Andrew Breitbart: Always a losing bet

Recently, Andrew Breitbart Twittered a $1,000 bet challenging Media Matters and senior fellow Eric Boehlert for proof that Bertha E. Lewis -- whose name recently appeared on a White House guest list -- was not ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis. Breitbart's challenge followed his begrudging semi-correction acknowledging that a White House official reportedly told Politico's Ben Smith that it was, in fact, a different Bertha Lewis.

The basis of Breitbart's steadfast defense of his thoroughly debunked "scoop" appears to be that, but for the word of the White House, there is no evidence to suggest it was not the Bertha Lewis visiting the White House. (As Media Matters' Matt Gertz noted, more than 1,000 individuals with that name appear in a whitepages.com search, and to reiterate, it strains the imagination to see why it would be troubling for the CEO of ACORN to meet with White House officials.)

What Breitbart ignores in his embarrassing effort to salvage the story is -- as Ben Smith explained in initially debunking Breitbart's breaking news -- the women do not, in fact, share the same name:

One clue: The ACORN official's middle initial, according to her New York voter registration record on Nexis, is "M." An ACORN spokesman says her middle name is "Mae."