Mad as Hell, and Taking it to the Internet




Essay Questions show

Summary: Liberals and leftists hated Andrew Breitbart in life and cursed him in death. "F*ck him," wrote Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone immediately after Breitbart's death was announced in March 2012. "I couldn’t be happier that he’s dead." But even Taibbi had to concede that Breitbart's public humiliation of then-Senator, not-yet-pariah Anthony Weiner was a triumph of crass showmanship and perverse humor. But how to separate Breitbart the brand from Breitbart the man? Did his rage-fueled drive to build new, online conservative media help open the sewers for the Alt-Right? What would he think, were he still alive, about the site that still bears his name and the ugly trajectory it's followed in the past few years? Joe &amp; Josh explore these questions by looking back at Rebecca Mead's 2010 profile of Breitbart, in which he's revealed as a petty visionary who screams a lot.<br><br>“Rage Machine” by Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 2010<br><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/05/24/rage-machine" rel="noopener">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/05/24/rage-machine</a><br><br>Optional:<br>“Finding Your Inner Gorilla” by Brianna Rennix and Nathan J. Robinson, Current Affairs, 2017<br><a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/01/finding-your-inner-gorilla" rel="noopener">https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/01/finding-your-inner-gorilla</a><br><br>“Alt-White” by Joseph Bernstein, BuzzFeed, 2017<br><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/heres-how-breitbart-and-milo-smuggled-white-nationalism" rel="noopener">https://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/heres-how-breitbart-and-milo-smuggled-white-nationalism</a><br><br>Let us know what you think: <a href="mailto:essayquestionspodcast@gmail.com">essayquestionspodcast@gmail.com</a>