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How RealClearPolitics became Right Wing Media
Great NYT story
[b][link=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/us/politics/a-popular-political-site-made-a-sharp-right-turn-what-steered-it.html]New York Times[/link] A Popular Political Site Made a Sharp Right Turn. What Steered It?[/b]
Real Clear Politics has been catering to campaign obsessives since 2000. It pitches itself as a trusted, go-to source for unbiased polling. The Trump era changed its tone, and funding sources. [b][/b]
Real Clear Politics, is well known as a clearinghouse of elections data and analysis with a large following among the political and media establishment and the kinds of political obsessives who might now have all the counties in Georgia memorized. It markets itself to advertisers as a trusted, go-to source admired by campaign and news professionals alike. Its industry benchmark polling average is regularly cited by national publications and cable news networks.
But less well known is how Real Clear Politics and its affiliated websites have taken a rightward, aggressively pro-Trump turn over the last four years as donations to its affiliated nonprofit have soared. Large quantities of those funds came through two entities that wealthy conservatives use to give money without revealing their identities.
Real Clears evolution traces a similar path as other right-leaning political news outlets that have adapted to the upheaval of the Trump era by aligning themselves with the president and his large following, its writers taking on his battles and raging against the left.
As the administration lurched from one crisis after another impeachment, the coronavirus, a lost election the president refuses to concede Real Clear became one of the most prominent platforms for elevating unverified and reckless stories about the presidents political opponents, through a mix of its own content and articles from across conservative media.
As the administration lurched from one crisis after another impeachment, the coronavirus, a lost election the president refuses to concede Real Clear became one of the most prominent platforms for elevating unverified and reckless stories about the presidents political opponents, through a mix of its own content and articles from across conservative media.…
Top Real Clear executives also developed business ties with a hard-right conservative outlet, The Federalist, that is frequently promoted on the Real Clear flagship website. Public records and interviews show that The Federalist, whose funding sources have been largely secret, draws from the same pool of donor money as Real Clear. In their statement, Mr. McIntyre and Mr. Bevan emphasized the websites independence but declined to address specific questions about their donors.
From 2016 to 2017, donations to the Real Clear Foundation more than quadrupled to $1.7 million, with nearly all of that coming from two entities that conservatives use to shield their giving from public disclosure requirements, Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund. In 2018, the Real Clear Foundation had its best year yet, reporting more than $3 million in donations. One donor whose identity is disclosed on tax filings is Andrew Puzder, who was briefly Mr. Trumps nominee for labor secretary and writes opinion pieces for Real Clear.
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2 Replies
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New York Times needs to look itself in the mirror.
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Yes, I noticed the shift when even EpochTimes and other sites that have a “flexible” relationship with the facts had stories regularly posted.
