Big Dodge: Breitbart Again Ducks Responsibility For His Own Website

 by Oliver Willis/media Matters

Andrew Breitbart has once again ducked responsibility for a story published on one of his own websites.

In March 2011, Jason Bradley, wrote a blog post on Big Peace titled "Terror Babies': A Growing National Security Threat." In his story Bradley promoted a conspiracy theory called "ludicrous" by one expert that pregnant terrorists are coming to America to have babies.

In an interview that aired on today's edition of Univision's Al Punto, host Jorge Ramos challenged Breitbart on the post, asking Breitbart whether he shared Bradley's position. In response, Breitbart said, "I didn't even read that article" and "I've never read that, I've never heard that and I'd have to see the context of that to give you an opinion. I would never call people that are born in this country who are from Mexico terror babies."

JORGE RAMOS (HOST): In one of your websites, in "Big Peace," there was an article written by Jason Bradley titled "Terror Babies: A Growing National Security Threat." Do you share Mr. Bradley's point of view?

ANDREW BREITBART: I didn't even read that article but I can tell you this, I created the Huffington Post in the United States of America which is a left of center blog. I created my blogs which are mostly right of center and I believe in open debate in our society. That's why I believe so strongly in the first amendment, so I don't know the specifics of that article, had I known going into this interview, I would've read it and we could have talked about the specifics.

RAMOS: Well the specifics is that Mr. Bradley's view is that children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants are terror babies.

BREITBART: I've never read that, I've never heard that and I'd have to see the context of that to give you an opinion. I would never call people that are born in this country who are from Mexico terror babies.

The full masthead of Big Peace says, "Andrew Breitbart Presents Big Peace." This isn't a website he's just loosely affiliated with, but one which is directly tied to him.

The masthead of his website notwithstanding, this isn't the first time Breitbart has claimed ignorance when challenged about things related to his website.

When Media Matters detailed the conspiracy theories of Big Hollywood/Big Peace/Big Government contributor Michael Moriarty -- including his belief that the September 11 and Oklahoma City attacks were the work of the U.S. government -- Breitbart claimed, "I didn't know that when he first started writing, but he does not have a platform to put that on my site."

Last year, Media Matters detailed the work of then-Big Government contributor Kevin Pezzi, who used racial epithets in his postings there while also peddling a cure for cancer and sexual inventions on his website. Soon after, Big Government pulled Pezzi's work and said, "Since publishing the articles, we have been made aware of other writings from this author which do not reflect the principles and values of this site. Because of this, we have removed the articles from Big Government. While we stand by the information contained in the articles we published, we do not wish to see the underlying issue confused or diminished by other work the author has done." Big Government never mentioned Pezzi by name.

When confronted with Pezzi's record by MSNBC's Martin Bashir in April, Breitbart stated that Pezzi had submitted a piece to one of his sites for publication, but "the second we found out about him, we got rid of him."

Each Breitbart site notes that "Andrew Breitbart presents" them, but when pressed to take responsibility for what he publishes, Breitbart acts as if he has no control. But his name is above everyone else's.