The Washington Times interview of Andrew Breitbart of Breitbart.com and Breitbart.tv has some very interesting Q&A about the Internet as it impacts media and politics. Don't miss it.
Q: OK, so you're a one-man operation?
A: Well, let's just say I contract out services. I don't have the technical prowess to put this stuff together, so I have tech partners, I have content partners, but Breitbart.com is my own offering.
And Breitbart.tv is a partnership that I have with Scott Baker and Liz Stephans, and they're going to be anchors and reporters for the site, in addition to being a video and audio news aggregation site.
We launched with an interview with [former Tennessee Sen.] Fred Thompson the day after the first [Republican presidential] debate at the Reagan Library. Scott Baker had the only on-air, on-camera, exclusive interview with Fred Thompson, when many thought he won [the debate] by virtue of not being up there. And people wanted to know, "Well, what does Fred Thompson have to say? And is Fred Thompson running?" Fred Thompson ended up choosing us to be his first and only interview of that type, and it was seen by over 100,000 people online. People dissected what he had to say, and it strengthened the perception that he's definitely going to run, it's just a matter of when he's going to announce. It was a primary sign that he was going to be using the nontraditional Internet media, versus the traditional media, to get his message out.
Q: Which he has done very effectively, when he responded to Michael Moore.
A: Which was a Breitbart.tv exclusive, and that's been seen by about ... 2 million people so far. So to say that was a bigger hit -- you know, an Internet hit -- that was exceptional. That one, the timing was the story. That he responded with a professional Web response to Michael Moore's salvo ...
Q: Within seven hours, I think, start to finish.
A: Unbelievable. It was awe-inspiring. ... It was a brilliant use of the media and what can happen. It starts off independently, and it goes out to the traditional and non-traditional media, as opposed to the other way around. ...
Q: What do you see being the impact of the New Media on 2008?
A: It seemed that 2000 and 2004, you saw where the Internet was important, yet peripheral -- an afterthought, to many. But now it's central to most. Hillary Clinton is right now using YouTube as a means to try and communicate to people that she's not as stiff as others think that she is -- making an appeal via YouTube to find out what song she wants for her campaign, in which she's mocking how she was caught on YouTube singing the national anthem out of tune, which shows a self-deprecating humor, which is exceptionally vital online.
Q: Why is that? ... A self-deprecating sense of humor, a sense of irony, seems so central to success online.
A: Well, a lot of it has to do with the demographic issue, has a lot to do with getting kids to relate to you. It's not that often that someone who comes across as a mother, maternal. ... Why would a 20-something vote for their mother, who's tsk-tsking their misbehavior? ... These people on YouTube are looking for things that make you realize, "I can relate to that person." It's hard to relate to an accomplished intellectual when you're a 22-year-old going to concerts every single night. It's not just policy.
Q: You've talked about Thompson, you've talked about Hillary. Any other candidates who really seem to get the Internet? I mean, Obama's doing pretty good.
A: I'm certainly not all-knowing. ... I think my value, as a thinker, is that I'm impervious to a certain degree to conventional wisdom. That doesn't mean that I'm always right. The more people tell me how successful Obama is on the Internet, I'm still not convinced of it. I haven't seen his use of the medium to any great result.
His success is born of the symbolism that he brings to the table more than anything, and that's something that's conveyed perfectly well on television. You see that he's seemingly, ostensibly conciliatory -- seems like the type of person that wants to convey that he can work and be genial with both sides.
When he castigated the Duke prosecutor [Durham, N.C., District Attorney Mike Nifong] for prosecutorial misjudgment, he was sending a message to white America, "I'm not Al Sharpton. I'm not a race-baiter. I will see your concerns as well." That didn't seem like an Internet phenomenon. ... So far I'm not seeing any evidence of his Internet prowess.
I think Thompson, right now, is far in the lead in terms of doing that, because he isn't spending a penny right now, and he's a player. And he's using the Internet to do so, while every other candidate is spending their nights and days trying to gobble up as much money as they can, which they can use to push their message, mostly in the traditional media. So Fred Thompson, to me, is the only one who's using the Internet exceptionally, because that's the way that he can run without running.
Read the the rest of the Breitbart interview here:
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