Unhinged: 'Hating Breitbart' So Much to the Point of Disrupting a Movie Showing

Gateway Pundit blog and Michelle Malkin's Twitchy site both reported on Saturday how Ryan Clayton, a far left contributor to DailyKos and Huffington Post, was escorted out a Friday night showing of the documentary, Hating Breitbart, in Arlington, Virginia, for his outbursts during the opening minutes of the film. Clayton actually makes an appearance in the movie, where he shouted bogus allegations of cocaine use and soliciting male prostitutes at Breitbart in 2011.

I actually played a part in getting the leftist booted out of the theater. I went to the 10:20 pm showing at the invitation of Jason Jones of Movie to Movement, who is a good friend and a former boss. I sat towards the back of the theater, as many of the seats were filled by the time I entered. When the documentary started, Clayton somehow thought it was appropriate to add his own commentary track and laughed like a hyena at various points. I spoke up and told him to stop talking. But he didn't stop.

After putting up with his antics for about 10 to 15 minutes, I got fed up, and quickly made my way out of the theater to track down the management of the theater complex. I discovered that a young Hispanic woman, who also had enough of Clayton's outbursts, had already left to do the same thing, and the two of us waited for the managers to come up to where we were.

When I reentered the darkened theater, instead of going back to where I had been sitting, I decided to sit in an empty seat near the front and next to the aisle. The managers came in not long after I did, and removed Clayton. As he was leaving, he walked right past where I was sitting and stopped in front of me, thus blocking my view. I told him to get lost, but he kept up his asinine behavior, pretended to have trouble hearing me, and moved closer to me. I repeatedly told him to get out of my face, and after a moment, he finally left.

After his departure, I moved to the back of the theater. But at some point, Clayton actually returned, having somehow convinced the managers to let him back in. This time, he was with a second person, and for the reminder of the movie, he was largely quiet. When the credits started rollings, most of the viewers, who had paid $12 to see the documentary and not Clayton's clown act, left. But the DailyKos writer added insult to injury by conducting mock interviews of the patrons, before being booted completely from the premises by a security guard.

It shouldn't be suprising, between his unhinged behavior on camera toward Breitbart, and this recent incident, that Clayton is a committed member of the radical left. A Politico article about the 2011 confrontation between him and the deceased conservative noted his involvement in an organization called US Uncut. This group could properly be labeled a proto-Occupy Wall Street, a link that the Huffington Post contributor boasted about in a January 2012 article by Allison Kilkenny of The Nation. US Uncut protested alleged "corporate tax dodging" starting in early 2011, months before Occupy stunk up Zuccotti Park. During some of their demonstrations, US Uncut protesters would walk into Bank of America locations and disrupt service by trying to cash fake checks. That kind of tactic is exactly what Clayton brought into the theater on Friday.

I can't say that he entirely ruined my moviegoing experience, though, as it was great seeing former colleague Kerry Picket of the Washington Times and NewsBusters executive editor Matt Sheffield on the big screen, along with other greats of the conservative movement (I also got a free movie pass from the management for my trouble). One of the greatest moments of the movie, for me personally, was seeing footage of Andrew Breitbart holding one of the MRC's "Don't Believe the Liberal Media" fans in his hand as he spoke to the massive 9/12/2010 Tea Party rally in Washington, DC (see image at right; click here for larger version).

At one point in the film, Breitbart cracked that he only had two emotional settings: jocularity and righteous indignation. I can identify with that righteous indignation part, as that is exactly how I felt on Friday night.