It was a short time after celebrated media muckraker Andrew Breitbart went from being Alive Andrew to Dead Andy. ‘We’re going to do everything we can to take care of Susie and the kids.’ — Ali A. AkbarThe gang got together, drank a few beers, smoked a few cigars and remembered their dear friend, taken from them in such an untimely and not-at-all-unexpected fashion. (Ignore the rumors about Karl Rove having Andy “done” over a dispute over who owned a certain young, gay, rising new media star…)
Everyone had a real sad about Dead Andy, and the liquor got people talking. Someone had a camera.
Those poignant and fateful words. “We’re going to do everything we can to take care of Susie and the kids.” And Dead Andy, if the dead are allowed access to YouTube, no doubt felt pride in his swollen and dead heart in the crew he left behind, the crew who would carry on his “work.”
Ali Akbar, co-creator of the National Bloggers Club, later announced the creation of the Breitbart Memorial Fund. It was about the same time as the Breitbart Children’s Trust was established.
Even before the website was created, the National Bloggers Club raised two grand for the Memorial fund.According to a press release (which has since been set to “private” on Scribd but is still available elsewhere), the NBC, Inc., boasted…
Our memorial event — Remember Breitbart — on March 3rd in Washington, DC was a huge success. The evening we raised over $2,000 in pledges with many more following shortly after for the Breitbart Scholarship Fund. Everyone who pledged over $44 was promised a Remember Breitbart t-shirt.
So. They started with $2,000 on the first night. And that website has been up and running for nine months. It promises many things.
The National Bloggers Club will launch a permanent virtual memorial honoring Andrew Breitbart and his work here. You see, he was a friend of ours. Activists, bloggers, and friends will have videos and pictures sharing their fondest memories of the lion of the movement.
In order to ensure his legacy and the style of his work lives on, we’ve created the Breitbart Scholarship and have an independent review board to grant funds to young journalism students and muckrakers alike.
Dead Andy’s heart would swell with pride… had it not been cremated, or left to decompose in a casket, or whatever was done with it after it stopped beating.
But this living memorial? It is nothing more than a landing page and a donation page.
Here at Breitbart Unmasked, when we want answers, we go to the source. In this case, we asked the young lad who is quoted in the video above. We sent him a letter via e-mail, via his Facebook page, posted on our two Facebook pages, and now posted here where it will be pointed to on Twitter with a tweet directed at @ali. If he chooses to be non-responsive… well, let’s just say it will fit with his profile.
Dear Mr. Akbar:
I have written to you on several occasions and have never received the courtesy of an answer. Since I am going to write a story about this and discuss the issue on my Blog Talk Radio show, I believe it is only fair to provide you with a chance to respond. To show my sincerity in an attempt to reach you to get your reply, I will post a copy of this message on my blog, on my Facebook page, and point to each on Twitter addressed to you at your Twitter address.
As you will recall, your problems began when you refused to answer a simple question about the non-profit status of the National Bloggers Club. A simple question which required a simple answer, but you chose to blow me off (if you will pardon the expression), block me and ridicule me for daring to question the great Ali Akbar.
As a result, I dug deeper into your background. And now the world knows about your felony conviction — not the watered-down phony version you posted on your Facebook page — but the real story.
So, like the little boy who learns that touching the hot stove makes his hand hurt, let’s hope you learned a lesson about ignoring legitimate questions.
I see that Breitbart’s widow has put their mansion on the market. This leads me to wonder, whatever happened to your promise to “help Susie and the Kids?”
When you set up the Remember Breitbart page, you promised (among other things) to showcase Andrew’s fans and showcase his work. Visitors of the website will be able to donate to the fund, apply for grants and submit their own videos to a library of fans memorializing Breitbart.
That was in March, Mr. Akbar. It’s almost January. When one visits the page, one sees a landing page and a “donate” button. That button takes the visitor to a donation page.
That is the sum total of the “Remember Breitbart” page. This is your permanent memorial on the web to Andrew Breitbart. No photos, no videos, no showcasing of Andrew’s fans, no examples of Andrew’s work. No grant application forms.
So, first I will ask you. I will wait a respectable time. Then I will ask the IRS.
How much money has the Breitbart Memorial Scholarship raised?
Why do you still refer to it as a “non-profit” when it is not?
Where are the things you promised when you launched the site?
If no money was raised, why hasn’t the site been taken down?
If you have raised money, how has it been disbursed?
Please answer these simple questions, Mr. Akbar. Help me prove to your fans and followers that you are a real conservative and not the shameless political hack and opportunist you seem to be.
I look forward to your response.
Bill Schmalfeldt
http://theliberalgrouch.com/
No answer yet. But we can’t imagine that the people who surrounded Andrew Breitbart would so disrespectfully ABANDON his widow and kids. Like they have.
Political firebrand Andrew Breitbart’s California home has been put on the market with an asking price of $1.995 million 9 months after the late pundit’s sudden death last Spring.
It’s a nice place. And there’s the added benefit of the fact that Breitbart died on the sidewalk right outside.
Is Susie broke? Is the fund not paying off like it said it would? Is that why Breitbart.com is losing so many of its “valuable” contributors? How much of the $457 that the Direct to DVD laughathon “Occupy Unmasked” raised went to the widow? Any of it? And what of the scholarship fund?<
Could it be that PEOPLE are RAISING MONEY off of the IMAGE and WRITINGS of DEAD ANDY BRIETBART and not SHARING with the grieving WIDOW???
Heaven forfend.
Ali Akbar’s permanent guest room at the Breitbart estate?
Ali can spend other people’s money faster than Lindsey Lohan …