Andrew Breitbart's Magical Manhattan Media Tour

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Normally a devout Los Angeleno, Andrew Breitbart lucked out on his trip to New York this week. Not only did he get to make a surprise appearance at Anthony Weiner's presser at the New York Sheraton, Breitbart also squeezed in visits to three major network in town, the nation's largest radio station and a global press syndicate. These are funny places to spot the blogger who's spent the last two years skewering the media for their wicked bias and rancorous lies.

Breitbart is used to hanging out on the controversial fringe of the the Manhattan media circus. He once served as Matt Drudge's number two and claims to have helped Arianna Huffington launch The Huffington Post while working as her research assistant before starting his own site BigGovernment.com. In the past couple of years, major outlets have sequestered Breitbart and his blog towards the freak show booth after his dodgy championing of citizen sabateur James O'Keefe and deceptive video editing of a speech given by Shirley Sherrod led many to question both his methods and his ethics. Once telling Slate that his "entire business model is to go on offense," Breitbart told The New York Times that with the Anthony Weiner scandal, he hoped to turn a rumor-driven scandal into primetime news. "One of the reasons I went to ABC [with the story], believe it or not, was to take this out of the partisan rancor realm," Breitbart said.

Well, if his itinerary in the last 24 hours is any indication, Breitbart's spent his time in New York tanning himself in spotlight of the Manhattan media elite he hates so much. And not the freak show types or even the lion trainers--the ring leaders. Here's a breakdown of his tour, in chronological order:

• New York Sheraton (811 7th Ave On 53rd Street) - Breitbart started his New York showing with an unbeatable opening act on Monday night. His own website described the event best:

Rep. Anthony Weiner called a press conference for 4pm EDT. BigGovernment.com publisher Andrew Breitbart was in New York for previously scheduled meetings and went to the presser as an observer. Rep. Weiner was, unfortunately for him, late for the conference. The press then asked Andrew to go to the podium to take some questions. It was surreal and awesome.  According to FoxNews, a Weiner staff ran through the hotel halls screaming, “Breitbart’s here. Breitbart’s here.”

• Fox News (1211 Avenue of the Americas) - Fox News correspondent Eric Shawn rushed the stage as soon as Andrew Breitbart finished his speech, and his first question, predictably, was why the hell Breitbart rushed the stage and started taking questions to begin with. "I went to the podium because a gaggle of press people asked me that I -- that I should speak with the group. I did so at their invitation. I didn’t do as a means to crash the -- the event," Breitbart said.
  
  Breitbart appeared on Hannity later that evening, and Breitbart further explained his improvised appearance. He also said in simply English that his release more photos of Weiner "was about vindication."

First of all, I had no idea that I was live on television. I arrived in New York at a hotel, five blocks away. A reporter said I can't interview you in our set interview because of this press conference. Weiner's press conference? So, I just walked five blocks, walked into the ballroom. And a gaggle of reporters surrounded me about 40 or 50 of them and they started asking me questions. And they said, they couldn't hear me which is ironically [why I went up there].

• CBS Television (51 West 52nd Street) - Tuesday morning, Breitbart headed down to CBS's headquarters in Midtown for an appearance on The Early Show. Highlights include Breitbart looking very, very serious on television and repeated mention of the word "truth."

"I think now that there's going to be an ethics investigation, we'll start heading down the path towards the truth," Brietbart said on CBS' "The Early Show." "I think that perhaps he's offered a limited version of the truth. You know, it's certainly a step in the right direction…"

• Associated Press (450 West 33rd Street) - Breitbart stopped by the Associated Press newsroom on Tuesday afternoon. According to a tweet from AP staffer Beth Fouhy, he said, "For a news junkie like me, this is like touring Yankee Stadium." Fouhy included a picture:

• NPR (either 160 Varick St, New York or 11 W. 42nd St.) - Andrew Breitbart also stopped by one of NPR's New York offices. (They have one uptown and one downtown.) He told David Folkenflik at All Things Considered more about his intentions with Monday's flurry of photos:

I thought this would put a sufficient amount of pressure on the congressman, with an escalating amount of impact to each photograph. With the third photograph where he was shirtless, I thought that that would be a sufficient siren in his mind to realize that if he continues to go down this path, his peril is going to only get greater.

You can listen to the full segment here, but the real gem is this photo tweeted by Wired's Noah Shachtman of Breitbart's signature in NPR's guest book, conspicuously just below New York Times editors Bill Keller and Jill Abramson. We're assuming the "LOL" and arrow pointing to their names can be attributed to Breitbart:

• CNBC (900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ) - Breitbart will appear on Tuesday night's Kudlow Report to talk about whether Anthony Weiner should resign. It's unclear whether Breitbart trekked out to CNBC's New Jersey offices or filmed the segment at NBC's 30 Rock headquarters. It's pretty clear that Breitbart will say yes to the resignation question.
• Fox News (1211 Avenue of the Americas) - Breitbart finished off his Manhattan media tour with a triple-header at Fox News, according to his Twitter feed. He will appear on The O'Reilly Factor, America's Nightly Scoreboard on Fox Business, and Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld.

Is Breitbart's palling around with New York media types a sign that he might change his tune and cozy up with the mainstream? Unlikely, judging by his commentary on the tour so far. Breitbart conspicuously did not receive an interview request from MSNBC. But he doesn't care because they lie too much for him, anyways.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.