PrintJuly 27, 2010
Nobody Can Fire Andrew Breitbart
As the mainstream media synchronized their watches over the Shirley Sherrod affair, the object of their little trench raid was clear. Demonize Andrew Breitbart for the unethical publication of a video featuring Ms. Sherrod uttering racist remarks at an NAACP awards dinner.
You could see the strategy. The MSM wanted to discredit and demonize Breitbart so that he could be fired or marginalized, just like Rush Limbaugh was fired from ESPN for the thoughtcrime of suggesting that the media wanted Donovan McNabb to succeed as the Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback because he was black.
But then I thought: Yeah, but who can fire Andrew Breitbart?
When Rush Limbaugh wanted to buy the St. Louis Rams, the Ruling Elite trailed a few stories about his supposed racist remarks. They pressured the NFL, and the NFL could pressure the syndicate to remove Rush.
But Andrew Breitbart? Can anyone fire him?
For that matter, what about Rush? You can kick him off ESPN; you can kick him off the St. Louis Rams. You can even force Snapple drinks and the Florida oranges off his radio show. But "they" haven't been able to fire him from his position as host of the Rush Limbaugh Program. The reason is, I suspect, that Rush's show is owned by not a public corporation, but a private venture. Rush has to keep the confidence of only his partners and affiliates, not the executive committee of the Ruling Class as a whole.
No doubt the same is true of Andrew Breitbart.
Here we see the late-dynasty stupidity of the Ruling Elite. A Ruling Elite that was up to the job would have co-opted or destroyed Limbaugh and Breitbart long ago.
Rush remarked on his radio show last week that he anticipated, when he moved to New York in 1988 and made talk radio into a national phenomenon, that he would get accepted into the social circles of the media elite.
But the invitation never came. Sorry, old chap -- not Ruling Class solidarity, you see.
Even Rush's acceptance into the modest social circle of conservative media was a big deal for him. When Bill Buckley died, he spoke on his show about his first visit to Buckley's New York home. He had his driver drive around the block before he could summon up the courage to enter Buckley's lair.
This is the guy who fearlessly skewers liberals daily on the EIB Network's fun, frolic, and serious discussions of the issues.
I suspect that Andrew Breitbart is even less biddable than Rush.
There is a generational pattern here. In Generation One, we had Buckley, the Catholic rich man's son with a non-profit movement. In Generation Two, we had Rush, the local WASP judge's grandson and a for-profit enterprise. But Generation Three, with Drudge and Breitbart, is an outsider generation, a trouble-making insurgency. Drudge (born 1966) and Breitbart (born 1969) are both Jewish, and they take their place in a conservative movement that is increasingly combative and increasingly led by Jews.
In Generation One, conservatives fenced with the Ruling Class using foils, masks, jackets, and breeches. In Generation Two, conservatives roamed in the talk radio AM band hinterland around the Ruling Class's NPR-fortified cities. Now, in Generation Three, conservatives move through the internet as a fish swims in the sea.
In Generation One, conservatives wanted to be treated as part of the elite. So they were, grudgingly; Bill Buckley got his "Firing Line" show on PBS, and Milton Friedman got his "Free to Choose." Generation Two never got past the TV Nazis. No PBS shows for them. Rush's syndicated television show was confined to middle-of-the-night time slots. Generation Three is different. It aims to get respect with hard-knuckle action in the mean streets of the internet. That is what Andrew Breitbart is all about, as Kyle Wingfield recognizes:
Breitbart is clear about his desire to turn the tables on liberal media and activist groups. That's why he went after ACORN, and why it makes sense that he'd set his sights higher than an obscure bureaucrat.
Breitbart aimed to play the race card right back in the face of the racist NAACP. While the media was busy getting its knickers in a twist about out-of-context quotes, Breitbart had managed to make fools of both the NAACP and the Obama administration.
Or maybe it's just a coincidence that the Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index dipped to -20 over the weekend.
You can't hurt Andrew Breitbart by playing the "out-of-context" card, the one that leads into a demand to have the conservative racist fired. In the kind of ball that Breitbart plays, there is no appealing to the friendly umpire or the CEO who fears a call from the White House.
Breitbart is BigGovernment.com. He is BigJournalism.com, and BigHollywood.com, and BigPeace.com. He's not shilling for some Mr. Big, some right-wing George Soros.
Guess what, liberals. He can't be fired.
Christopher Chantrill is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. See his roadtothemiddleclass.com and usgovernmentspending.com. At americanmanifesto.org he is blogging and writing An American Manifesto: Life After Liberalism.
