by Ben Shapiro
But it took guts to do that. It took bravery. Andrew was brave.
So are the American people.
We’ve spent decades being cowed by the jackboots of the politically correct: the race-baiters, class warriors, secularist and scaremongering thugs. We have bowed to their whims. We’ve tried to be polite; they’ve spit in our faces, then blamed us for debasing the level of our national discourse. They’ve tried to minimize the number of voices in the political arena. And we’ve gone along with it because we pine for a time when Americans can all share their hopes and dreams together, rather than quarreling over what separates us. We want E Pluribus Unum—”from many, one”; they want the opposite, “from one, many.”
We were willing to stay quiet if we could have our E Pluribus Unum. But it hasn’t worked. We haven’t been left in peace. For every inch we’ve given to the left, they’ve sought to bully us into handing over a mile.
That must end now.
“My goal,” Andrew told me, “is to try and teach as many people as possible not to be fearful of sending a message to these people: we reject your worldview the same way you reject ours. I want to bottle that. I want to teach everyone that I know that they don’t have to fear anymore, that there’s strength in numbers. My entire business model is trying to accumulate an army that takes that mind-set and says, ‘Not only can you take the assaults from the bullies, they’ll make you stronger. Not only will they make you stronger, you’ll have the power to punch back. You can go on the offensive.’ These people have spent so many years on the offense with people not punching back, they don’t know what it’s like to be on defense, and when you come after them hard, they are defenseless.”
There is only one way to stop a bully: to punch back. We’ve seen who the bullies are and what they’ve done. Now it’s time to fight them.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In writing a book like this, there are dozens of people who aid, comfort, and inspire the author. First and foremost is my wife, Mor, who has somehow balanced her course load at UCLA Medical School with being the best wife on the planet. Having met Mor is the best thing that ever happened to me; spending each day with her is the greatest joy of my life.
My parents, David and Cindy Shapiro, are the best structure any son could ask for—they happen to be both unceasingly supportive and uncompromisingly fun. The same goes for my three younger sisters, who shall remain anonymous—they all earn a living in arenas dominated by liberal bullies. I see no reason for making those bullies’ task easier—although I would not urge them to mess with my sisters.
My agent, Frank Breeden, has been a godsend. I’ve never met a more principled businessman, or a more honorable person.
The folks at Simon & Schuster have been terrific throughout this process. Mitchell Ivers, my editor, knows everything that needs to be done to hone a book to a razor’s edge; I hope this book stands as proof of that fact. If not, the shortcoming is mine.
Larry Solov and Steve Bannon have been fantastic bosses at Breitbart News—and they’ve carried forward Andrew’s banner as nobody else could have done. The opportunity to work with them each day to bear Andrew’s torch is an honor beyond measure. My partner in crime and close friend Alex Marlow sat next to Andrew for five years—he was Andrew’s first hire at Breitbart News. He embodies Andrew’s vision for the site, and he imbibed Andrew’s news judgment day after day. It shows. My other colleagues at Breitbart News, including but not limited to Joel Pollak, John Nolte, Larry O’Connor, Mike Flynn, Ezra Dulis, William Bigelow, Tony Lee, Michael Patrick Leahy, Meredith Dake, and the rest, make each hour memorable. A more driven team you will not find.
The radio team at Salem has given me a supreme opportunity to sit behind their microphone at KRLA 870 and KTIE 590 in Los Angeles and Orange County, respectively. Ed Atsinger is a true visionary; Terry Fahy and Chuck Tyler are paragons of radio professionalism, and I couldn’t go on the air every day without their guidance and advice. A special thanks, of course, to Phil Boyce, a radio genius who was both kind enough and brave enough to give a twenty-eight-year-old a shot on LA morning drive.
The David Horowitz Freedom Center is a true fighting outfit, and they take the fight to the bullies unsparingly. Thanks especially to David Horowitz, Mike Finch, Peter Collier, and Jamie Glazov for their help and input.
The folks at Creators Syndicate, particularly Rick and Jack Newcombe, who spotted me when I was a seventeen-year-old sophomore at UCLA. If it hadn’t been for them, I’d probably be in the back of the first-violin section of an orchestra somewhere.
Thanks to all those in the conservative movement who continue to inspire me—the tireless guardians of conservatism who never apologize, never compromise, and never stop pushing for American renewal.
Most of all, thanks to the Americans who keep fighting the odds—who keep fighting the bullies. It’s thanks to you that this country continues to move forward. And it’s thanks to you that we won’t lose hope for true change.
Now let’s gird ourselves for battle.
BENJAMIN SHAPIRO, editor-at-large of Breitbart.com, entered UCLA at the age of sixteen, and at seventeen, he became the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the U.S. He graduated UCLA summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in political science, Harvard Law School cum laude in 2007, and is the national bestselling author of Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV; Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth; Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future; and Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House. Shapiro has appeared on hundreds of national radio and television shows, including those hosted by Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Michael Medved, Laura Ingraham, and others. He is co-host of The Heidi Harris Show on KRLA 870 AM Los Angeles and KTIE 590 AM Orange County. He is also the Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Shapiro is married and currently runs Benjamin Shapiro Legal Consulting, based in Los Angeles. Follow the author on Twitter @benshapiro, or visit benjaminshapiro.com.
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NOTES
INTRODUCTION
1. Nick Gillespie, “Stop Panicking About Bullies,” Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2012, http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB10001424052702303404704577311664105746848.html, accessed June 2012.
2. “Remarks by the President and First Lady at the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention,” WhiteHouse.gov, March 10, 2011, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/
2011/03/10/remarks-president-and-first-lady-white-
house-conference-bullying-prevent, accessed June 2012.
3. Gillespie, “Stop Panicking About Bullies.”
4. Jonathan Capehart, “Bullying is not a rite of passage,” Washington Post, March 10, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/bullying-is-not-a-rite-of-passage/2011/03/04/ABBpIrQ_blog.html, accessed June 2012.
5. Amie Parnes, “Obama puts the bully in bully pulpit,” TheHill.com, April 14, 2012, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/221469-obama-puts-bully-in-bully-pulpit, accessed June 2012.
1: INSTITUTIONAL BULLIES
1. Howard Kurtz, “The Press, Turning Up Its Nose at Lame Duck,” Washington Post, February 5, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost
.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/04/AR2007020401280_pf.html, accessed June 2012.
2. KC Johnson, “March Madness, II,” Durham-In-Wonderland, March 18, 2007, http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/03/march-madness-ii.html, accessed July 2012.
3. “Transcripts: New Developments in Duke Rape Investigation,” Nancy Grace (CNN), June 9, 2006, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/09/ng.01.html, accessed July 2012.
4. Duff Wilson and Jonathan D. Glater, “Files From Duke Rape Case Give Details but No Answers,” New York Times, September 18, 2006, http://today.duke.edu/showcase/mmedia/pdf/nytimes825.pdf, accessed July 2012.
5. Rachel Smolkin, “Justice Delayed,” American Journalism Review, August/September 2007, http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4379, accessed July 2012.
6. Scott Whitlock, “ABC Looks at Media Bias in Duke Rape Case; Ignores Example From Own Network,” Newsbusters.org, September 4, 2007, http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2007/09/04/abc-looks-media-bias-duke-rape-case-ignores-example-own-network, accessed June 2012.
7. Smolkin, “Justice Delayed.”
8. Michael Calderone, “JournoList: Inside the echo chamber,” Politico.com, March 17, 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20086.html, accessed July 2012.
9. Alex Pareene, “Breitbart’s JournoList bounty and the secret Republican listserv leak,” Salon.com, June 29, 2010, http://www.salon.com/2010/06/29/dc_listserv_scandal/, accessed July 2012.
10. Ezra Klein, “On JournoList, and Dave Weigel,” Washington Post, June 25, 2010, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/06/on_journolist_and_dave_weigel.html, accessed July 2012.
11. Jonathan Strong, “E-mails reveal Post reporter savaging conservatives, rooting for Democrats,” DailyCaller.com, June 25, 2010, http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/25/emails-reveal-post-reporter-savaging-conservatives-rooting-for-democrats/?print=1, accessed July 2012.
12. Michael O’Brien, “Obama open to newspaper bailout bill,” TheHill.com, September 20, 2009, http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/59523-obama-open-to-newspaper-bailout-bill/, accessed July 2012.
13. Glenn Thrush, “Switching Allegiances,” NewsDay.com, September 6, 2006, http://www.newsday.com/news/switching-allegiances-1.690641, accessed July 2012.
14. Chuck Todd, “Calling out Media Matters’ bias,” MSNBC.com, November 15, 2007, http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2007/11/15/4429164-calling-out-media-matters-bias, accessed June 2012.
15. Ibid.
16. Jacques Steinberg, “An All-Out Attack on ‘Conservative Misinformation,’ ” New York Times, October 31, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/washington/01media.html?_r=1, accessed July 2012.
17. Ibid.
18. Betsy Rothstein, “Fighting ire with fire,” TheHill.com, November 3, 2008, http://thehill.com/capital-living/24113-fighting-ire-with-fire, accessed June 2012.
19. Jack Shafer, “Media Madders,” Reuters.com, February 15, 2012, http://blogs.reuters.com/jackshafer/tag/david-brock/, accessed July 2012.
20. Tucker Carlson, Vince Coglianese, Alex Pappas, and Will Rahn, “Inside Media Matters: Sources, memos reveal erratic behavior, close coordination with White House and news organizations,” DailyCaller.com, February 12, 2012, http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/12/inside-media-matters-sources-memos-reveal-erratic-behavior-close-coordination-with-white-house-and-news-organizations/?print=1, accessed July 2012.
21. Alan Dershowitz, “Media Matters Hurts Obama,” FoxNation.com, February 28, 2012, http://nation.foxnews.com/media-matters/2012/02/28/alan-dershowitz-media-matters-hurts-obama, accessed July 2012.
22. Ben Shapiro, “Exodus: MJ Rosenberg Sacrificed For Media Matters’ Sins,” Breitbart News, April 6, 2012, http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/04/06/Exodus-MJ-Rosenberg-Out-Media-Matters, accessed July 2012.
23. Will Rahn, “Media Matters tax-exempt status may face new scrutiny from Congress,” DailyCaller.com, February 15, 2012, http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/15/media-matters-tax-exempt-status-may-face-new-scrutiny-from-congress/, accessed July 2012.
24. “What are my Kids Learning? Poll Shows Professors Fail Presidential History,” Townhall.com, February 21, 2012, http://townhall.com/columnists/townhallcomstaff/2012/02/21/
what_are_my_kids_learning_poll_shows
_professors_fail_presidential_history/page/full/, accessed July 2012.
25. Howard Kurtz, “College Faculties A Most Liberal Lot, Study Finds,” Washington Post, March 29, 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8427-2005Mar28.html, accessed July 2012.
26. “What are my Kids Learning? Poll Shows Professors Fail Presidential History.”
27. Kurtz, “College Faculties A Most Liberal Lot, Study Finds.”
28. Paul Johnson, Modern Times (New York: Harper Perennial, 1992), 643–44
29. Jill Laster, “College Makes Students More Liberal, but Not Smarter About Civics,” Chronicle of Higher Education, February 5, 2010, http://chronicle.com/article/College-Makes-Students-More/64040/, accessed July 2012.
30. Peter Wood, “College for All: Obama’s Higher-Education Agenda, Part 3 of 8,” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 6, 2012, http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/college-for-all-obamas-higher-education-agenda-part-3-of-8/31832, accessed July 2012.
31. John Cook, “Bloodthirsty Bully Harvey Weinstein Releases Movie About Bullies,” Gawker.com, March 30, 2012, http://gawker.com/5897885/bloodthirsty-bully-harvey-weinstein-releases-movie-about-bullies, accessed August 2012.
32. Jonah Goldberg, “Funny Girl,” NationalReview.com, December 7, 2005, http://old.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200512071123.asp, accessed July 2012.
33. “Barbra Streisand’s bed demands,” FemaleFirst.co.uk, December 4, 2008, http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/celebrity/Barbara+Streisand-23862.html, accessed July 2012.
34. “Carey’s Gum-Chum,” ContactMusic.com, November 5, 2005, http://www.contactmusic.com/news-article/careys-gumchum, accessed July 2012.
35. Garance Franke-Ruta, “Mitt Romney criticizes Obama for focusing on health care, instead of jobs,” Washington Post, March 5, 2010, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/03/mitt-romney-criticizes-obama-f.html, accessed July 2012.
36. Robert Pear, “Obama’s Health Plan, Ambitious in Any Economy, Is Tougher in This One,” New York Times, March 1, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/us/politics/02health.html?pagewanted=all, accessed July 2012.
37. Ben Shapiro, “President Bush’s Roberts pick disappoints,” Creators Syndicate, July 20, 2005, available at http://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2005/
07/20/president_bushs_roberts_pick_
disappoints/page/full/, accessed July 2012.
38. Jan Crawford, “Roberts switched views to uphold health care law,” CBSNews.com, July 1, 2012, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57464549/roberts-switched-views-to-uphold-health-care-law/, accessed July 2012.
39. Corbett B. Daly, “Obama: Supreme Court overturning health care would be ‘unprecedented,’ ” CBSNews.com, April 2, 2012, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57408181-503544/obama-supreme-court-overturning-health-care-would-be-unprecedented/, accessed July 2012.
2: ANTI-PATRIOTIC BULLIES
1. Scott Macleod, “How al-Arabiya Got the Obama Interview,” Time.com, January 28, 2009, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1874379,00.html, accessed June 2012.
2. “[TRANSCRIPT] Obama’s interview with Al Arabiya,” AlArabiya.net, January 27, 2009, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/0½7/65096.html, accessed June 2012.
3. “Remarks By President Obama To The Turkish Parliament,” WhiteHouse.gov, April 6, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-By-President-Obama-To-The-Turkish-Parliament/, accessed June 2012.
4. “Remarks By President Obama At Strasbourg Town Hall,” WhiteHouse.gov, April 3, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-President-Obama-at-Strasbourg-Town-Hall/, accessed June 2012.
5. “Remarks By The President At The Summit Of The Americas Opening Cerem
ony,” WhiteHouse.gov, April 17, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-the-Summit-of-the-Americas-Opening-Ceremony/, accessed June 2012.
6. Jake Tapper, “Chavez Gifts Obama With Book That Assails U.S. for Exploiting Latin America,” ABCNews.com, April 18, 2009, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2009/04/chavez-gifts-ob/, accessed June 2012.
7. Peter Nicholas, “Obama defends greeting Hugo Chavez,” Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2009, http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/20/world/fg-obama-americas20, accessed June 2012.
8. “Remarks By The President To CIA Employees,” WhiteHouse.gov, April 20, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-to-CIA-employees-at-CIA-Headquarters/, accessed June 2012.
9. “Remarks By The President On National Security,” WhiteHouse.gov, May 21, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-On-National-Security-5-21-09, accessed June 2012.
10. “The President’s News Conference in Strasbourg,” April 4, 2009, in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Barack Obama, 2009, Book 1 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2010).
11. “Obama in Dover as fallen troops arrive home,” WashingtonPost.com, October 29, 2009, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/10/29/
obama_in_dover_as_fallen_troop.html, accessed June 2012.
12. Philip Elliott, “Obama Gets Warning From Friendly Voter,” Associated Press, August 14, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/14/AR2007081400812.html, accessed June 2012.
13. Ken Thomas, “Obama praises Vietnam veterans’ contributions,” Associated Press, May 29, 2012, http://bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2012/05/28/president-obama-says-vietnam-veterans-too-often-denigrated/gcPDrcip9sb6WeIZefkccM/story.html, accessed June 2012.
