Some tweets upon the death of Andrew Breitbart, conservative digital-media pugilist
Andrew Breitbart on Glenn Beck.
10:33 am Mar. 1, 2012
Twitter this morning has had a bit of a clarifying effect on the event of the death of Andrew Breitbart.
The grandfather of blogging and viral story dissemination for conservative causes, and in recent years among the right wing's most pugilistic Twitter devotees, Breitbart died at the age of 43, according to his websites, of "natural causes," though the Twitter media and politics collective has also begun a campaign to root out the cause of death. (Reports keep changing, and we'll have more on Breitbart later ourselves.)
Unsurprisingly, in his digital life as on the matter of his death, there is a fair amount of mudslinging. There are also tears and defenses from his friends, and that convention of speaking well of the dead (most pointedly among some of his adversaries). Whether that is a fitting tribute to a man who himself mocked that kind of thing (in this he was similar to Christopher Hitchens) has itself become something of a meme on Twitter already, scarcely an hour after the initial reports of his death. That, too, is Twitter at work: Reflecting on itself, and refracting like the streaks of colored lightning in one of those glass globes you get at magic stores.
Herewith, a small sampling, which we'll probably add to:
Per his wishes, Breitbart's funeral will be filmed, then heavily re-edited and decontextualized
— Times Public Editor (@TimesPublicEdit) March 1, 2012
Andrew Breitbart was the first conservative to scream at me on the phone when I started at the Voice, when I called out James O'Keefe
— Steven W. Thrasher (@steven_thrasher) March 1, 2012
Met Andrew Breitbart once, when he and I were guests on first-ever "Red Eye" with @greggutfeld. Found him crazed, fascinating, scary. RIP.
— Will Leitch (@williamfleitch) March 1, 2012
So if Breitbart is really dead, his legacy is such that no one entirely believes reports of his death.
— Tom Tomorrow (@tomtomorrow) March 1, 2012
"This blog post will get a ton of hits." - Andrew Breitbart's last words.
— Jason Diamond (@imjasondiamond) March 1, 2012
Andrew Breitbart dead at 43, says his website Big Government. He was a brawler, sometimes infuriating, but had an impact.
— HowardKurtz (@HowardKurtz) March 1, 2012
I'm sad that @andrewbreitbart isn't around to retweet any stray gleeful comments about the death of @andrewbreitbart. RIP.
— David Dayen (@ddayen) March 1, 2012
When Ted Kennedy died, Breitbart immediately tweeted he was a “villain,” “a big ass motherf@#$er,” a “duplicitous bastard” and a “prick.”
— Susie Madrak (@SusieMadrak) March 1, 2012
VIDEO: On Fox, Jonah Goldberg @JonahNRO breaks down over Breitbart's death: "I probably shouldn't have come on." politi.co/xVlt1K
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) March 1, 2012
What does it say about Breitbart that the Twitterverse is skeptical about the announcement of his death on his site?
— Jack Shafer (@jackshafer) March 1, 2012
Yes, first thought on reading of Andrew Breitbart's death was that this was yet another publicity stunt. But seems less and less likely
— Henry Blodget (@hblodget) March 1, 2012
Last tweet on his feed RT @AndrewBreitbart I called you a putz cause I thought you were being intentionally disingenuous...
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) March 1, 2012
Gutfeld on Fox:Breitbart didn't "have a bad bone in his body."
— Greg Mitchell (@GregMitch) March 1, 2012
@GregMitch because he was a spineless invertebrae
— J (@johnnymags) March 1, 2012
