Attention, media outlets: Breitbart's sloppy and dishonest work will burn you

There's no reason to trust Andrew Breitbart's work. It's a simple statement, but it bears repeating: There is no reason to trust Andrew Breitbart's work. It would be in the best interests of outlets like ABC (which plans to have Breitbart participate in its coverage of election night) or Fox to take heed of this.

This is particularly relevant in light of the audio recently promoted by Breitbart's websites claiming that a CBS affiliate in Alaska conspired against Senate candidate Joe Miller, a charge disputed by the station, which calls the conspiracy charge “absurd.”

Breitbart's site was the source of the deceptively edited video of USDA employee Shirley Sherrod -- morphing comments Sherrod had made attacking racism into a defense of them. The video showed Sherrod detailing her own change of heart as she first didn't do all she could to assist a white farmer, then realized she “needed to work to help poor people” regardless of skin color. The edited video promoted by Breitbart excluded the change of heart and led to her firing and then an apology from the agency.

Before that, Breitbart's site Big Government made a name for itself as the home of James O'Keefe's anti-ACORN videos that purported to show the organization involved in criminal wrongdoing. Those videos were later described as “severely edited” by the California attorney general's office. O'Keefe went on to attempt a bizarre seduction “prank” on a CNN reporter and was arrested for entering the offices of a U.S. senator under false pretenses.

Time and again we've seen sloppy, deceptive work products from Breitbart's operation. Before they run with him, news organizations should look at his track record and the likelihood of falsified or deceptive information coming from his team.