Category Archives: Citizen Journalism

January 30, 2013

Breitbart News to Launch ‘The Conversation’

When we first sat down to redesign the website, The Conversation was always a central part of Andrew Breitbart’s vision. He loved dialogue and the free flow of ideas. He loved conversation and was a always a fierce proponent of more voices, not fewer—so don’t be surprised to read some alternative political views.

Note from Senior Management:

On Wednesday of this week, Breitbart News will be launching a new feature/vertical on our website called “The Conversation.” Look for it in the navigation bar.

The Conversation will be a place where our readers can watch an ongoing dialogue amongst a select group of thought leaders that includes Ace of Spades, Iowahawk, David Webb, Javier Manjarres of Shark Tank, DocZero, Nice Deb, Jerome Hudson, Lisa De Pasquale, William A. Jacobson of Legal Insurrection, and Adam Baldwin, along with John Nolte, Ben Shapiro, Larry O’Connor, Sonnie Johnson, Liberty Chick, Jon David Kahn, as well as other writers and contributors from Breitbart News.

Also, look for regular guest contributors stopping by—there are sure to be some nice surprises, and we fully expect the roster to expand and evolve—incorporating more friends and more leading voices from inside and outside the company.

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January 25, 2013

Video: Andrew Breitbart at CPAC 2011

“I don’t know why I decided to make my career trying to destroy the institutional left, I thought that it would be a fun thing to do and that it would look good on my resume.” Andrew Breitbart


December 23, 2012

Full Disclosure: Ct. State Police Threatening To Arrest Independent Journalists? (Video)

Ben Swann takes a look at claims that the Ct. State Police are planning to arrest members of the alternative media who report the events at Sandy Hook Elementary beyond the official story.


December 19, 2012

Video: Hollywood Bigotry! (John Stewart Busted) by Steven Crowder

Steven Crowder: “The big criticism of Conservatives is that, ‘well, you’re just whining, this isn’t really true, there is no anti-Conservative bias or bigotry, really.’ What do you say to that?” Ben Shapiro: “It’s utter crap. There’s some talk in town about us filing a class-action lawsuit against some of the studios and networks because of this. I have people on tape admitting that there’s discrimination in the business and that they’re actually happy that there’s discrimination in the business.”


December 16, 2012

Kenya: Citizen Journalists Give a New Face to Nairobi’s Slums

Through journalism, residents of Nairobi’s slums are taking it upon themselves to highlight injustices and create a balanced image of slum life.

Newspaper editor Vincent Achuka was behind schedule. The November issue of his Ghetto Mirror newspaper had arrived a week late from the printer, and he had an hour to finalise story assignments for the next. Then, he and his reporters had to distribute hundreds of papers by hand across Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum.

It was a typical Saturday morning in the life of a slum journalist.

Achuka’s Ghetto Mirror, one of Kibera’s most widely-read newspapers, is part of a community media movement in Nairobi’s slums. Armed with camera phones and flip video-cameras, young slum journalists churn out printed broadsheets and YouTube videos. They aim to give voice to marginalised communities and fight negative stereotypes of slums. Despite police harassment and little formal training, the reporters have become essential local news sources.

“We have only two weeks,” Achuka tells his reporters as he gives out assignments. “Let’s end the year on a good note.”

Modest beginnings

Achuka took over the Mirror in August 2011. In October 2012, the two-year-old paper increased circulation from 1000 to 2500 copies, changing its name from the Kibera Mirror to the Ghetto Mirror after it expanded to cover more slums. Apart from Achuka, who has a degree in public relations and mass communication, the mirror’s 22 reporters are from the slums and learned on the job. They do all the writing, photography and layout.

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December 12, 2012

Look Out, Baddies, YouTube Neighborhood Watch Has Its Eye on You

The amateur videos may not have the stellar production values of Cops. Then again, in some of these clips, it’s the cops themselves getting busted.

Back in the day, vigilantes dressed up in military-style berets and patrolled the streets of gritty neighborhoods. Now they walk the beat with video cameras and post the results on YouTube. These new citizen watchdogs use the video-sharing site to expose crimes that cops can’t or won’t police. Some call them heroes for documenting wrongdoing. Others see them as unaccountable nut jobs. Either way, their clips are attracting loads of traffic — up to 90,000 views a month — and in some cases actually helping to nab crooks. The amateur videos may not have the stellar production values of Cops. Then again, in some of these clips, it’s the cops themselves getting busted.

Video Vigilante
City Oklahoma City
Beat Antiprostitution activist Brian Bates, founder of JohnTV.com, stakes out hooker hot spots, tapes men picking up streetwalkers, then films the couples getting busy. Recently he used fan donations to purchase a projector and screen, which he uses to shame johns with public outdoor screenings.
Most viewed video “Man Picks Up Hooker and Has Sex in Public Park”
See the evidence youtube.com/user/videovigilanteokc

Lake Street Lookout
City Chicago
Beat Since 2005, Kathy Kozan has been taping street violence in the Chicago nightclub district where she lives. In August, she captured a murder outside a venue that had been the scene of several of the area’s worst fights. Police have yet to arrest the killer, but Kozan’s video helped get the club shut down.
Most viewed video “More Nightclub Street Fights Chicago”
See the evidence youtube.com/user/lakestreetlookout

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December 5, 2012

Immortality: Andrew Breitbart’s 5 Gifts to Generation Y Conservatism (Videos)

With Breitbart’s rise, a new generation began to shift culture war to something else. Not Christian morality vs secularist hedonism, but universal American values vs cultural Marxism.

Greg Gutfeld on his friend Andrew Breitbart:

My wife called him the wizard, for he could conjure up anything at any time with limitless energy.

As an enthusiast for pop culture’s fruits, perhaps Big Hollywood’s founder would allow a Harry Potter reference to describe the impact he left on American political culture and the lives of those who knew him.

During the final years of his life Breitbart transformed into the Bad Guy, a political assassin in the vast right-wing conspiracy who could fire lightning bolts to sizzle political careers and collapse Marxist organizations. He became the dark lord Voldemort, the great Boogeyman masterminding the Tea Party New Media Revolution.

And as with the horcrux relics of J.K. Rowling’s fantasy, Breitbart planted pieces of his soul everywhere. Now that he’s gone his spirit will exert greater influence. His seeds will continue to grow and everyone will see his touch from beyond the grave.

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December 4, 2012

Barricade suspect live-streams police negotiating his surrender for arrest

“Every individual around the country is now an instant broadcast station,” said Robert J. Louden, a retired commander of the New York Police Department’s tactical division and a criminal justice professor at Georgian Court University in New Jersey.


(Screen grab from Twitter) – Frank James MacArthur describes himself as an independent urban combat correspondent and journalist contributor on his @BaltoSpectator Twitter page.

He calls himself an “urban combat correspondent”: He hops from one Baltimore crime scene to another in a beat-up taxi, using a blog and social media to discuss crime and police misconduct that he claims the mainstream media ignore.

Lately, he had complained that the cops were out to get him, and threatened on Twitter to kill any who tried. Over the weekend, they did come for him, serving an arrest warrant on a probation violation connected to an old gun conviction. As promised, Frank James MacArthur did not go quietly.

As heavily armed tactical officers massed outside his North Baltimore home Saturday night, MacArthur streamed his hours-long telephone conversation with police negotiator Lt. Jason Yerg live over the Internet.

It’s unclear how many people listened in, but the five-hour standoff nevertheless marked an apparently unprecedented development in the interaction of social media, digital technology and law enforcement, who are still adjusting to a world in which their actions are constantly photographed, videotaped and debated online.

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Why I’m Enlisting in Andrew Breitbart’s War by Matthew Boyle

“I’m going to put it all on the line because we need to stop these people. And the way to do it is to expose them for what they really are – and catch them in the act. That’s why I’m enlisting in Andrew Breitbart’s army.”

I’m enlisting to fight in Andrew Breitbart’s war.

The political class in Washington has degraded America. Republicans and Democrats blame each other, and nothing gets done. The media exacerbates the problem, fans the flames and encourages false notions of “civility” and “objectivity” while pushing “bipartisanship” that doesn’t actually solve problems.

While this charade perpetuates indefinitely, America grows weaker. She’s digging herself deeper into debt and isn’t even searching for solutions to her problems. Entitlements and government overspending gets worse every day while laws go unenforced and Americans are murdered in terrorist attacks. Nobody in Washington seems to care.

The institutional left thrives in this declining environment. Record numbers of people are on the government dole instead of being excited to work and succeed. So-called “social justice” is implemented in place of real justice. Kids across the country are fed “Occupy” propaganda in school after their teachers take away their home-made lunches in place of “cafeteria nuggets.”

Many political consultants and career politicians on both the left and the right think this is a game. It’s not.

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December 3, 2012

Journalism: The Most Trusted Scam In America (Video)

From Stalin to Obama, the mainstream media’s history of bias leaves us asking: Who can handle the truth? Andrew Breitbart’s newest venture, Big Journalism, arrives just in time — as Bill Whittle explains in this edition of Afterburner.