Mike Flynn, the founding editor of Big Government, passed away last night and the news is just awful.
Flynn was a great friend of mine and was my first editor when I came to Breitbart News Network almost four years ago. We’ve worked together on so many different narratives over the years, and he has been a crucial part of the team since Andrew Breitbart launched Big Government and the network of sites that eventually became Breitbart.com.
When I first started at Breitbart News back in late 2012, and over the course of 2013 as the Congress debated the amnesty bill, Flynn and I worked hand in hand in exposing it. We wrote scores of stories together, as the rest of the media watched it sail through the U.S. Senate or, even worse, cheered it along with inaccuracies. Flynn, ever the happy fighter in the mold of Andrew, and I joined together with a handful of others here at Breitbart and a few outside allies to expose the Gang of Eight bill for what it was.
During that time, we developed a special trust—and almost a method of journalism undeveloped by a mainstream media that falsely believes in the failed and impossible notion of objectivity. Using reporting skills, and the platform that he helped Andrew create, we were able to expose those in government engaged in dishonesty and deceit of the hardworking Americans who read our site. Flynn worked overtime with me and others here on so many different stories, from revelations about Clinton Cash and the Bob Menendez scandal to coverage of the 2016 election and more.
In fact, Flynn had a special understanding of how important our readers are: He taught me and others here that it’s the reader whom we are writing for, not the other way around — an important point I have never forgotten. Flynn was a grassroots soldier and never forgot, in all the years he had been battling the Washington political machine in both parties, who he was here to represent: You, the reader, the average American working hard to feed your family.
He was a great warrior in the spirit of Andrew Breitbart and it’s no wonder why Andrew considered him such a close friend. I do too, and he is sorely missed.