Conservative blogger Breitbart dies at age 43

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

Andrew Breitbart used the Internet relentlessly to ignite political scandal and expose what he saw as media bias, even if he sometimes had to edit the facts to do it.

The fiery online publisher and blogger who collapsed and died Thursday at 43 relished public combat with liberals — a YouTube clip last month shows him bellowing at Occupy Wall Street protesters, “Stop raping people, you freaks!” Yet the conservatives and tea- party activists who loved him said he exposed corrupt leaders and what he called the hopelessly liberal “old media guard.”

The converted Hollywood lefty who partied his way through Tulane University was also a soft-spoken father of four.

Breitbart used his website to promote a hidden- camera video with actors posing as customers that led to the downfall of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. He posted explicit photos of former Rep. Anthony Weiner that caused the New York congressman to resign in a sexting scandal and an edited video that caused former U.S. Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod to resign over since- reversed perceptions she was a racist.