Andrew Breitbart, Controversial Web Provocateur, Has Died

Andrew Breitbart, who cultivated controversy with his BigGovernment website and was a conservative thorn in the sides of many liberals, has died, his newssite's editor-in-chief, Joel Pollak, just said he can confirm. He emailed that word to The Two-Way moments ago.

In a post on BigGovernment, it's reported that "Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles." He would turn 43 this year.

As NPR's David Folkenflik reported last June, Breitbart "has made the scandal a national fixation" and over recent years "targeted liberal politicians and institutions and [was] a bombastic critic of the mainstream media."

We'll have more on Breitbart shortly.

Update at 9:50 a.m. ET: The Los Angeles County Coroner's office tells NPR that the cause of death is not yet known.

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