Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012) was an American conservative publisher, blogger, and media entrepreneur associated with the Drudge Report, HuffPost, and the network of conservative sites that became Breitbart News.[1] ABC News described him at his death as a conservative Internet publisher who had helped launch HuffPost, worked as an editor at the Drudge Report, and founded sites including Breitbart.com, Breitbart.tv, Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism, and Big Peace.[2]
Relationship to Ben Shapiro
Ben Shapiro has described Breitbart as a friend and early patron in conservative media. In a March 2012 Creators Syndicate column published after Breitbart's death, Shapiro wrote that he had "recently become editor-at-large" of Breitbart's websites and said that he first met Breitbart in 2001, while Shapiro was a UCLA student columnist.[3] Encyclopaedia Britannica similarly summarizes Shapiro's move into Breitbart News as following from columns that drew Breitbart's attention and notes that Shapiro became an editor at large there in 2012.[4]
Breitbart's death also shaped later disputes over the direction of Breitbart News. In March 2016, Shapiro and reporter Michelle Fields resigned from Breitbart News after a dispute over the site's handling of Fields's allegation that Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski had grabbed her at a campaign event.[5] Contemporary coverage reported that Shapiro criticized Breitbart News leadership in terms of Andrew Breitbart's legacy, reflecting a broader disagreement inside conservative media over Trump-era politics and institutional independence.[6]