By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: March 1, 2012

reddirtreporter@gmail.com

OKLAHOMA CITY – Within hours of learning Davy Jones of the Monkees had died of a heart attack, my Red Dirt Report colleague Ted Smith called and told me someone else had died – fiery conservative blogger and "New Media" king Andrew Breitbart.

Learning of Breitbart's death was a real shock. Here was a guy who was just 43, a couple of years older than me, and he was dead – allegedly of “natural causes.” The guy had a wife and kids. It was all so sad. A brash voice for honesty in government and in the media had been silenced, but unlikely to be forgotten.

So, natural causes, eh? Where have we heard that one before? They are pushing the fact that he had health problem - his heart? - and that he had been walking near his Los Angeles home at around midnight when he collapsed and was pronounced dead upon arriving at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

As I took this information in, after Smith's call, I felt a little frustrated. I was on an RV in Shawnee, Okla. interviewing Democratic/pro-life insurgent presidential candidate Randall Terry (my Norman Transcript article on Terry is here). I didn’t have immediate access to my computer and my iPhone was nearly dead. I had forgotten to charge it. I was anxious to find out more about what had happened.

Once I got back to RDR headquarters I learned more. But Andrew Breitbart?!? It just didn’t seem possible. I had just seen him in giving a passionate interview on a TV show a week or so ago. He looked well. Heart problems?

I last spoke with Breitbart in early 2010, soon after I took on my gig with Oklahoma Watchdog. He was a very cordial person but I could tell he was multi-tasking as he talked to me. He wanted me to come on as a reporter at BigGovernment.com after learning of Red Dirt Report’s exposure of that trashed ACORN office we discovered in south Oklahoma City right before the 2008 election.

Breitbart told me that I would be smart in taking on a writing job with BigGovernment.com. He told me my work would be seen and read on radio shows like Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham. He was really selling me on this writing gig. It was a very tempting offer and I was very flattered that he was impressed enough by my ACORN investigative series to offer me a job. I certainly admired his work and his “Big” websites and I liked his media-savvy style. Plus, he was a fan of “1^st Wave” on SiriusXM satellite radio. The guy liked good 80’s New Wave music, including the goth music "Dark Wave" show.

But, because of my new gig with Oklahoma Watchdog I decided to be loyal to that position. We exchanged an email or two but never reestablished a connection with Breitbart and I can tell why – he was constantly going and going and going. I still emailed him most of my work and I still did get some of my stuff posted on BigGovernment.com and BigJournalism.com and was pleased about that. I liked it that Breitbart recognized what other bloggers were contributing to the media landscape. He saw that Red Dirt Report, Oklahoma Watchdog and countless other keyboard warriors were trying to expose entrenched politicians, corrupt goverment officials and Alinsky-ite radicals like Obama and his "Hope and Change" shock troops. It was often hard and thankless but knowing Breitbart was out there was comforting. Plus, you knew Breitbart and his "Big" sites had it in for Obama and his agenda. Breitbart and conservative/libertarian/freethinking bloggers were largely on the same page and the "Old Media" was clearly frightened.

As we all know, Breitbart did not shy away from controversy. He spoke his mind and would defend people like James O'Keefe and the pimp/prostitute stunt. He understood what got the attention of the media and that and other "stunts" attracted attention and exposed what organizations like ACORN were really up to.

Note this interview Matt Lewis (now with The Daily Caller) did with Breitbart when he was writing for Politics Daily. This was during the period when there was a lot of hubbub about the Shirley Sherrod video and the liberal reporter JournoList scandal.

So, conveniently when Breitbart is at the top of his game, when he was working on some big, new projects, and is a conservative hero, he suddenly dies.

It immediately brought to mind the "tapes" he said he had of Obama's early years - college and political, from the sound of it - and how damaging they would be. He made these statements as he spoke last month at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in Washington.

Said Breitbart (via Mediaite.com): “The videos are going to come out, the narrative is going to come out, that Barack Obama met a bunch of silver ponytails in the 1980s, like Bill (Ayers) and Bernadine (Dohrn), who said one day we would have the presidency, and the rest of us slept as they plotted, and they plotted, and they plotted and they oversaw hundreds of millions of dollars in the Annenberg Challenge and they had real money, from real capitalists. Then they became communists. We got to work on that. That is a parenthesis. Barack Obama is a radical, we should not be afraid to say that! Okay? And Barack Obama was launched from Bill and Bernadine’s salon. I’ve been there.”

Breitbart got some press during his time at CPAC, telling Occupy protesters to “stop raping people” and yelling “behave yourself! Behave yourself!” like a father talking to a child. He let the Occupiers have it, screaming at them: "Filthy freaks! “You're freaks and animals!" It's a little startling to watch. He was like a mad dog. The Occupiers, at the end of the video, seemed a little startled by their encounter with Breitbart.

But Breitbart was unapologetic about being a conservative and letting others know about it. He loved individualism and despised collectivism. He saw Occupy as a bunch of spoiled kids and ineffectual liberal jerkoffs buying into the dead-end street of collectivism.

Breitbart knew he was a major target and that his enemies were numerous as he went after various liberal/left outfits like ACORN, Planned Parenthood and others. In 2010, in a Politico article, he said, "I am public enemy No. 1 or 2 to the Democratic Party, the progressive movement and the Obama administration based upon the successes my journalism has had."

I read and reviewed Breitbart's book Righteous Indignation last year. It was a great autobiography and gave an overview of his life in California, becoming a "default liberal," partying it up while a college student at Tulane, and then discovering the Internet and the Drudge Report. He would go on to help Drudge and help start up the influential Huffington Post.

Conservative radio talk-show host Sean Hannity told his listeners today that people on Twitter and blogs should refrain from spreading “conspiracy theories” about Breitbart and the nature of his death. He said he knew for a fact that Breitbart had “heart problems” and that he lived his life at “100 miles an hour.” That's one man's opinion. A lot of people out there, from reading threads and Twitter, is that folks are far more suspicious.

Hannity also featured Breitbart friend Stephen Bannon who told Hannity and his audience that "about a year ago, Andrew had some heart issues, was short of breath." As a result, they moved his office closer to his home. And that indeed may be true. Davy Jones is reported to have had a heart attack yesterday. It happens. But was this alleged heart condition that serious. Why was he out walking around at midnight. We hope all this information comes out and that the Obama tapes are not "disappeared," "destroyed" or "erased." Especially as we see the heat rising on Obama as Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio releases his report about Obama's eligibility and questions about his background. His report is saying Obama's birth certificate is a "computer-generated forgery." Wow!

And, at the same time, I learn of Breitbart's death while interviewing Randall Terry, the Operation Rescue founder and anti-abortion leader who hopes to defeat Obama by taking away votes either as a Democrat or independent, depending on the swing states he qualifies in. But with so much voter fraud rampant, who knows what will happen.

And, as is usually the case (think heroic OKC Police Officer Terry Yeakey or investigative reporter Gary Webb), the media reports the suicide/natural cause story. And friends are put forward to say "Oh, they were suicidal and only told me about it." Yeah, sure.

Breitbart friend Steve Bannon spoke to Hannity today and said he was aware of Breitbart's health problems: “About a year ago, Andrew had some heart issues, was short of breath.”

I still can't ignore the thought that something more sinister took place.

With so many hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to support Obama’s re-election campaign, a lot is at stake – a lot! And with Breitbart – a major target for the left – shouting it from the rooftops that he was going to be releasing these tapes?  And yet the media is jumping to the conclusion that Breitbart died of natural causes before an autopsy is conducted. It's like Deborah "DC Madam" Palfrey committing "suicide" in 2008 after it was exposed that her escort service had included clients like Vice-President Dick Cheney and U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.). 

I was asked to talk about Breitbart on The Alex Jones Show today. I told Jones and his massive audience that I admired Breitbart and his work and passion but that I also thought there is a chance he may have been murdered. I hated to think that, but knowing what an influential voice Breitbart had, it's hard not to think that was the case, just as U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) was a big anti-war voice and died saying he was not going to support the upcoming invasion of Iraq.

Will we see the tapes? Maybe some? Maybe all? The timing just seems way too coincidental. Alex Jones said he found it curious that Breitbart was talking so much about the tapes. Jones said Breitbart thought he was "bulletproof." He also noted that there seems to be a "purge" of true conservative/libertarian media figures like Judge Andrew Napolitano and his excellent Freedom Watch show. Again, it's all a little curious.

“My gut is telling me they killed Andrew Breitbart,” Alex Jones said on his show today. Sadly, I agree with him.

Copyright 2012 West Marie Media