As a lawyer, I am in the business of levying accusations against powerful institutions and trying to prove them. Although Andrew Breitbart was on the opposite side of the political spectrum, to the extent that he was trying to do the same thing, I have some sympathy for him.
I aspire to differ from Breitbart, however, in a couple of key ways. First, I try to be guided more by compassion than by rage. Second, however zealous I may be to uncover wrongdoing, I hope to maintain a respect for truth and fairness that I did not discern in Mr. Breitbart, particularly with respect to his treatment of Shirley Sherrod. Whatever his personal disposition may have been, his public actions seemed to be motivated more by malice than by probity. His means smacked of deliberate dishonesty. However one might feel about him personally, his contributions to American journalism will not be missed.