Planting the Seeds: The Politicized Art Behind the ACORN Plan

Everything you needed to know about the unorthodox roll out of the now-notorious ACORN sting videos was hidden in plain sight in my Sept. 7 column, “Katie Couric, Look in the Mirror.” ACORN was not the only target of those videos; so were Katie, Brian, Charlie and every other mainstream media pooh-bah.

They were not going to report this blockbuster unless they were forced to. And they were. What’s more, it ain’t over yet. Not every hint I dropped in that piece about what was to come has played itself out yet.Stay tuned.

When filmmaker and provocateur James O’Keefe came to my office to show me the video of him and his friend, Hannah Giles, going to the Baltimore offices of ACORN – the nation’s foremost “community organizers” – dressed as a pimp and a prostitute and asking for – and getting – help for various illegal activities, he sought my advice. In the past, Mr. O’Keefe created brilliant social satire that rocked his college campus and even made its way on to the talk-radio and cable-news shows, but the magnitude of his latest adventure had the potential to rock the political establishment.

I was awed by Mr. O’Keefe’s guts and amazed by the footage, but explained that the mainstream media would try to kill this important and illuminating expose about a corrupt and criminal political racket, and that the well-funded political left would go into “war room” mode, with 25-year-old Mr. O’Keefe and 20-year-old cohort Miss Giles in the cross hairs. I felt I had a moral obligation to protect these young muckrakers from the left and from the media, and to devise a strategy that would force the media’s hand.  (more…)

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Tags: abc, ACORN, acorn scandal, Bertha Lewis, Brian Williams
Posted Sep 20th 2009 at 6:40 pm in Featured Story, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 230558No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abreitbart/2009/09/20/planting-the-seeds-the-politicized-art-behind-the-acorn-plan/Planting+the+Seeds%3A+The+Politicized+Art+Behind+the+ACORN+Plan2009-09-21+01%3A40%3A55Andrew+Breitbart

Daily Gut: Our 600th Show

So tonight`s show is Red Eye`s 600th.

And that’s kind of amazing. I`ve never done 600 of anything – and that includes reverse tricep curls (which I invented, by the by). But from the day we began, on February 5th, 2007 to tonight –we`ve witnessed some pretty amazing events. And thankfully, Red Eye was there to cover them – when no one else would.

–

I mean, who can forget the dog that barked like a cat? It was the story Katie Couric wouldn`t touch – but we were there – covering the dog that barked like a cat.

And what of our in-depth coverage of John McCain`s election sweaters? While everyone else focused on irrelevant issues, we asked the tough questions about those ugly sweaters. (more…)

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Tags: 2007, 600, February 5th, Gutfeld, Katie Couric
Posted Sep 17th 2009 at 2:35 pm in Daily Gut, Featured Story | 22809866 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/09/17/daily-gut-our-600th-show/Daily+Gut%3A+Our+600th+Show2009-09-17+21%3A35%3A42Greg+Gutfeld

Sarah Palin: One Year Later

On August 29th, 2008, I woke up and, like almost every other American, was stunned by the news that Sarah Palin had been chosen as John McCain’s running mate. It was not that I had never heard of her or didn’t want her to be the pick (I had publicly called for her consideration numerous times), but because it was so clearly a very bold and risky maneuver and a true surprise in an era when we seemingly know everything well before it happens.

Moments after I heard the news I did a radio interview and predicted that the news media would destroy her in their transparent quest to pave the way for Barack Obama’s historic election. I had no idea just how right that “blink” calculation would be and I certainly never would have guessed that I would become a small part of that story by dedicating my life and fortune to documenting just how unbelievably bad it would get.

The last twelve months of Sarah Palin’s life truly bring new meaning to the phrase “what a difference a year makes.” I strongly believe that no public figure in modern America has ever endured more stress, pressure and unfair scrutiny in a more dignified fashion than she has over the past year (though what George W. Bush tolerated over the last three years of his presidency probably comes in a close second).

On August 28th of last year Sarah Palin was a largely unknown governor considered to be a rising star largely because of her willingness to take on Republicans in a way that had endeared her to Democrats. Today she is an ex-governor wrongly perceived by most of the country and virtually all of the news media as an erratic, unqualified, lightweight and ultra-partisan Republican who can’t even mange her own family.  (more…)

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Tags: Alaska, Barack Obama, Bill Maher, Chris Matthews, David Letterman
Posted Aug 28th 2009 at 7:55 am in Featured Story, Politics | 213110312 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jziegler/2009/08/28/sarah-palin-one-year-later/Sarah+Palin%3A+One+Year+Later2009-08-28+14%3A55%3A02John+Ziegler

New York Times Barbie Attacks Again

This week’s Washington Times column:

What a shock that Maureen Dowd devoted her New York Times column Sunday to attack Sarah Palin. It did not so much criticize Alaska’s governor for prematurely stepping down from her official duties as to finish off what sister snipers Katie Couric and Tina Fey began last fall.

The assassination of Sarah Palin – by media.

For those who didn’t pay attention, Mrs. Palin’s unexpected stratospheric rise as a national political figure threatened the media’s preordained presidency of Barack Obama.

In light of how the Obama machine took down Hillary Clinton, which unsettled many feminists who believed 2008 was their time, many who saw sexism at play – the destruction of an ascendant Republican female icon was an urgent imperative for the Democratic Party. (more…)

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Tags: Joy Behar, Katie Couric, Liberal Media, Maureen Dowd, sarah palin
Posted Jul 5th 2009 at 7:26 pm in Featured Story, Politics | 177530470 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abreitbart/2009/07/05/liberal-media-trio-tears-down-worthy-palin/New+York+Times+Barbie+Attacks+Again2009-07-06+02%3A26%3A44Andrew+Breitbart

The Force is With Sarah Palin

Not to go an analogy too far, but Sarah Palin seems to be taking a page from the Hollywood playbook of George Lucas.  She has just completed her own introductory trilogy, and it was an astonishing success.  

First, she was a fantastically successful conservative governor lurking beneath the mainstream media’s radar.  Next, she was a vice-presidential candidate who, even though she lost, still did more to electrify the base than the headliner.  Third, she has now drawn the curtain on her post-election career as a sitting governor, a period that saw her deftly turn the tables on mainstream haters like David Letterman.   Like “Star Wars,” she’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but her fans are rabid and chomping at the bit for the next installments.  And as to these future installments, the question is whether the next step is going to be “The Phantom Menace” or something that doesn’t suck. (more…)

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Tags: Alaska, George Lucas, Katie Couric, sarah palin, Star Wars
Posted Jul 4th 2009 at 7:44 am in Politics | 176502434 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/07/04/the-force-is-with-sarah-palin/The+Force+is+With+Sarah+Palin2009-07-04+14%3A44%3A28Kurt+Schlichter

Inside the Letterman/Palin Flap

The fact that I’ve needed to correct the record every time I’m involved in some sort of media firestorm (about once a month since the election, it seems), probably says at least as much about the pathetic nature of our news media as anything I put in my documentary “Media Malpractice,” a film whose truth I’ve dedicated almost all of the last year of my life to. The most recent episode involving the controversy over David Letterman’s comments about Governor Sarah Palin and her family is certainly no exception.  

First, let me tell you what really happened, and then I can explain what we should all learn from this.  Here’s the timeline… 

Monday, June 8th: Letterman uses Palin’s trip to New York to unleash a torrent of  ”comic” attacks on her and her family. The entire “Top Ten” list is devoted to the Governor and includes cracks about her updating her “slutty” wardrobe and possessing illegal drugs. The monologue includes a “joke” about Palin’s “daughter” getting “knocked up” at a Yankees game by Alex Rodriquez during the 7th inning stretch while her mother and a stadium full of spectators presumably watched.   (more…)

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Tags: Bristol Palin, cbs, CBS Early Show, Contessa Brewer, firedavidletterman.com
Posted Jun 19th 2009 at 9:55 am in Featured Story, Media Criticism, Politics | 16495011 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jziegler/2009/06/19/inside-the-lettermanpalin-flap/Inside+the+Letterman%2FPalin+Flap+2009-06-19+16%3A55%3A30John+Ziegler

Philosophical Divide: Sarah Palin vs. Pop Culture’s Moral Relativists

The Main Point

The world view, or philosophical perspective, of Sarah Palin versus say, David Letterman’s or Katie Couric’s, is profound at its core. Not only are the philosophical differences profound, but the political implications of those differences are as equally profound.

Palin is the philosophical descendant of those who created this country’s constitution; Couric and Letterman,  on the other hand, like much of the Bi-Coastal Media/Entertainment Left, are more consistent with the self annihilating philosophy of moral relativism. While Palin is intelligent and constant in her views, I make no similar claims specifically about Letterman and Couric, relative to their views. They strike me as shallow and weak. Palin implicitly understands the limitations of Reason. Moral relativists do not. Our founding fathers also understood man’s limitations and established a constitution whose core principle was Liberty, supported strongly by laws to protect this Liberty. The Left, on the other hand, believe that “truth” can be imposed on individuals and society as a whole. Many have commented on the futility of the latter. Frederich Hayek’sThe Road To Serfdom is the clearest explanation of how that view ultimately and logically has lead to totalitarianism; the ultimate expression of political nihilism and its philosophical antecedent, moral relativism. (more…)

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Tags: David Letterman, Katie Couric, moral relativism, Obama, pop culture
Posted Jun 15th 2009 at 5:03 am in Entertainment, Politics | 1578424 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mrulle/2009/06/15/the-great-palin-divide/Philosophical+Divide%3A+Sarah+Palin+vs.+Pop+Culture%27s+Moral+Relativists2009-06-15+12%3A03%3A02Michael+S.+Rulle+Jr.

The Truth About My Arrest at USC

I have had a rather bizarre career in media, but what happened last week on the campus of USC here in Los Angeles may end up marking one of the strangest and most disturbing episodes yet. I went to USC intending to simply let as many people as possible know that the award for “journalism excellence” they were giving Katie Couric for her Sarah Palin interview was a complete farce. To prove my point, I wanted to give away copies of my film “Media Malpractice,” which has my own Sarah Palin interview as a special feature. Instead, I ended up getting handcuffed, “arrested,” roughed up, detained, threatened, and forced off the premises. 

For those that may have missed the incredible video of the incident, here is how the episode was played on Fox News Channel: 

While that report provided a good overview of what happened, there is a lot more to say about this situation, largely because there has been so much misinformation, so many irresponsible accusations, and so much blatant hypocrisy in the general reaction to the remarkable videotape.  (more…)

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Tags: Annenberg, Ermest J. Wilson III, How Obama Got Elected, John Ziegler. USC. USC arrest, Katie Couric
Posted Apr 20th 2009 at 8:25 am in Media Criticism, News | 11039819 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jziegler/2009/04/20/the-truth-about-my-arrest-at-usc/The+Truth+About+My+Arrest+at+USC2009-04-20+15%3A25%3A28John+Ziegler

Cronkite Award for Couric Represents Journalism’s Rotting Corpse

On April 15th, the “prestigious” (and apparently now openly liberal) USC Annenberg School for Communication will be presenting CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric with the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Journalism. 

Now, for there to even be such a thing as an prize for “Excellence in Television Journalism” in an age where a desperate thirst for ratings has caused most TV “news” to become little more than glorified infotainment, is a bit like passing out awards for fiscal responsibility to members of Congress.  But for Katie Couric, the poster child of this “infotainmentification” of news, to be the recipient of such an oxymoronic honor is much like if that aforementioned trophy for frugal spending in Congress went to John Murtha or Barney Frank. 

But what makes this situation so particularly galling is the specific reason why Couric is being honored for her “excellence in journalism.”  Couric is being presented with the award for “Special Achievement for National Impact on the 2008 Campaign.” 

What was it that Couric did that was so “special?” The judges singled her out solely for “her extraordinary, persistent and detailed multi-part interviews with Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.”  (more…)

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Tags: 2008 campaign, john ziegler, Katie Couric, Media Malpractice, news media
Posted Apr 9th 2009 at 1:47 pm in Featured Story, Media Criticism | 99498One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jziegler/2009/04/09/cronkite-award-for-couric-represents-journalisms-rotting-corpse/Cronkite+Award+for+Couric+Represents+Journalism%27s+Rotting+Corpse2009-04-09+20%3A47%3A00John+Ziegler

Liberal Bait and Switch

I got a question about these embryos we’re going to destroy in the name of science. Are they white, or black? Hey, it don’t matter to me; they all look the same. But I really don’t want to get into hot water later. What kind of hot water? Well, the kind William Bennett found himself eyeball deep in when he said if “…[Y]ou wanted to reduce crime, you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down.”

Outrage, hysteria, fire and brimstone followed, most of it from Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, who demanded an apology. Never mind the fact that Bennett had clarified, “That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do,” this was a situation that, like slavery, apparently, could only be rectified with an apology. What good would an apology do, anyway? He still said it. It’s not like court, where it can be stricken from the record. And would it really satisfy Reid and Pelosi? Of course not, they just wanted to see a talk radio host begging forgiveness. (more…)

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Tags: affirmative action, embryonic stem cell, Harry Reid, Katie Couric, michael moore
Posted Mar 18th 2009 at 10:22 am in Political Humor | 8224624 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ccannon/2009/03/18/liberal-bait-and-switch/Liberal+Bait+and+Switch2009-03-18+17%3A22%3A25Cam+Cannon

My Real Time With Bill Maher

To view video of Andrew Breitbart on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” taped Friday, March 13, 2009 click here.

This week’s Washington Times column:

Pretty much everyone I respect in media and politics recommended I not go on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.” But on Friday night, I defied that wisdom and had the time of my life.

I sparred with Mr. Maher, Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson and a MoveOn.org audience from hell that booed my sentences before they were completed. Unfortunately, my wife and in-laws, who watched from the green room, were not as enamored with the experience as I was.

Since the salad days of ABC’s “Politically Incorrect,” which minted countless right-wing pundits and best-selling authors, conservatives have rightly assessed the HBO version of the Maher show as R-rated and shockingly hostile to their worldview. So most opt out.

I totally see why. But I think that’s exactly the wrong strategy.

(more…)

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Tags: Bill Maher, Fox News, Georgetown, hbo, john ziegler
Posted Mar 15th 2009 at 4:03 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Featured Story, Media Criticism | 80614204 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abreitbart/2009/03/15/my-real-time-with-bill-maher/My+Real+Time+With+Bill+Maher2009-03-15+23%3A03%3A13Andrew+Breitbart

My Real Time with Brigitte Gabriel

It seems obvious to me that national security is an everybody issue. And apparently, all kinds of people sign up for Act For America’s training seminars – Christians, Jews Hindus Atheists, lesbians, gays, people of all colors and creeds – not just trailer park stereotypes that the ill-informed automatically presume. Brigitte Gabriel is unabashedly gay friendly, feminist friendly, progress friendly, and more socially liberal friendly than her detractors would ever dare to admit – because, as she says herself, “that’s what Western civilization is all about.”

It’s not about calling women second class citizens and feeling supreme above all others. We’ve had enough trouble fighting supremacist movements here in the US already – and now we have a black President to prove the battle is almost over. So why are the Chris Roddas out there trying to malign and marginalize someone who is fighting to prevent another supremacist group – radical Islamists – from asserting their macho supremacy anew? (more…)

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Tags: actforamerica.org, beheading, Bridges TV, Brigitte Gabriel, Chris Rodda
Posted Mar 2nd 2009 at 11:20 am in Uncategorized | 6917445 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/03/02/my-real-time-with-brigitte-gabriel/My+Real+Time+with+Brigitte+Gabriel2009-03-02+19%3A20%3A22Charles+Winecoff

Exclusive Review: Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted

Big Hollywood was given an exclusive first look at John Ziegler’s latest documentary covering the media coverage of the 2008 presidential election.

In journalistic terms it’s called a “tick-tock.” This is when the media crafts a news story that takes you behind the scenes of an event and breaks down, piece by linear piece, the individual acts which led up to that event. With “Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted,” director John Ziegler (”Blocking the Path to 9/11“) turns the art of the tick-tock around and aims it, with damning effect, squarely at the news media.  The result is not a documentary, at least not for anyone who believes in truth, fairness or journalistic integrity – the result is a horror film.

If you expect Ziegler to build his case using easy targets like Keith Olbermann aping David Strathairn playing Edward R. Murrow, think again. Olbermann’s a bit player in this cinematic indictment, a clown. The real conspirators run the gamut of every network (cable and otherwise), and most of the major print and online publications. Maybe it’s not a horror story, after all. Maybe it’s something closer to an Agatha Christie mystery where everyone’s the murderer.

The victim, of course, is American journalism. (more…)

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Tags: Barack Obama, Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Media bias, Media Malpractice
Posted Feb 23rd 2009 at 1:04 am in Featured Story, Media Criticism, Reviews | 57370287 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/02/23/exclusive-review-media-malpractice-how-obama-got-elected-and-palin-was-targeted/Exclusive+Review%3A+Media+Malpractice%3A+How+Obama+Got+Elected+and+Palin+Was+Targeted2009-02-23+09%3A04%3A37John+Nolte

Platitudes are not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things

The other day I was stuck in traffic behind a young woman whose rear bumper sported three popular cries for help: Hope, Free Tibet, and Save the Planet.  Her ass was covered.

For some reason, it made me think of my late grandmother, an English rose with a backbone of steel – what us Americans call a “tough cookie.”  As a young divorcee, she single-handedly raised my mother, and took care of her own mother, through the Great Depression and beyond.

I used to love asking her about all the events she’d seen take place in her lifetime: the rise of the automobile, the night of Orson Welles’s famous War of the Worlds broadcast, the blackouts during WW2, the “Stars Over America” war bond blitz (which even Hollywood nonconformist Bette Davis threw herself into), the arrival of television, and on and on.

As a boy, it seemed to me my grandmother had lived many lives, and seen more sweeping, historical changes than I could ever dream of.  I had missed the boat. (more…)

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Tags: AOL, Blackberry, bumper stickers, change, Che
Posted Feb 2nd 2009 at 10:00 am in Media Criticism, Politics | 3496645 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/02/02/platitudes-are-not-healthy-for-children-and-other-living-things/Platitudes+are+not+Healthy+for+Children+and+Other+Living+Things2009-02-02+18%3A00%3A49Charles+Winecoff