Center Honors a Fearless Defender of Freedom
MARCH 1, 2016 – The Heartland Institute today announced the event space in its new headquarters in Arlington Heights, Illinois will be known as the “Andrew Breitbart Freedom Center.” The Heartland Institute is a 32-year-old national nonprofit organization devoted to advancing free markets and individual liberty.
The new Andrew Breitbart Freedom Center features state-of-the-art digital technology, including the ability to live-stream socially shareable and interactive events on Heartland’s YouTube page. In addition to hosting its own events on a weekly schedule, Heartland is making the meeting space available free of charge to conservative, libertarian, and other liberty-centric groups for organizing and training activists, speeches and panel discussions, public-speaking instruction and practice sessions, movie screenings, and more.
Breitbart, who died suddenly on March 1, 2012 at the age of 43, was a pioneer who created his own media empire to fight back against the liberal mainstream media and give voice to conservatives, libertarians, and free-market capitalism. Andrew Breitbart’s family and the company he founded, the Breitbart News Network, gave Heartland permission to honor him with the naming of the Andrew Breitbart Freedom Center.
“Andrew Breitbart was a genuine American hero. He inspired millions of people to stand up and speak the truth about what is happening in America,” said Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute. “We could not be more pleased to have his name forever affixed to The Heartland Institute. We are honored that his family and friends believe this connection is a suitable addition to his legacy.”
Watch a video of Bast talking about Heartland honoring Andrew Breitbart at this link. To book Bast or another Heartland guest to talk about this on your program, please contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at jlakely@heartland.org and 312/377-4000 or (cell) 312/731-9364.
Breitbart was the long-time confidant of Matt Drudge and was instrumental in the continued growth and influence of the Drudge Report as its chief editor. He also helped found The Huffington Post before moving on to found Big Hollywood and Big Journalism – sites that would eventually become Breitbart.com, which remains one of the most popular and influential news sites in the world.
In 2005, Breitbart wrote with Mark C. Ebner the book Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon – The Case Against Celebrity. His last book was Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World, released in 2011. In 2014, documentary film company Citizens United established the “Andrew Breitbart Defender of the First Amendment Award,” given every year at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
A dedication ceremony for the Andrew Breitbart Freedom Center will take place this summer, featuring a screening of Hating Breitbart,a documentary about Andrew Breitbart’s enormous impact on the media and the culture that was released one year after his death.
