Goodbye Andrew Breitbart … your inspiration will live on.

Few conservatives have made such a profound impression on so many in such a short time as Andrew Breitbart, who died this morning at 43.  A lifelong liberal from Los Angeles, he eventually saw through the utter deceit of the liberal establishment and became a conservative.  Unlike ordinary human beings whose lives are spent like flickering votive candles, Andy’s was the blast of a Saturn rocket – short but powerful.  He left this world in a blaze of glory, but far too soon.

His central theme, above all, was exposing the unmitigated corruption of the legacy media.  They parroted false and exaggerated stories in unison to gain impact, the “big lie” technique.  And they withheld, in concert, news that damaged liberal causes.  In one of his most shining moments, the takedown of ACORN in September 2009, Andy with the help of two youthful videojournalists smoked out the corrupt media.  In his Washington Times article, shortly after the sting, Mr. Breitbart explains the trap he set.

Everything you needed to know about the unorthodox roll out of the now-notorious ACORN sting videos was hidden in plain sight in my Sept. 7 column, "Katie Couric, Look in the Mirror."

ACORN was not the only target of those videos; so were Katie, Brian, Charlie and every other mainstream media pooh-bah. They were not going to report this blockbuster unless they were forced to. And they were. What's more, it ain't over yet. Not every hint I dropped in that piece about what was to come has played itself out yet. Stay tuned.

He continues:

Thus was born a multimedia, multiplatform strategy designed to force the reluctant hands of ABC, CBS, NBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post. Videos of five different ACORN offices in five separate cities would be released on five consecutive weekdays over a full week - Baltimore, Washington, New York, San Bernadino and San Diego. By dripping the videos out, we exposed to anyone paying attention that ACORN was lying through its teeth and that the media would look imbecilic continuing to trot out their hapless spokespeople.

If the media, as expected, pretended that the story didn't exist, they'd have another debacle on their hands comparable to the failure to report the shocking views of the White House's "green jobs czar," Van Jones. If they invested in the story, I told Mr. O'Keefe, they would do ACORN's defense work. I told him the focus needed to be on the message, not the messenger. Otherwise, the mainstream media would attempt to direct attention away from the damaging video evidence.

The best example of this came from ABC's anchor, Charlie Gibson. "I don't even know about it. So you've got me at a loss," he told WLS radio when asked about it. "But my goodness, if it's got everything, including sleaziness in it, we should talk about it in the morning." But he also said that what was seen on these videos was best left for the "cables."

Is this not malevolent arrogance?

There will never be another Andrew Breitbart.  But hopefully he has inspired others to follow in his footsteps.