Like a lot of people, I was shocked and saddened by the death of Andrew Breitbart this week at the age of 43. While his incendiary tactics were questionable at times, I admired his passion for exposing hypocrisy and his effectiveness in changing the status quo. He had an innate understanding of the web and social media, and how to mobilize public opinion and change events, often in a matter of days. Think sexting and Anthony Weiner.
His death, of an apparent heart attack, brought to mind a talk I heard former Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry give at a conference in the late 1990s on how the internet and cable news had changed politics forever. He spoke about how the Drudge Report "broke" the Monica Lewinsky story in January 1998 when they reported that Newsweek had spiked the story about Clinton's affair with an intern. McCurry then lamented the 24-hour news cycle and how it no longer allowed people caught up in controversial events the time to consider the issue, develop strategies, and choose their words. Instead, sound-bite-driven news ricochets across the web and TV, exhausting the participants, the public, and often crowding out the important issues that really matter.
So, when I read that Brietbart spent his last hours drinking wine at a bar in Brentwood, debating politics with a stranger, all the while checking and tweeting on his Blackberry, it made me think that his always on, always engaged "happy warrior" ethos just wore out his reportedly weak heart. David Frum in a Daily Beast post is more pointed, and says it was Breitbart's negativity and racism, while the The Atlantic's Robert Wright says it was his hostility.
Whatever it was, he leaves behind a wife and four children, and that's so sad.
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