In between childish Twitter fits and chasing down Maoist Christmas tree ornaments, Andrew Breitbart somehow found the time to launch the third of his “Big” websites, introducing to us all this morning BigJournalism.com. Breitbart himself authored the introductory post, offering a maudlin retelling of a telephone conversation he had with Bertha Lewis of ACORN, and in the process explaining how Andrew Breitbart's BigJournalism.com will be a celebration of how great and courageous a journalist Andrew Breitbart thinks he is:
I couldn't believe I was having this conversation. It felt like a scene from a movie that conveniently ties plot points together when two critical characters in the storyline share a moment of implausible significance - where the intrepid reporter finally runs his target to ground.
[...]
Challenging the party line now is akin to showing one's John Birch Society membership card. It's a form of intimidation that creates timidity in those not ideologically in line, and grants free rein for leftists to use establishment journalism as a cudgel with which to beat their ideological opponents. In one year there have been too many administration lies and too many media cover-ups and passes to treat the future as anything but a hostile environment.
[...]
I'm skeptical and biased - and I think it's what makes me good at what I do. No journalism symposium can convince me otherwise.
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Throughout the ACORN story I applied my conscience to the material. Strategy and tactics were built around my understanding that the mainstream media would be the enemy of the truth, and that we would have to go to extreme measures to get the American people to see and to contemplate what was on the shocking and historic O'Keefe and Giles tapes.
Fittingly, much of Breitbart's post is devoted to the fact that he posted a correction to the BigGovernment.com story falsely claiming that Bertha Lewis was the “Bertha E. Lewis” who showed up in White House records as a visitor to the executive mansion. According to Breitbart: “This week I issued my first correction, even though I wasn't proved wrong. I just couldn't prove I was right. I can live with that rule.” There are three things to point out here: First, he was proven wrong. Bertha Lewis of ACORN bears the middle initial “M”. Second, it may have been the first correction he issued, but it certainly wasn't the first time a correction was needed. Third, saying you ran a correction even though you didn't think you had to doesn't make you a good journalist, it shows that you pay lip service to journalistic standards about which you don't really care.
And, of course, it wouldn't be a Breitbart dispatch without a little ridiculous self-contradiction. After recounting how Bertha Lewis denied visiting the White House, Breitbart wrote:
I respected her for staying on the phone when she had no reason not to hang up. I even believed her when she claimed she wasn't Obama's personal guest in their White House residence even though in the last four months Bertha Lewis rarely uttered a statement in public that wasn't a provable lie.
A few paragraphs later:
Back to the weird phone conversation: “I issued a correction on my site clarifying that I couldn't prove whether you were at the White House or not.”
“That's good,” she said.
But I don't really believe it wasn't her.
Breitbart headlined his post with a purported quote from his conversation with Bertha Lewis, in which she called him “a Bad, Bad, Bad Journalist.” He clearly intended to use it ironically, even though by his own words he showed it to be true.
UPDATE: Breitbart demonstrates BigJournalism.com's commitment to quality journalism with a 2,200-word piece written from the perspective of Bo, the White House dog.