Earlier this month, as Fred Thompson was continuing to effectively tease us with his web work — part of his totally new-media, budding presidential campaign – Andrew Breitbart got in on the action. Fred Thompson was Breitbart.tv’s launch when the former Tennessee senator submitted to a video interview with veteran TV journalist Scott Baker.
No doubt Andrew Breitbart went with Thompson for the good of the country — but also for the perfect beginning to his latest endeavor. Already the publisher of the news-and-opinion resource Breitbart.com and a longtime web mover (as one of the creative geniuses behind what the Drudge Report looks like when you check in at all hours, for instance), Andrew Breitbart continues, with the introduction of Breitbart.tv, to take advantage of all the multimedia options the world wide web makes available to everyone with a computer and a connection.
And so, knowing his last NRO Q&A was a classic for the history books, NRO Editor Kathryn Lopez went back for seconds, querying Breitbart about this new new-media opportunity he’s latched onto.
Kathryn Jean Lopez: So dude, when do you start making campaign commercials for Fred Thompson? Breitbart TV looks a little like Fred TV so far.
Andrew Breitbart: We were roommates in college.
Lopez: Uh-huh.
What is the excitement about Fred about, do you think?
Breitbart: People want a cinematic presence in their lives to rouse them from our post 9/11 paralysis and division. They want someone who can speak around the mainstream media and to motivate us to be one again. Like Reagan.
Lopez: Are there any more Fred Thompson types out there in Hollywood? Will they ever drown out the political sound of Laurie Davids of the Left Coast?
Breitbart: Our mutual friend Allen Covert is the only Reaganesque figure waiting in the wings in Hollywood. I go to his IMDB page twice a day for inspiration. That he sees the genius in Nick Swardson is reason enough to elect him to the highest office in the land.
Laurie David recently wrote about how the devastating tornado in Greensburg, Kansas was a direct result of global warming. I hope she soon reviews The Wizard of Oz at the HuffPo.
Lopez: Sounds like a job for Greg Gutfeld if Greg Gutfeld weren’t so busy being a late-night TV phenom.
Speaking of TV: What are your goals for breitbart.com and breitbart.tv?
Breitbart: I would like for them to grow up to attend Ivy League universities and then become active in the community. And if they are gay, I will love them just the same. But I hear that is a tough life.
Lopez: Is there any long-term money in any of this web stuff?
Breitbart: As long as one doesn’t walk into bad deals with former web porn barons infiltrating the conservative political world by concealing their lurid and litigious past and conspicuously laundering their ill-gotten millions through straight causes, one can make a steady and respectable living online.
Lopez: Good luck with that.
Is it true you’re stealing away one of the stars of Grey’s Anatomy for the real spinoff on Breitbart TV?
Breitbart: You and I need to make a pact to get away from our work stations every now and then. Deal?
Lopez: What’s the use in pretending?
What do you think of the Politico? Will we see more or less start-ups like that in the future?
Breitbart: I think a lot of Politico. It felt pro from the word go. It reads like it doesn’t have a partisan bone to pick. Not many straight journalism sites can make those two claims.
Lopez: The Left or the Right? Who uses the web more successfully?
Breitbart: The Left successfully uses the Internet by transforming its successful real-world activism trait of the latter 20th century into net-roots action. They use the power of the Internet to get people to act, to protest, to brandish bumper stickers o the back of their cars, to spam e-mail servers, etc. The right is successful in that everyone reads Mark Steyn.
Lopez: Does anything surprise you about Katie Couric’s ratings (or lack thereof)?
Breitbart: I’m guilty of underestimating the intelligence and sense of fair play of the American people.
Lopez: You and your wife Susie were good friends of the late Cathy Seipp, who wrote a “Left Coast” column for NRO. What should be remembered most about her? What would she want the rest of us still left opining to always have in mind?
Breitbart: Just because Cathy was my friend doesn’t mean I was ever at ease with her. She was a biting critic not just in the public realm and of her media and political enemies but also privately and of her friends. I loved this about her. She didn’t kiss anyone’s buttocks. And she was almost always right.
Lopez: Who did you name your youngest after and why?
Breitbart: William Buckley Breitbart, named after the great shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Old Negro Leagues, of course.
Lopez: Of course.
When will your fans have their sequel to Hollywood Interrupted? Or did you sufficiently interrupt Hollywood already?
Breitbart: Nonfiction is overrated these days. There’s so much non-stop information being produced on the Internet by so many pundits — paid and of the homespun blogger variety — that to rehash in a book that which is already put into its proper context — in this case, that Hollywood continues to jump the shark — seems redundant.
Authors should only write when they have something original to say — or when a publisher overpays them.
Lopez: Hey, we writing types are always for overpaying writers! See ya around the web.