Yesterday, Andrew Breitbart spoke at the Tea Party's Washington DC annual rally. His message? That he's not to be trusted.
The D.C. Tea Party rally turnout seems to have been disappointing even to conservatives, with Glenn Beck stealing the thunder two weeks ago and other smaller rallies across the country competing for the limelight. Freedomworks estimated 100,000 people at the D.C. rally, so you can be assured there was far less. Even the blogger who posted the video linked below said tens of thousands. Still, D.C. managed to misspell some signs and scare with others.
Breitbart posted a Youtube video on his Big Government website this morning that appears to be captured by an attendee back behind the media barrier, which seems a little amateurish to throw up on a "media killer" website. Breibart himself didn't even bother to shave.
In his speech, Breitbart talked about the beginning of his website and how the media didn't take him seriously. And they didn't. So how does he get their attention? The Acorn videos.
So I'm going to have to stage a series of tricks to get the mainstream media to have to pay attention to it. So that's what I did. I admit it, I tricked you.
He's acting as if he's talking to the media at the event, but he's also talking to the crowd. I tricked you. And you can tell the crowd is uncertain as to how to react. There's no response whatsover.
As he continues, he calls the media the "propaganda networks," proposes more citizen journalists and also supports personal attacks on those in the news:
What would you do, Katie, if you woke up and you saw on your competitor’s channel: ‘Let’s talk about whether or not Katie Couric is racist’? I think she’d be pissed off.
We are reaching a time when tabloid journalism is taking over the country. Breitbart is clearly saying that he can say anything and not be held accountable for it. When serious issues are raised about the slippery slope arguments of the Right (American Muslims are Al Qaeda, Obama is a socialist), the response is that they will just make something up in return. Big Government has committed several huge gaffes as a "media outlet" in only a year of existence, but the rightwing fanboys will just eat it up.
When charging that the mainstream media is propaganda, Breitbart is clearly being hypocritical about his own manipulative site. Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. I think we have a good definition of what Breitbart does. The question is how long are people going to take this guy seriously?
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Thanks for recommending this, and helping to show what a joke Andrew Breitbart is. And I guess I should pimp my weekly diary that (doesn't) pay the bills while I have more than three pairs of eyes here. Thanks!
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UPDATE: Breitbart is telling the Washington Times that he has compromising audio from a Congresswoman asking for donations from a lobbyist. We also know Jame's O'Keefe is currently sitting on a hit job of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, but we don't know if they're the same. Or if they are true. Or if they are crap.
I realize that even mentioning it gives credence to what he does, but I also believe in being aware and prepared for attacks, especially attacks that can be picked apart easily. I hope that past incompetence from Big Government will embolden some of you to help fight future attacks so that he can be nipped in the bud quickly. Skepticism alone is not a defense.