COOPER: Well, before this week, Shirley Sherrod certainly was not a household name. But Andrew Breitbart, the conservative blogger who posted the video that cost her, her job, is a star in conservative circles, a popular speaker with a big book deal.

The Sherrod incident is not the first story like this that he has been involved with.

Randi Kaye tonight takes us "Up Close."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (voice-over): In 2009, conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart made his first big splash. It was then he and a pair of conservative activists publicized a series of undercover stings against the federal housing group ACORN, a housing initiative that had publicly supported candidate Obama's campaign.

Breitbart posted videos of the stings on his Web site, BigGovernment.com. ACORN staffers were seen offering to set up a brothel for underage prostitutes. The video went viral. And a conservative star was born.

STEVE ADUBATO, AUTHOR, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?": We're talking about a guy who, frankly, has an agenda, who -- who is not that concerned about context or facts.

KAYE (on camera): There were questions about the legality of the videos and whether they had been selectively edited to make ACORN look bad. Sound familiar? But it didn't matter. Breitbart got results. ACORN lost its federal funding and collapsed as a national organization.

(voice-over): Eric Boehlert from the progressive watchdog group Media Matters for America calls Breitbart a misinformation czar.

ERIC BOEHLERT, SENIOR FELLOW, MEDIA MATTERS: A propagandist and a bit of a charlatan and, as we have seen this week, sort of a character assassin. I mean, he likes to pretend he's doing journalism, but there's nothing he's doing that is remotely to journalism. He knowingly publishes false information, never posts corrections, doesn't retract. It's really -- he's really a one-man wrecking ball.

KAYE: We called Breitbart to get his take.

Do you consider yourself a propagandist? And do you have an agenda?

BREITBART: Somebody has to stand up to this type of bullyism that happens in the press and the journalism is corrupt. And I'm out there, to the best of my abilities and with my conscience, trying to right the wrong.

KAYE: But the ACORN and Shirley Sherrod incidents aren't the only times Breitbart has pumped out misleading information. In 2009, he posted videotape of community organizers praying, he said, to then president-elect Obama. He later conceded, after posting more of the tape, they might be praying to God.

(on camera): Breitbart has built up a small empire of Web sites, Breitbart.com, BigGovernment, BigJournalism, BigHollywood, and so on. Hits against the left translate directly to hits online. According to Breitbart.com, he serves up more than 20 million news page views each month to about three million unique visitors.

ADUBATO: We're talking about someone who understands our addiction to powerful videos, salacious video, audio taken out of context that says something dramatic. We take it. We use it. He loves it. He gets more attention. He understands what our hot buttons are.

KAYE (voice-over): That makes Breitbart a star in the conservative conference ticket. In the last year, he's spoken at, at least six Tea Party rallies and two big mainstream conservative conferences.

BREITBART: I love confrontation, by the way.

(LAUGHTER)

BREITBART: And, by the way, by the way, by the way, you should, too, because it's the only way we're going to win.

KAYE: Seems, the more controversial he gets, the faster his profile and profits grow. He got half-a-million dollar advance for his upcoming book, and says his Web sites are fully funded by advertisers.

He admits the reaction to how he handled the Shirley Sherrod tape has been mixed, but don't expect a mea culpa from him.

(on camera): Do you plan to apologize to Ms. Sherrod, or no?

BREITBART: Under -- what would -- what would warrant an apology?

KAYE: I'm asking you.

BREITBART: Did I even ask for an investigation of her? I am not the one that threw her under the bus. The Obama administration and the NAACP, which was in possession, according to itself, of the full video.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, that's been his line all along, basically, since this has unraveled, that this wasn't about Shirley Sherrod; it's about the NAACP and says more about the Obama administration.

But, so, he has no plans, obviously, to apologize?

KAYE: Absolutely no plans, and he doesn't think that he needs to. I mean, he actually said it was the Obama administration's fault. It was not him that threw her under the bus.

But one thing that really struck me on the phone with him, Anderson, is how paranoid he seemed to be. He kept saying when we asked him about his funding and where his -- who his advertisers are, he kept saying to me, oh, are you going to start a campaign, stop advertising on Breitbart.com?

COOPER: Right.

KAYE: And -- and he was accusing us of looking into his background and...

COOPER: Right.

KAYE: ... and maybe he had racism in his background. He kept blaming the NAACP.

And I thought for sure you would have some questions for him tonight, so I invited him to come on the show live. And he said he couldn't. He was somewhere in the woods.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Well, I think -- I read in Politico he started a three- day vacation that was long-planned. And fair enough.

KAYE: Sure.

COOPER: I'm glad we were able to have his voice on the program.

And we should point out, this is not necessarily even about Andrew Breitbart. I mean, this is not about conservative or liberal. There are many liberal bloggers who do the exact same kind of stuff.

KAYE: Absolutely.

COOPER: And it is just as odious. And -- and if a story like breaks on their side, we will point that out as well.

You know, it's not about targeting Andrew Breitbart.

KAYE: Right.

COOPER: It's about -- it's about this -- this -- what we're in now in this age, where it's all about factionalism.

KAYE: Yes.

COOPER: It's all about, you get hits to your Web site. The more outrageous you are, on the left or on the right, the more popular you become online.

KAYE: And he knows it, too.

COOPER: Yes.

Randi, appreciate it.

But first the blogger who slammed Shirley Sherrod, we're "Keeping Them Honest." He is the only actor in this dismal drama that has not apologized to Ms. Sherrod. And, in fact, he says he is the victim and that the Obama administration and mainstream media are out to destroy him.

He told Politico today -- quote -- "I am public enemy number one or two to the Democratic Party, the progressive movement and the Obama administration based upon the successes my journalism has had."

Now, calling what Mr. Breitbart does journalism is hard for those of us who actually check and try to be fair. I'm certainly not perfect, and have made mistakes, and have apologized for them. But journalism shouldn't be about left and right. It should be about the truth.

What Mr. Breitbart does and what others on the left and the right do may very well be what journalism has become, but it isn't certainly not what it should be. Mr. Breitbart also Politico -- quote -- "The desire here is to make it about me and not the Democratic establishment and the NAACP vs. the Tea Party."

That's been Mr. Breitbart's excuse since it was revealed that his video was not what he said it was. He claims this was never about Shirley Sherrod. In fact, he said to Sean Hannity -- quote -- "I could care less about Shirley Sherrod, to be honest with you."

That is the one thing he has said that is indisputable. He does not care about Shirley Sherrod, doesn't care about making false allegations against her or ruining her career. Andrew Breitbart has his ideology. He believes he is right. And in his mind that justifies any action he takes.

And that's how ideologues think on the left and on the right. Post a video clip that's misleading? No problem if it helps you make your argument, if it helps boost visitors to your Web site. Make false claims about a person? Why not, if it gets you more Web traffic?

That is where we are today. Andrew Breitbart is conservative. But, as I said, there are liberals online and on TV who do the exact same things. They cherry-pick the facts that prove their arguments, not the facts that reveal the truth.

David Frum, a conservative, said on this program last night the problem is not liberalism or conservatism. It's factionalism, seeing the world through your own limited political lens and never admitting when you have made a mistake, never admitting the other side may be right some of the time, never doing anything that damages your faction.

It's a game for people like Mr. Breitbart and others. They don't go out into the field and meet the people they're supposedly reporting on. They don't go out and challenge their assumptions. They stay behind a desk and see the world as black or white, left or right. And it's a lot more complex than that.

COOPER: Erick, you wrote on your blog that both sides of the political aisle are engaged in a tit-for-tat war of retribution -- and I quote -- "That war has casualties on both sides. Ms. Sherrod is the latest. It is not fair, but that's how the left plays, and the right must fight on the offense or not fight at all."

I mean, I don't -- I don't get -- as somebody who is not particularly partisan on the left or the right, I try not to view things through the lens of being liberal or being conservative. I don't get -- it just seems like, whether you're a conservative or whether you're a liberal and you have a blog, it doesn't seem like the truth really matters.

It's just, you say whatever you want to say, whether you're on the left or the right, to prove your point. And, if you're wrong, no one ever says they're wrong. No one ever seems to apologize.

(CROSSTALK)

ERICKSON: You're right. And, you know, that's -- the right is now having to deal with this conversation. And that's another conversation that needs to be had.

I think the right needs to fight back, because I believe this happens routinely, from left to right more often than right to left. But, at the same time, I don't think the right needs to adopt the tactics we condemn on the other side. I think that's wrong.

You -- you become the people you attack when you use their tactics over time. I just -- the whole situation, I find distasteful. But I'm -- I'm not going to condemn Andrew Breitbart for it.

BRAZILE: Well, I'm going to ask him to step up.

COOPER: But it seems like you're -- it seems like you're not going to condemn -- but it seems like you're saying you're not going to condemn him because he's on your side and that doesn't serve your overall purpose.

I mean, if somebody is wrong, I'm not saying condemn, but, if he's wrong, shouldn't he apologize?

ERICKSON: Yes, I said Andrew Breitbart was wrong. Maybe, if he thinks he's wrong, he will apologize. But he doesn't think he's wrong. And I'm not the guy to convince Andrew Breitbart of that.

I definitely think Shirley Sherrod was mischaracterized in the video.

COOPER: Donna, at the same time -- let me just argue the flip side of this -- this is also an opportunity that some on the left now are using to hammer conservatives and to hammer their enemies, to hammer Andrew Breitbart. It seems like both sides play this game, and I think a lot of people in America are just kind of sick of the game.

BRAZILE: Of course, Anderson.

Full transcript: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1007/22/acd.01.html