Conservative Andrew Breitbart, a man who helped bring down a New York representative and start one of the world’s most visited media websites, has died—and Twitter is buzzing with conspiracy theories.
Breitbart, 43, was known as a Web and political junkie, helping Arianna Huffington start The Huffington Post in 2005 and his own media network shortly after that.
“Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles. We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior,” said a statement on his website. “Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.”
But nearly all of Breitbart’s accomplishments were overshadowed by a string of controversies, including his involvement with undercover videos taken at the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in 2009 and the resignation of the Department of Agriculture’s Shirley Sherrod in 2010, after Breitbart released videos of her edited out of context.
But probably his most notable controversy happened in May 2011, when Breitbart released a sexually explicit photo of Rep. Anthony Weiner found on the representative’s Twitter account. The scandal eventually led to Weiner resigning from his seat on June 21, 2011.
On Twitter the masses have been unkind to the late media pioneer, where he has been a top trending topic all morning. While conservatives like Newt Gingrich tweeted Breitbart’s praises, the rest of the Twitterverse said “good riddance.”
Blogger Max Read has been busy retweeting conspiracy theories behind Breitbart’s death.
“I suspect Andrew Breitbart died of natural causes induced by a side effect of cyanide poisoning,” tweeted @milorgamike.
“I believe Breitbart was murdered,” tweeted @susiegirl34. “I am glad we all meet our maker. The people responsible for this will have to own up.
“Does anyone else think this was foul play?” tweeted @sarahcgoldstein. “Did obama send his chicago goons to murder breitbart?”
Apparently, even in death, Breitbart still can rile people up.
Photo by Gage Skidmore