Reason Writers Around Town: Nick Gillespie on How Andrew Breitbart Changed the News
I've got a piece up at CNN.com about the legacy of Andrew Breitbart. Here's a snippet:
Anyone who tries to reduce his importance to that of a fire-breathing, ax-wielding right-wing hatchet man—a sort of Sean Hannity Jr.—is going to miss entirely his enduring legacy to the current and future mediascape….
His legacy has nothing to do with whether the Republican party picked up Anthony Weiner's congressional seat or whether ACORN has been able to renew its funding. It has to do with the ways in which he created new places and spaces to talk about whatever any of us want to talk about. He told Reason in 2004 that after feeling ignored by existing outlets, "We decided to go out and create our media."
It doesn't matter who we is, kemo sabe. It's the conservatives at Drudge, the liberals at HuffPo, the leftists at DailyKos, the libertarians at Reason. It's all of us and Breitbart helped create and grow a series of do-it-yourself demonstration projects through which we can all speak more loudly and more fully.
Breitbart is dead, but the conversation pits he built will live on for a long, long time….
Earlier on Reason.com regarding Breitbart:
Hating Breitbart: The Trailer.
Farewell to a Friend: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012), by Matt Welch
Andrew Breitbart is Dead., by Nick Gillespie
Check out Breitbart's comments about the legacy media in this video from 2010's 9/12 Tea Party rally in DC:
