Breitbart Obama 'Bombshell' Fizzles

Obama Harvard video has been online for years: PBS
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 8, 2012 2:52 AM CST
Updated Mar 8, 2012 5:00 AM CST

The "explosive" video of President Obama's college days that Andrew Breitbart promised weeks before his death has been made public—and it appears to be another dud. In the video, leaked to Buzzfeed and shown in full on Hannity last night, Obama speaks at a 1991 Harvard protest supporting Derrick Bell, a professor who took a leave of absence to protest the university's lack of tenured female black professors. "Open your hearts and open your minds to the words of professor Derrick Bell," says Obama, then the 30-year-old editor of the Harvard Law Review.

On Hannity, Breitbart.com's editor-in-chief describes the footage as evidence of Obama's radicalism, calling Bell the "Jeremiah Wright of academia" in a reference to Obama's controversial ex-pastor. But "there’s nothing new about the clip or Obama’s role in the controversy at Harvard Law School," notes PBS, which aired the footage as part of a 2008 election special, and has made it available on its website and YouTube ever since. Breitbart's claim to have a damaging video of Obama helped fuel conspiracy theories after his death. (More Andrew Breitbart stories.)

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