Add Politico and The Daily Kos to organizations conceding that Breitbart News is reporting stories they refuse to cover. In an article describing the violent pro-union demonstrations in Michigan on Tuesday, in which protesters rallied against Michigan's historic right-to-work legislation, Politico promptly finished the piece with two paragraphs that served to dismiss everything that was written leading up to that point, quoting a poster on the liberal website The Daily Kos lamenting about the "Fox News-Breitbart" crowd.
"But some on the left are saying the reports are overly exaggerated," Politico writes at the end of the article.
Politico then quotes a Daily Kos poster who opines that "the Fox News-Breitbart crowd is trying to make it look like Tuesday’s protests in Michigan were wildly violent" and that "reports of violence from police and non-Fox-Breitbart reporters are minimal to non-existent.”
Breitbart News reporter Lee Stranahan documented on video a union mob destroying the Americans For Prosperity tent with people still inside of it, and pro-union protestors shouting down Tea Partiers and assaulting conservative Fox News contributor Steven Crowder by sucker-punching him in the face.
And contrary to what Politico and The Daily Kos would like to have their readers believe, even mainstream media outlets like CNBC acknowledged that "protesters tore down two tents set up for supporters of right-to-work on the grounds of the Capitol, and state police said two people were arrested after scuffling with officers." UPI reported that AFL-CIO rep Eddie Vale "distanced the pro-union supporters from the particular group that tore down the tent."
And The Detroit Free Press wrote:
It was a crowd that at one point tore down a tent being occupied by Americans for Prosperity, a pro right-to-work group. Love said troopers went onto the lawn as the tent came down and a couple of people said “they just escaped in the nick of time without being trapped under the tent when it collapsed.”
As they tore down the tent, protesters yelled "Tear it down, tear it down."
But Breitbart News reported on these events more thoroughly than the mainstream media and connected the dots outlets like Politico never would. Just as Fox News grew exponentially because it covered the news on cable television that the mainstream media often ignored or did not even see, Breitbart News has experienced tremendous growth online by doing the same.
And on Monday, the left-wing, George Soros-funded organization Media Matters acknowledged Breitbart News' explosive growth and expanding influence:
[I]n at least one month this fall Breitbart.com passed its rivals to take the lead as the highest trafficked right-wing news site …. Breitbart.com was an important piece of the right-wing media bubble that kept conservatives blissfully unaware of major events during the 2012 election and focused on flawed efforts to "vet" President Obama.
Media Matters also criticized Breitbart News for hiring investigative reporters Matthew Boyle and Kerry Picket, because they were, essentially, too conservative and investigated those in power too aggressively, thoroughly, and relentlessly – in Media Matters' opinion.
Big Journalism
