May 23, 2012 5:46 AM

Today's coffee-spew moment: the promotion of hatred and propaganda deserves a Breitbart Award

Two conservative organizations, the Heritage Foundation and the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, have announced they will offer awards to commemorate Andrew Breitbart, the controversial media entrepreneur who died suddenly in March. The awards, according to the Web site, “seek to ensure that [Breitbart’s] legacy is honored and that the movement he spawned continues on with the army of citizen activists that he cultivated and inspired.”…. According to Heritage and Franklin, nominees for the awards should be “driven by an indomitable pursuit for truth and accountability” and “advanc[e] those causes on behalf of the public good.”

Sometimes, when I feel the need to engage in a measure of self-delusion, I convince myself that there was a time when Truth wasn’t a fungible commodity and Reality was both immutable and unalterable. Then I wake up and remember where I am and the time I live in…and I recall that Truth and Reality have always depended upon the eye of the beholder.

With the death of rageaholic/propagandist Andrew Breitbart in March, his followers have worked to accord him something resembling sainthood, as if St. Andrew of Bretibart was a truth-seeker who wanted nothing more than to see America achieve its full (White, Conservative, Straight, and Christian) potential. That the man was a hateful gasbag with a soul as black as night seems to have been conveniently forgotten by those who now seek to beatify him.

The idea of creating an award to honor those who further Breitbart’s “indomitable pursuit for truth and accountability” is as laughable as it is indicative of the state of public discourse in this country. As he demonstrated so ably in one memorable online exchange with me two months prior to his death, Breitbart was as much about truth and accountability as I am about the Green Bay Packers. If personal insults, character assassination, and specious attempts at personal destruction are hallmarks of a search for truth and accountability, then I’m quite happy living what Breitbart and his acolytes would no doubt call a lie.

The Breitbart Propaganda In The Service Of Personal Destruction And Conservative Rule Awards will be given in the following categories:

Full-time Reporter: In a media environment that tells reporters to go along to get along, a few still consider it a sacred trust to keep the people informed. A few still recognize the awesome responsibility in belonging to the only profession to be enshrined in the Bill of Rights. We’ll present one Breitbart Award to a full-time news reporter to honor courage and honesty in telling the real stories that matter to people’s lives.

Blogger: When the legacy media fails to do its job, we are fortunate to have an army waiting on the Internet to hold the institutions of power accountable. We’ll honor a blogger for intrepid reporting that goes over the heads of the legacy media to communicate directly to the people.

Citizen: The fight for freedom requires a constant stream of new recruits willing to make time in their lives to serve as watchdogs in their local communities. We’ll honor an information activist committed to digging up the truth.

I find it fascinating how words like “truth” and “freedom” can be twisted to mean something that supports the creation and dominance of a Conservative White Christian America. For some, words are merely tools to be used to further their own ends.

I’m proud to have earned Breitbart’s enmity. While I’m saddened for his family’s loss (even Andrew Breitbart had people in his life who loved him), it’s not a stretch to say that this country is a better and more civil place for his absence…not that there aren’t many out there ready, willing, and beyond able to carry on with his work. Sowing hatred, propaganda, and disinformation was Breitbart’s specialty, and he should be remembered in the same breath with people like Lee Atwater and Josef Goebbels. His smug arrogance shouldn’t be missed, but it undoubtedly is by those who see him as worthy of sainthood.

As for me, I’m going to nominate Pamela Geller for spewing hatred, vitriol, racist propaganda, and irrational character assassination above and beyond the call of duty. After all, the only true indication of patriotism is the degree to which one irrationally despises all things Islam, right?

Simply put, the Breitbart Awards are for those who spend far too much time feeding the bad wolf.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on May 23, 2012 5:46 AM.

Conclusive proof the 47% of all statistics are made up on the spot was the previous entry in this blog.

Time for me to move into a growth industry in post-9.11 America is the next entry in this blog.

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