Andrew Breitbart, the conservative media publisher, pundit and activist who published undercover video shot at a San Diego-chapter of ACORN in 2009, has died at age 43.
Breitbart's media sites trumpeted controversial investigations that led to the resignations of former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner and former Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod.
A message posted on Breitbart.tv announced Breitbart’s death “with a terrible feeling of pain and loss,” saying that he died of natural causes shortly after midnight in Los Angeles.
Breitbart was walking near his home in Brentwood, Calif just after midnight Thursday when he collapsed according to his father-in-law Orson Bean. Someone saw Breitbart fall and called 911. Emergency crews tried to revive him and rushed him to the emergency room at UCLA Medical Center, Bean said.
He is survived by his wife Susannah Bean Breitbart, 41, and four children.
Breitbart published undercover video clips recorded at a San Diego-chapter of Association of Community Organizations for Reform (ACORN). In the videos, ACORN employees were shown giving advice to conservative activists posing as a prostitute and a pimp.
As a result, Congress sought to cut the group’s sources of federal money and the U.S. Census Bureau and the Internal Revenue Service ended partnerships with ACORN.
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ACORN then filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit seeks damages from James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, who played the pimp and prostitute in the videos, and from Breitbart who posted the videos on his website.
