Former Drudge Report Editor Andrew Breitbart Has Died

Andrew Breitbart, a former editor of Drudge Report who also helped launch The Huffington Post, has died.

Breitbart's website, Big Government, announced the news Thursday morning.

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"With a terrible feeling of pain and loss we announce the passing of Andrew Breitbart," the report reads. "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. 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."

Breitbart was 43 years old.

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Joel Pollak, editor-in-chief and in-house counsel at Breitbart.com, confirmed the report to Mashable: "Sadly, it is not a hoax."

According to Cnet, Breitbart was working for E Entertainment Television in 1995, when he emailed Matt Drudge professing his admiration for The Drudge Report. "In the e-mail I said, 'Are you 50 people? A hundred people? Is there a building?'" Breitbart told CNet in 2005, noting that Drudge ran the site by himself at the time. "I thought what he was doing was by far the coolest thing on the Internet. And I still do."

Drudge hired Breitbart as a paid assistant after that and Breitbart parlayed that association into the launch of Breitbart.com. Breitbart launched a bunch of other websites as well, including BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, BigJournalism.com and BigPeace.com.

Despite his reputation as a right-wing firebrand, Breitbart also helped create the leftish Huffington Post. That association came after Drudge introduced Breitbart to Arianna Huffington, who was a Republican at the time. Breitbart was also known for breaking news of the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal in 2011.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Gage Skidmore

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source & Image : Yahoo