On Media Blog Archives Select Date… December, 2015 November, 2015 October, 2015 September, 2015 August, 2015 July, 2015 June, 2015 May, 2015 April, 2015 March, 2015 February, 2015 January, 2015

Internet publisher Andrew Breitbart dead

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Andrew Breitbart, the outspoken, conservative Internet entrepreneur behind the Brietbart media network, passed away late last night at the age of 43, according to a report by his website.

Joel Pollak, the editor in chief at Breitbart.com, confirmed the news to POLITICO a few minutes before 9:30 a.m. this morning.

"With a terrible feeling of pain and loss we announce the passing of Andrew Breitbart," Larry Solov wrote on Big Hollywood. "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."

Breitbart was also an outspoken right-wing activist and provacateur with a penchant for trouble-making and mischief that riled his opponents on the left.

But to his fans, he was a hero in the fight against government corruption and mainstream media bias, whose work led to the resignations of former representative Anthony Weiner and former Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod.

On Fox News this morning, conservative journalist and Breitbart friend Tucker Carlson described him as "pugnacious."

"He was completely fearless," Carlson said. "And he thrived on the brawling."

On CNN, conservative commentator and friend Erick Erickson said "a supernova has gone dark," and commended Breitbart's work as an early Internet entrepreneur who worked behind the scenes at Drudge Report. "He really would be quite happy being called a conservative activist or blogger," Erickson said, "but he really was one of the great unheralded dot-com entrepreneurs."

Holding back tears, Fox News's Jonah Goldberg described him as “the most fearless guy I ever knew. He truly loved the fight.” At one point, Goldberg grew so emotional that he said, "I probably shouldn't have come on."

Breitbart is survived by his wife and four children. An autopsy is pending.