Exactly one year ago today, Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY 9) announced he would resign from his seat amid a roiling sex scandal which started, of all places, on the social network Twitter.
Ten days prior, Andrew Breitbart appeared at a press conference where Weiner first fessed up to sending the pictures himself and admitted his account wasn’t hacked. The rest of the press called him up on stage while waiting for the randy Rep. Breitbart cut through rumors and allegations about his role and motivations in the story, demanding vindication for his reporting:
Breitbart, after hearing Weiner’s resignation during a radio interview, called the entire scandal a “collective performance art moment,” remarking how incredibly weird the coverage became simply because Weiner continued to lie–including a previous press conference for a former porn star curated by none other than Gloria Allred.
The Anthony Weiner episode was one of Andrew Breitbart’s greatest victories, though not because his reportage and public pressure led a Congressman to resign. For even though Weiner’s seat was taken by a Republican in blue New York, the bigger target for Andrew was culture. The entrenched media tried to bury this story–first by ignoring it, second by taking Weiner at his word, then by smearing Breitbart and his editorial team.
And Andrew won. An independent Los Angeles-based web editor scooped the national media, with its (comparatively) unlimited resources, and withstood their bile and mockery. Something in the balance of power changed forever when they called him to the same stage Weiner would soon occupy. Even though they hated him and would never accept him, the mainstream press could not silence him, and they had to treat him as an equal when his report was proven true beyond a doubt.
And in that hard-won victory, he had more fun than anyone.