Today, the conservative movement lost one of its most dynamic voices, Andrew Breitbart. Through his “Big” media network, Breitbart fought against government overreach, media bias and liberal Hollywood with all the passion of “a 1960’s radical,” as Jonah Goldberg noted this morning on Fox News
But Andrew Breitbart was more than just a fighter. To me, Andrew Breitbart was a sort of modern Samuel Adams. Adams was vitally important in creating the committees of correspondence to link the thirteen colonies together in their efforts to break ties with Great Britain. The committees kept people in the different colonies informed on how each colony was being affected by British rule and how patriots in each colony were fighting overreaching laws.
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Samuel Adams was a loud Massachusetts leader, mostly in print, but he was also happy to play second fiddle, to work behind the scenes and let others receive praise. That was my experience with Andrew Breitbart.
I’ve been writing for Breitbart’s site Big Hollywood for several years now. After college, BH editor John Nolte took a chance on me and let me start reviewing films for the website. When I met Andrew at a viewing of “Not Evil Just Wrong,” I thanked him for the opportunity to write. He was more than gracious and he was happy to have me on board. Because though his network of websites bore his name, they served as a link between activists and contributors who represented conservatives from all walks of life writing and reporting on the issues. They weren’t about promoting Breitbart and his agenda. They were about promoting conservatism through the voices of conservatives around the country.
For Breitbart, it wasn’t about name recognition. It was about the issues for which he fought. That’s a fact that even Media Matters for America seemed to note today in a post about Andrew’s passing:
“We’ve disagreed more than we’ve found common ground, but there was never any question of Andrew’s passion for and commitment to what he believed.”
But more than anything, Breitbart was an inspiration – an inspiration to anyone not afraid of saying what he or she believed and being attacked for it.
As Breitbart.com President Larry Solov wrote, “Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.”
May we all continue to fight for liberty in his absence.
