With O'Keefe arrest, Breitbart develops newfound appreciation for "facts"

Not a good day for Andrew Breitbart.

As his hand-groomed protégé, undercover ACORN video auteur James O'Keefe, sat in a Louisiana police station under arrest for attempting to tamper with a U.S. senator's telephone system, Breitbart's media empire went into lockdown, issuing only a terse statement denying any knowledge of O'Keefe's activities. This morning, however, Breitbart broke the silence, posting a missive to BigGovernment.com announcing that he, Andrew Breitbart, was going to "[w]ait until the facts are in" before "jumping to conclusions" like Media Matters and everyone else in the media.

Imagine that -- Andrew Breitbart chastising the world for passing judgment before the facts are in.

Sort of like when Breitbart used O'Keefe's deceptively edited videos to issue broad condemnations of ACORN's willingness to aid in child prostitution, even though later investigations found that ACORN had done nothing to violate the law or eligibility for federal funding.

Or like when BigGovernment.com attacked the White House for playing host to ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis, only to find out later that it was a different Bertha Lewis.

Or like when Breitbart worked with a private detective who rooted through ACORN's trash, and then told the world that ACORN had conducted a "document dump" in advance of an investigation, even though the "documents" turned out to be mainly fliers and old newsletters.

Or how about when that same private detective, in the course of investigating the "document dump," posted a video on BigGovernment.com of "ACORN operatives clearly engaged in some kind of discussion - likely related to the activities of that evening." Some solid factual grounding there.

And there was the time that BigGovernment.com accused Obama of stealing his own Nobel Prize winnings, even though Obama hasn't received them yet.

And who can forget the "political statements" the Obamas made with their Maoist Christmas tree ornaments? Turns out those were decorated by local community groups, and the image of Mao on one of the ornaments was actually a reprint of Andy Warhol's paintings mocking the Chinese dictator.

Oh, and the time that Breitbart posted a video claiming that a group of community organizers were "praying" to Obama, and later had to walk it back because he didn't have any -- what's the word I'm looking for... ah yes, facts.

So by all means, Andrew, wait as long as you like before commenting on the alleged illegal activities of your employee and star pupil. Both you and he are still entitled to a fair hearing of the facts, even if you rarely extend that courtesy to others.