Andrew Breitbart: How’s your reputation?

Fame is a funny thing.

So many people crave it, yet so few are ready for it.

And by ready, we mean that Google is waiting to reveal the newly famed person’s reputation.

Which brings us to Andrew Brietbart Reputation Management, which came to the forefront following his role in the Anthony Weiner scandal.

In case you have been hiding underneath a rock, Anthony David Weiner is the U.S. Representative for New York’s 9th congressional district, which includes parts of southern Brooklyn and south and central Queens. Weiner is a Democrat, and has held the office since 1999.

On May 27, 2011, via his Twitter account, Weiner sent a post linking to a sexually explicit photograph of himself wearing gray boxer briefs[1] to a 21-year-old female in Seattle who was “following” him on the Social Media website, in what some commentators later dubbed Weinergate. He initially said he had not posted the image, and that his account had been “hacked.” Weiner stated that he did not know the woman who received the message. He became embroiled in controversy when he could not say “with certitude” that the photo was not of him, claiming “maybe it did start being a photo of mine and now looks something different or maybe it is from another account”. Weiner did not ask the FBI or U.S. Capitol Police to investigate the incident, indicating that he had instead retained a private security firm to look into the matter, viewing it as a prank.

On June 6, 2011, Weiner held a press conference at which he said he had lied about the picture, that “To be clear, the picture was of me, and I sent it”, and apologized.

Where does Breitbart fit into all this?

Well Brietbart is the one who revealed a week ago the infamous photo that Weiner inadvertently tweeted to that college co-ed.

This has made Brietbart, who had remained mostly unknown, a media superstar. He’s getting tons of search traction around his name right now and as that blitz continues, certainly more things will crop up.

So Brietbart better be prepared.

We know he’s a staunch Tea Party supporter who often introduces Sarah Palin. He fills in for Dennis Miller and Michael Savage on the talkshow circuit. He is a former liberal who was the editor for the Drudge Report before starting several conservative blogs. The only black mark so far in his search passed was an incident that involved some creative editing.

Breitbart posted a portion of a speech that got Shirley Sherrod fired at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Sherrod, speaking to the NAACP, said she didn’t want to help a farmer because he was white. Further into the speech, though, she makes it clear that she did help him. Breitbart endured a hailstorm of criticism for selective editing, including from fellow conservatives like Glenn Beck, though he maintains that the point of posting only the snippet was to show the positive reaction of the audience when Sherrod acknowledged her urge to discriminate against the white farmer. Sherrod has sued Breitbart for defamation.

Right now, the top 10 search results for his name are all controlled by him.

However, things start to break down a bit on the second page, starting with this video.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmOwafnVGug

The take away for Breitbart is simple. If you have any skeletons in your closet, you’d better start putting your slant on them now or proactively bury them.

Here’s what we mean.

Say that Breitbart had a DUI 20 years ago. If that’s true, it’s going to come out.

Breitbart has three choices:

1. Sit back and wait for it to come out and let the breaking entity enjoy hot Google placement for “Andrew Brietbart DUI”
2. Cop to it proactively so his slant comes up first when searching for “Andrew Brietbart DUI”
3. Create a metric tone of positive “Andrew Brietbart DUI” content ahead of time so that all appears before the negative article on his hypothetical DUI.

For that last one, Brietbart could create tons of video, blog posts and videos about how terrible DUI is and how is dead-set against it.

That way, all that content appears first in Google – NOT the story about him actually getting a DUI, limiting the amount of exposure the negative story gets.

That’s called reputation management, and Brietbart, we’re going to find out how well your reputation is managed.