Reason.com
Slate: Two Cheers for Andrew Breitbart
Slate's Jack Shafer writes of alt-media's hottest star, Big Government's Andrew Breitbart:
One of the great strengths of American journalism is that it will accept contributions from everybody from amateurs to entertainers (I'm looking at you, Jon Stewart) to gadflies to billionaires to activists to students to genocidal tyrants. The system is so delightfully open that even pornographers can spill worthwhile journalistic ink. That Breitbart comes swinging a political ax should bother nobody, unless the journalism published in Mother Jones, The Nation, the Huffington Post, Salon, the New Republic, the American Prospect, Reason, the Weekly Standard, or the National Review gives them similar fits. Viewing the world through an ideological lens can sometimes help a journalist to discover a story.
Breitbart proved this week that his site can make news without having anybody play dress-up when he posted the full transcript and audio of an August National Endowment for the Arts conference call. In it, NEA honchos urge artists to push President Obama's political agenda. That's news by anybody's measure, including the New York Times'. Give the man two cheers. If he keeps up the good work, toss him a third.
Bonus video: Breitbart and Red Eye host Greg Gutfeld tell how they were turned down for Reason jobs once upon a time.
Most Popular Stories
- Here Are the 15 Senators Who Voted to Stop Armed FDA Agents From Conducting Warrantless Raids on America's Farmers (Not One of Them is a Democrat) (5.24)
- When Government Privileges Trump the Rights of Citizens (5.25)
- Is the Ron Paul the Best Hope for Progressives? (5.25)
- Rand Paul Amendment to Stop Armed FDA Agents From Raiding Farms Fails, 78-15 (5.24)
- Friday Funnies (5.25)
Reason RUPE: Public Opinion Survey
- Reason-Rupe: Wisconsinites Favor Increasing Public Union Retirement Contributions to Address Budget Deficit (5.25)
- Reason-Rupe Poll Finds Support for Public Union Reforms (5.25)
- New Poll: Obama Leads Romney In Wisconsin, But Gary Johnson Could Impact the Race (5.24)
- Wisconsin Recall: Walker Leads Barrett 50-42 Among Likely Voters (5.24)
- Reason-Rupe Poll: Walker Leads Barrett 50-42, Obama Leads Romney 46-36 (5.24)
advertisements
Reason on Facebook
Reason on Twitter
Reason on YouTube
Reason RSSGet Reason E-mail Updates!
Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptionsSite comments/questions:
Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:
(310) 367-6109
Editorial & Production Offices:
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment or disable your ability to comment for any reason at any time.
|9.24.09 @ 10:12AM|#
Bonus Video
Black leather jacket is there
I am so jealous
|9.24.09 @ 10:15AM|#
that they were able
to sit so close to its glory
inflames jealosy
|9.24.09 @ 10:26AM|#
Gillespie always looks like someone who almost made the Velvet Underground but didn't own a pair of sunglasses and didn't have quite serious enough of a drug problem to be included.
|9.24.09 @ 10:29AM|#
All he brought was the banana idea, and they totally ripped that off and gave him no credit at all.
JB|9.24.09 @ 10:53AM|#
Breitbart and Beck are actually reporting news these days while the has-been NYT is stuck playing catch up because they are too busy giving Obama reach-arounds.
|9.24.09 @ 11:10AM|#
Selling your integrity is easy; buying it back is hard.
|9.24.09 @ 12:31PM|#
JB, I second that, and I laugh at the NYT's with you ;o)
What The|9.24.09 @ 12:31PM|#
that they were able
to sit so close to
itsgloryinflames jealosy
FTHFY
What The|9.24.09 @ 12:34PM|#
Or jealousy.
|9.24.09 @ 12:46PM|#
I was typing on my phone! My PHONE! [sob]
|9.25.09 @ 11:46AM|#
How is it that Breitbart is "swinging a political ax"?
I noticed that Breitbart is pointing out corruption at a non-profit and a government arts funding organization (NEA).