{"id":3542,"date":"2012-03-01T11:19:38","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T16:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/W3\/?p=3542"},"modified":"2012-03-01T11:19:38","modified_gmt":"2012-03-01T16:19:38","slug":"conservative-blogger-andrew-breitbart-dead-at-43","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/conservative-blogger-andrew-breitbart-dead-at-43\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart dead at 43"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n(CNN)<\/strong>\u00a0— Andrew Breitbart, the conservative blogger whose posting of a sexually explicit photo of U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner led to the congressman’s downfall, has died, his attorney confirmed Thursday.<\/p>\n

He was 43.<\/p>\n

Joel Pollak, editor-in-chief and in-house counsel for Breitbart’s website, Breitbart.com, posted a statement confirming his death.<\/p>\n

“Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles,” the statement read. “We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.”<\/p>\n

Breitbart was the first to post Weiner’s infamous Twitter photos last year, in which the married congressman appeared barechested and in his underpants in pictures sent to a woman online. Weiner eventually stepped down amid the scandal.<\/p>\n

Breitbart’s regular appearances on FOX News, his websites and his speeches to conservative groups made him a star on the right and a villain to the left.<\/p>\n

He came under heavy criticism in 2010 for posting an edited and incomplete video of a speech by Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod, who is black, appearing to say she discriminated against a white farmer looking for assistance.<\/p>\n

Sherrod was forced to resign over the video, which appeared on another of Breitbart’s websites, BigJournalism.com.<\/p>\n

A full version of the speech showed that Sherrod had assisted the farmer. The department later offered her job back when it was clear she had been misrepresented.<\/p>\n

Breitbart also posted video of a sting operation against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which showed conservative activists posing as a pimp and a prostitute seeking advice on how to set up a brothel.<\/p>\n

The video prompted a groundswell of action against the organization, including a limited investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and a slashing of funds from the federal government and several states. ACORN went bankrupt and closed its doors.<\/p>\n

The statement on Breitbart’s website Thursday included a portion of the new conclusion he wrote to his book, “Righteous Indignation”:<\/p>\n

“I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and — famously — I enjoy making enemies.<\/p>\n

“Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands — who knows? — of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(CNN)\u00a0— Andrew Breitbart, the conservative blogger whose posting of a sexually explicit photo of U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner led to the congressman’s downfall, has died, his attorney confirmed Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[1592],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}