com had plenty of speculations too.

"I'm going to reiterate what I said before," a commenter wrote on InfoWars.com. "In my opinion THIS GUY GOT ELIMINATED. Plain and simple." And another wrote: "Anybody who gets too close to the truth will be killed."

After sending commenters into conspiracy overdrive, Sinclair later clarified his post while simultaneously blaming the media for opening the door to these kinds of allegations because of overzealous reporting.

"In light of the comments which have been posted on this article we want to make something perfectly clear," Sinclair wrote. "We are not and have not said nor do we believe the death of Andrew Breitbart is the result of anything other than a believed heart attack. We simply reported that different media outlets reporting the cause of death as being of 'natural causes' before a cause of death has been determined is wrong and has created this sense of something more sinister."

But, the Obama tapes weren't the only things Breitbart had up his sleeve. As Simone Wilson reported on LAWeekly.com, the death of the polarizing 43-year-old came days before he was expected to announce a new Web project.

"This has been Andrew's obsession," Joel Pollak told the paper. "He was working incredibly hard."

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reported that Breitbart recently told friends that he was "in early talks with CNN about a Crossfire-style show in which he would argue from the right alongside former Rep. Anthony Weiner," the Congressman whose political career was throttled by Breitbart in 2011. (A spokeswoman for CNN, though, called the report "totally false.")

One thing that may quell the talk of a conspiracy: Breitbart's father-in-law told the Associated Press that he had suffered heart problems in 2010.

[kong]

Did Weinergate vindicate Andrew Breitbart?
Many outside the hothouse world of online political media were no doubt more than a little baffled yesterday when conservative web impresario Andrew Breitbart stepped up to podium at the hour that New York Congressman Anthony Weiner was to deliver his statement to the press on his randy social-media activities.

But Breitbart was playing a familiar role in his world. In a sense, his mission is to seize control of the mainstream media's microphones, as he did yesterday, and drive the conversation in his direction.

Breitbart, whose BigGovernment.com broke the original story of Weiner's lewd Twitter photo last weekend and published the cache of photos on Monday that forced Weiner's hand, said he was simply seeking an apology. Both the congressman and the media, had unfairly tagged him as a "hacker," he explained.

"I'm here for some vindication," Breitbart said.

But with his 12-minute, show-stealing appearance at Weiner's presser, Breitbart thrust himself into the national spotlight.

Jon Stewart compared Breitbart to Kanye West.

"It felt, at times, like there were two press conferences happening at once," the Huffington Post said. "One featured the spectacle of a teary-eyed and emotionally wrenched Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) apologizing for his online indiscretions. The other showcased a combative Andrew Breitbart doing his best to hijack the moment."

On Fox News, Breitbart told Sean Hannity he had "no idea I was live on television," and was told by another reporter at the press conference to get onstage so others could hear him.

Regardless of the odd course of events that transpired yesterday, Breitbart, 42, has long had the mainstream media in his sights. He launched the sites Big Hollywood, Big Government, and Big Journalism under the Breitbart.com banner in 2009, after toiling as Matt Drudge's No. 2 at The Drudge Report. Before that, he'd worked as an adviser and research assistant to Arianna Huffington, helping her launch the Huffington Post. Traffic to Breitbart's sites has grown to 20 million news page views and 3 million unique visitors per month, according to Breitbart. The mission of the eponymous Breitbart-run sites is to produce a mix of original stories and aggregated news that he says would otherwise be ignored by the liberal media.

"The media says, 'Breitbart lies, Breitbart lies, Breitbart lies,'" Breitbart barked from the podium on Monday. "Give me one provable lie."

Breitbart (who once told Slate his "entire business model is to go on offense") was credited in 2009 with helping "break" a series of undercover videos showing alleged malfeasance at the offices of community-organizing group ACORN. The videos soon overtook the news cycle, leading to the eventual withdrawal of federal funding for the group, while also giving videographer and fellow right-wing provocateur James O'Keefe an influential platform at BigGovernment.com.

A year later, though, Breitbart's credibility was burned, after the site posted video excerpts of a 40-minute NAACP speech by U.S. Dept. of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod that appeared to show her making racist comments. However, Breitbart drew fire after the speech was published in full, showing that selectively-edited video had taken the remarks out of context--but not before Sherrod was fired. (The White House later apologized for dismissing Sherrod, a longtime USDA official, and Sherrod sued Breitbart for defamation.)

With the Weiner case, Breitbart's reputation for reporting scandals and breaking lurid news seems to have returned. In part, though, one key piece of this particular coup seems to have come about via the aid of a big mainstream media outlet.

In publishing the new Weiner photos on Monday, Breitbart partnered with ABC News to "share the identity" of Meagan Broussard, one of the women at the center of the Weiner scandal.

ABC then contacted Broussard and "licensed a handful of photos from her," paying between $10,000 and $15,000 in exchange for an interview with her, according to TVNewser. (Fox News interviewed Broussard, too.)

"One of the reasons I went to ABC, believe it or not, was to take this out of the partisan rancor realm," Breitbart told the New York Times.