RealClear Politics

no mma tag

ben weingarten testimony // taibbi

see also realclear science (entine, atz ...) ntbcw realclimate which is legit

see matt taibbi prize w/ dr jay and laptop BS

also RC energy, climate...

repost killer orca motorcycle gangs, realclear INVESTIGATIONS? sic https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/authors/jake_novak_cnbc/ ~ greta

501c3 foundation

see Tom Kuntz, Editor, RealClearInvestigations 28 yrs NYT?

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george will says reads all of the,? cspan bktv 1021

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posted by jan 6 dude?

Is the Left Preparing for War If Trump Wins?Is the Left Preparing for War If Trump Wins? realclearwire.com

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ny post

wASHINGTON — “Twitter Files” journalist Matt Taibbi sparred with former President Joe Biden’s onetime “disinformation czar” Nina Jankowicz during a Tuesday hearing about government censorship on Capitol Hill, ripping the past administration’s content moderation efforts for having undermined Americans’ free speech.

The House Foreign Affairs South and Central Asia Subcommittee heard testimony from both about the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), which was set up under former President Barack Obama to counter foreign disinformation and misinformation — but had begun targeting US social media users under Biden.

“GEC officials were largely concerned with domestic, English-language accounts — people with no ties to terror groups or relationships with adversary nations like Iran, China or Russia,” Taibbi said about his extensive review of internal Twitter, now X, records in 2023.

“The American government has no role in protecting citizens from speech,” he went on. “The whole idea of the system that was designed by Jefferson and Madison is that the American people view each other as adults who are capable of sorting out the truth for themselves.

“They do not need a nanny state or a guardian or a law enforcement agency to decide for them what’s truth,” he concluded.

“We don’t need a truth squad — and that’s exactly what GEC was designed for.”

Taibbi sparred with former President Joe Biden’s onetime “disinformation czar” Nina Jankowicz during a Tuesday hearing about government censorship on Capitol Hill.house.gov

The “Twitter Files” unearthed emails disclosing an immense pressure campaign to censor The Post’s bombshell scoop on Hunter Biden’s emails introducing his father to foreign business patrons and the lab-leak theory of COVID-19’s origins, which was later corroborated as the most likely explanation for the pandemic by Joe Biden’s FBI, Energy Department and CIA.

Lower federal courts slapped the Biden administration with injunctions for having pressured Facebook and other social media companies into throttling engagement or removing posts on the controversial subjects, but the US Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, said the plaintiffs lacked standing.

Benjamin Weingarten, an investigative journalist and columnist at RealClearPolitics, noted that the federal district court judge who first heard the case called it “arguably the most massive attack on free speech in US history.”

“The so-called Censorship Industrial Complex is a fiction that has not only had profound impacts on my life and safety but on our national security,” Nina Jankowicz said.house.gov

Having dubbed the feds’ effort “digital McCarthyism” during a March 2023 congressional hearing, the Racket News founder now said he had delved back into the “Twitter Files” and found more evidence of big tech content moderation.house.gov

“Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had that same view. Three Supreme Court justices did as well,” Weingarten told members of the subcommittee. “And while it’s been dismissed, that case, the fact of the matter is that the Supreme Court specifically did not rule on the underlying merits — the thousands of pages of discovery which blew the lid open on this entire regime.”

In a Feb. 4, 2020, email, one of the Twitter moderators noted that the GEC seeding media reports about Russian influence driving Sen. Bernie Sanders’ popularity during the Democratic primary was “making me worry a little about how good-faith these players will be through the press into 2020.”

:{:{“The idea behind GEC in particular was finding a way to propagandize American citizens and encourage acceptance of official policy, the way we’ve always done to foreign populations,” the “Twitter Files” scribe testified}:

.CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images}:

Another earlier in the exchange claimed GEC staffers were pushing “sensationalist claims about epidemics of foreign bots.”

“Although many of the most controversial stories about the GEC involve their funding of commercial media-scoring operations that down-ranked conservative news outlets, I also observed the GEC pressuring Twitter about socialist accounts, left-leaning accounts, and independents, as well as conservatives,” Taibbi said.

“They weren’t looking for misinformation and disinformation,” he added. “They were looking for orthodoxy and unorthodoxy, obedience and disobedience. The idea behind GEC in particular was finding a way to propagandize American citizens and encourage acceptance of official policy, the way we’ve always done to foreign populations.”

:{Republican critics have dubbed Jankowicz Biden’s “disinformation czar” and frequently derided her efforts as trying to police Americans’ social media posts.

Subcommittee chairman Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) concurred that as vice chairman of the House finance panel, he often sees government agencies using their regulatory pressure as a “cudgel.”house.gov

Jankowicz, who was tapped but later pulled from running a Disinformation Board under Biden, dismissed the entire “premise of this hearing” in her opening statement. She had called October 2020 reports on Hunter’s laptop a “Russian influence op.”

“The so-called Censorship Industrial Complex is a fiction that has not only had profound impacts on my life and safety but on our national security,” she said. “More alarmingly, this fiction is itself suppressing speech and stymying critical research that protects our country.”

The founder of the misinfo-targeting American Sunlight Project then went a step further and accused the Trump administration of having committed “far more egregious violations of our Constitution” in recent weeks than “the imagined actions of the Biden administration.”

Republican critics have dubbed her Biden’s “disinformation czar” and frequently derided her efforts as trying to police Americans’ social media posts.

The House Foreign Affairs subcommittee also needled her for posting a TikTok video singing a la Mary Poppins about her campaign.

Taibbi countered that even aside from GEC’s efforts, there were further transgressions by Biden’s FBI and White House — the latter of which had a former New York Times reporter kicked off Twitter.

Subcommittee chairman Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) concurred, saying that as vice chairman of the House finance panel he often sees government agencies using their regulatory pressure as a “cudgel.”

GEC, which was closed down, reportedly went through a “rebranding” effort inside the State Department during the final days of Biden’s term.

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The Censorship-Industrial Complex | House Judiciary Committee Republicans

YT link

House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. ET. The hearing, "The Censorship-Industrial Complex," will examine the Committee's role in uncovering the Biden-Harris Administration's unconstitutional censorship campaign and will examine upcoming threats to free speech including from AI and foreign governments.

WITNESSES:

Matt Taibbi, Twitter Files journalist; author; Founder, Racket News
Michael Shellenberger, Twitter Files journalist; CBR Chair of Politics, Censorship, and Free Speech, University of Austin; Founder, Public News
Rupa Subramanya, Canada-based journalist, The Free Press
Craig Aaron, President and Co-CEO,Free Press Action

Subcommittees

Committee on the Judiciary (119th Congress)

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prize w/ BS doc

Matt Taibbi discusses what he found in "The Twitter Files" at RCP''s first Samizdat Prize award ceremony last month and what the public needs to know about censorship and free speech:

MATT TAIBBI: It was a lot like the journalistic version of the golden ticket in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," to look through the secret files of one of the world's biggest corporations.

The first thing we were looking for actually had to do with Miranda's story, and I thought because of a couple of interviews involving Mark Zuckerberg we would maybe find a few emails from the FBI about that one story. We knew that had been suppressed, and ironically we didn't find a whole lot about Miranda's story, but we did find within days a whole galaxy of things that said, "Flagged by FBI," "Flagged by DHS," "Flagged by HHS," "Flagged By Treasury." We realized there was this huge operation that spanned the entire federal government to pressure not just Twitter, but two dozen at least internet companies to suppress different kinds of information.

There's a journalist here who writes for RealClear, Aaron Maté, where the FBI basically passed a request from the Ukrainian Secret Service to take this guy off Twitter. It was a whole long list of spreadsheets full of requests about all these different journalists, and the scale of it was mind-boggling. That is what unites all three of us, we were all caught up in this story of mass censorship that until very recently was hidden. This has to be out in the open more, people need to know more about it.

Dave Rubin of "The Rubin Report" hosts a panel with the winners of the first RealClearPolitics Samizdat Prize -- "Twitter Files" journalist Matt Taibbi, "Great Barrington Declaration" co-author Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and NY Post reporter and "Laptop From Hell" author Miranda Devine. The three...

Carl Cannon: We Salute the Courage of "Samizdat Prize" Winners Matt Taibbi, Miranda Devine, and Dr. Jay BhattacharyaMarch 29, 2024

RCP Washington bureau chief Carl Cannon introduces the three winners of RCP's Samizdat Prize, Matt Taibbi, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and Miranda Devine, and explains how they stood up to censorship and pressure from the government, media, and academia. CARL CANNON: We all remember when COVID-19...

DesRosiers: RealClear Readers Want Viewpoint Diversity, You Want to Think Outside Your TribeApril 02, 2024

RealClearFoundation president David DesRosiers talks about the goals of the Samizdat Prize at the first annual award ceremony hosted by RCP (you can watch the full event here): DAVID DESROSIERS: We get the world that we praise. We get bad movies because the Oscars exist. We have a problem with...

Miranda Devine: 2020 Election Outcome Might Have Been Different If Intel Community Hadn't Lied About Hunter Biden's LaptopApril 03, 2024

New York Post reporter Miranda Devine, one of the winners of the first annual RCP Samizdat Prize for resisting censorship, said at an event last month hosted by RealClearPolitics that if her reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop had not been suppressed in the weeks ahead of the 2020 presidential...

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya: Covid Mistakes Will Be Repeated If Lockdowns Are Not RepudiatedApril 05, 2024

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya warned at RCP''s first Samizdat Prize award ceremony last month that the mistakes of Covid-19 will be repeated if they are not completely repudiated: DR. JAY BHATTACHARYA: It will absolutely happen again, there will be another pandemic. The same playbook will come out...

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LI meh 500 plus

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off bs bios 5 24

https://www.realclearfoundation.org/people.html

People

Leadership

David DesRosiers, President

Translating research and good ideas into real-world influence—through communications and network strategies—has long been David DesRosiers’s mission. Before establishing the RealClearFoundation, in partnership with RealClearPolitics, he spent decades in the think-tank, foundation, and media sectors. He has advised nonprofits such as the Inner-City Scholarship Fund, as well as philanthropies such as the Kauffman Foundation.

Daniel Geary,

Vice President

With a background in policy research and nonprofit fund-raising, Daniel Geary oversees the life cycle of projects taking place under the auspices of the RealClearFoundation. Before becoming the Foundation’s vice president in 2019, he worked at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Geary holds a Ph.D. in political science from Boston College; his dissertation was a policy history of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Tom Kuntz, Editor, RealClearInvestigations

Directed by founding editor Tom Kuntz, RealClearInvestigations (RCI) curates the best investigative journalism daily from around the web. Its vantage point as news aggregator leaves it well-placed to identify gaps in coverage of important issues—which it then fills with original, often contrarian, “hit-’em-where-they-ain’t” investigative reporting. Before launching RCI, Kuntz spent 28 years as an editor at the New York Times. Author of the books The Titanic Disaster Hearings and The Sinatra Files, he also produced TV documentaries for Discovery about rebuilding Ground Zero.

Nick Sanchez,

Director of Syndication

The primary ambassador to the broader media market, Nick Sanchez directs RealClearWire, a syndication service that makes RealClear’s original investigative reporting, commentary, news, and data analysis available for free republication. He draws upon his background as an opinion editor, digital news producer, and book publicist in extending RealClear’s reach and readership.

RealClearInvestigations

Richard Bernstein

A former foreign correspondent, culture reporter, and book critic, first for Time magazine and then for the New York Times, Richard Bernstein has reported for RealClearInvestigations on such issues as U.S.-China relations, higher education, religion, and the culture wars. The author of several books, he has proved prescient, time and again. In his 1994 book, Dictatorship of Virtue: How the Battle over Multiculturalism Is Reshaping Our Schools, Our Country, Our Lives, Bernstein reported on the conflict between traditional liberal ideals and a multicultural orthodoxy that has reached a fever pitch in all influential quarters, from campuses to major corporations. And in 1997, when it was widely believed that “engagement” with China would lead it to become “a responsible shareholder” in the international system and move toward democratic openness, Bernstein and Ross Munro coauthored The Coming Conflict with China, predicting that China represented a looming authoritarian rival to the United States.

Susan Crabtree

Keeping government accountable starts with putting officeholders on the spot with pointed questions. For more than 20 years, Susan Crabtree has been on the front lines of accountability journalism as a White House and congressional correspondent. Her reporting has brought much-needed transparency to the inner workings of federal policymaking on issues such as international religious freedom, national security, and congressional ethics. Her stories about bribery, corruption, and conflict-of-interest issues on Capitol Hill helped change House and Senate ethics rules and led to FBI and Ethics Committee investigations. Crabtree previously served as a senior writer for the Washington Free Beacon, as White House correspondent for the Washington Examiner, and as senior editor and investigative reporter for The Hill. She has also been a media fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a guest speaker at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government seminar for incoming members of Congress. She is a frequent guest political analyst on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and C-SPAN.

Eric Felten

While government reports may bury evidence of corruption in the 100th page or deep in the footnotes, RealClearInvestigations correspondent Eric Felten will find it and report it. A former columnist for the Wall Street Journal, he has published in Washingtonian, People, National Geographic Traveler, The Weekly Standard, Daily Beast, National Review, Spectator USA, and Reader’s Digest, among others. Felten’s books include Loyalty: The Vexing Virtue and The Ruling Class: Inside the Imperial Congress. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University, where he was a Kennedy fellow and a teaching fellow in ethics. Felten is also the author of How’s Your Drink? Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well and in 1990 formed the Eric Felten Jazz Orchestra, renowned for its renditions of music from the big-band era.

Mark Hemingway

Based inside the Beltway, Mark Hemingway reports on the key institutions shaping public life, from lobbying groups to federal agencies to elections. His writing has appeared in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, MTV.com, and The Weekly Standard, among others. Hemingway also holds the distinction of having been used as a point of reference by Alec Baldwin’s character, Jack Donaghy, on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock.

Aaron Maté

The public benefits when journalists approach claims made by the government with a healthy dose of skepticism. In this spirit, reporter Aaron Maté has provided extensive coverage of corruption within federal intelligence agencies, particularly in the context of the Russia-collusion story. Also a contributor to The Nation, Maté has previously reported and produced for Democracy Now!, Vice, and Al Jazeera and written for the Toronto Star, The Intercept, and Le Monde Diplomatique. He is the host of the news show Pushback with Aaron Maté.

John Murawski

It is often said that ideas have consequences; in his reporting for RealClearInvestigations, John Murawski shows how. A graduate student in English literature at Indiana University when postmodernism was ascendant in the academy, he reports on how academic theories have been shaping many areas of public life, from school curricula to political rhetoric. Before joining RCI, Murawski covered artificial intelligence for the Wall Street Journal and spent 15 years as a reporter for The News & Observer of Raleigh.

Paul Sperry

With a talent for exhaustively researching and investigating stories and cultivating connections to many well-placed sources, Paul Sperry ensures that citizens have the relevant facts to understand the news. His investigative reporting for RealClearInvestigations has driven national news cycles on major issues, from the Parkland school shooting in 2018 to the Russia-gate scandal and the impeachment of President Trump. Before joining RCI, Sperry was Washington bureau chief for Investor’s Business Daily. His scoops and columns have appeared in the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Houston Chronicle, among other major publications. A longtime media fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, Sperry is the author of many books, including Infiltration, a national bestseller about the war on terrorism inside America’s borders.

J. Peder Zane

RealClearInvestigations seeks to operate according to the highest of journalistic standards. As articles editor, J. Peder Zane helps our reporters tell their stories with the clarity, precision, and fairness that their topics—and our readers—deserve. For 13 years, he was the book review editor and books columnist for the News & Observer of Raleigh, where his writing won several national honors, including the Distinguished Writing Award for Commentary from the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He has also worked at the New York Times and taught writing at Duke University and Saint Augustine’s University. Zane has written two books, Off the Books: On Literature and Culture and Design in Nature (with Adrian Bejan), and he has edited two others, Remarkable Reads: 34 Writers and Their Adventures in Reading and The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books. And he is a columnist for RealClearPolitics.

Scholars

Rupert Darwall

Few policy areas affect the economy—indeed, the nature and future of capitalism—more than energy and the environment. As a senior fellow of the RealClearFoundation, Rupert Darwall studies and reports on issues from international climate agreements to the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals in corporate governance. A renowned scholar on both sides of the Atlantic, he previously worked as an investment analyst and in corporate finance, as well as serving as a special advisor to the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer. The author of two books—Green Tyranny and The Age of Global Warming—and numerous think-tank reports, Darwall has also written for the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, and Daily Telegraph, among others.

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Impeachment ‘Whistleblower’ Was in the Loop of Biden-Ukraine Affairs That Trump Wanted Probed

By Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations

Shackled by Freedom: How Workplace Licensing Holds Back Ex-Convicts

By Amanda Kieffer, RealClearInvestigations

Mega-Jolt: The Costs and Logistics of Plugging In EVs Are About to Become Supercharged

By John Murawski, RealClearInvestigations

Public Education's Alarming New 4th 'R': Reversal of Learning

By Vince Bielski, RealClearInvestigations

Leprosy, Polio, Malaria, TB, Measles … and Massive Unscreened Illegal Immigration

By James Varney, RealClearInvestigations

off bs

david M. DesRosiers, PhD

Advisor

David DesRosiers is the Publisher of the premier independent political website RealClearPolitics.com and its sister sites, twelve verticals covering Policy, Markets, Books, History, World Events, Education, Sports and more. Updated every morning and throughout the day, RealClear culls and publishes the best commentary, news, polling data, and links to important resources from all points of the political compass and covering all the important issues of the day.

Mr. DesRosiers is also the Founder and President of Revere Advisors, a policy and opinion consulting boutique with a diverse client base made up of for- and not-for-profit organizations, think tanks, and media. Revere provides strategic counsel to those organizations whose success is necessary for the health and vitality of our political, economic, and cultural institutions.

Prior to his current roles, Mr. DesRosiers served for ten years as Executive Vice President at the Manhattan Institute. For part of that time, he was also a Senior Fellow at the Institute’s Center for the American University, which is dedicated to promoting intellectual pluralism and the appreciation of free institutions in the American academy.

Mr. DesRosiers has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Assumption College and a Ph.D. in political science from Fordham University. He is married to Dr. Fabiana DesRosiers, a developmental psychologist, and has two children, Ryan and Maggie. They reside in Scarsdale, New York.

...Protect Our Power was formed in 2016 as an independent, non-profit advocacy and educational organization focused solely on driving increased resilience of the U.S. electric grid to attacks.

Protect Our Power was formed in 2016 as an independent, non-profit, non-partisan advocacy and educational organization focused solely on driving increased resilience of the U.S. electric grid.

We have built a well-respected, credible team of experts who work with, not for, key stakeholders in industry, the Administration, Congress, and state and federal regulators. Our Advisory Panel members include former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, former CIA and NSA Director Gen. Michael Hayden, and former Coast Guard Vice-Admiral John Shkor, as well as top-level experts from the power, financial and security industries, academia, and former state and federal energy regulators.

Protect Our Power has become an influential, aggressive voice driving state and federal agencies and the U.S. Congress to develop more effective policies to substantially improve our ability to repel attacks on the electric grid and make our nation and economy more secure. We further believe that America’s business leaders need to take an aggressive role on this issue because they are on the front lines, with their companies and employees among the most vulnerable to grid disruptions.

Protect Our Power works to bring together the many disparate elements that make up the electric grid — the thousands of private, public, and cooperative generators, transmission, distribution and equipment supply companies, and state and federal regulators — to achieve a singular result: Ensuring the continuous delivery of a highly reliable and affordable supply of electricity despite the real and escalating level of cyber and physical attacks and natural disasters.

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desrosiers_realclears_samizdat_prize_winners_show_a_real_clear_presentation_of_first_amendment_courage

VID]

Buck Sexton and RealClearFoundation president David DesRosiers discuss censorship, the First Amendment, and RCP's new Samizdat Prize, whose inaugural winners, Stanford epidemiologist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and journalists Matt Taibbi and Miranda Devine, will join Dave Rubin for a live interview at a March 7 awards gala in Palm Beach, Florida.

DAVID DESROISERS: "Samizdat" is Russian for "underground publishing."

We're going to do this on the eve of the State of the Union. This is going to be our own State of the Union. We really think that we're moving in a bad direction with regard to one of the founding cornerstones of the way we should conduct our lives and our politics -- the First Amendment.

We really think that the First Amendment is not trending well, and we want to praise those intrepid souls who stand up for the rest of us so we can remain free.

...

"The Gulag Archipelago" by Solzhenitsyn, the lie-killer that was that book, had to be smuggled into their own country. Some of the greatest dissident thinkers we have come to know, who challenged the lie that was Soviet communism -- and any type of regime suffering from a tyranny of the mind -- like Vaclav Havel, went underground to get above ground.

We see our country, a country committed to the First Amendment, has made a dangerous turn away from it. We want to call attention to that turn and show people the trajectory of where it is going if we don't stand up to it now. It's not going to get better, it is going to get worse.

What we want to do on Thursday, March 7, is to highlight three intrepid people who we think show what a real, clear presentation of First Amendment courage is.

...

The three folks we have singled out to get these awards capture that.

We have Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, he was the guy who stood up to Fauci and said, "Hey, the scientific method can withstand a crisis." And everything in his experience, in terms of science, says that we are going the wrong way. He was treated very poorly -- and not just by the press and the politicians but by his own profession. And what did we see? History vindicated him. He was put up as a monkish superstition, but it turns out that Fauci was the pope and Dr. Jay was Galileo.

The same goes for the other two we picked. The New York Post's Miranda Devine is another recipient. If someone gave you [Hunter Biden's] laptop, if you don't jump into that with the responsibility that comes with being a representative of the First Amendment, you'd be a hack.

And the same goes for Matt Taibbi, the other gentleman who is receiving it. If you get invited into Elon Musk's [Twitter Files] to look behind the veil, and you see this alphabet soup of violations of the First Amendment -- the government is not supposed to do that, regardless of whether a private company wants them to.

I think you see in the journalists we picked, the differences between them are of degree and not kind, which is what healthy journalism should be. Matt and Miranda share a profession, ethics, and a sense of fearless reporting. And sadly, that type of reporting is being attacked at scale.

...

There's going to be a room full of people who deserve the award. We live in a society where we actually get more of what we praise. We have to praise the First Amendment and the people who have the courage for it. The Pulitzer Prize bent the arc of journalism, and I don't think it bent it the right way. We want to start something this week, stand it up, and reward and praise the people who keep us free so maybe we won't have to go underground and live in a Samizdat world.

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random 5 24

Biden On Campus Protests: "There's A Right To Protest, Not The Right To Chaos"

Karine Jean-Pierre: Biden Karine Jean-Pierre: Biden "Not Doing A Both Sides" On Campus Protests Like Trump Did In Charlottesville

Robert F. Kennedy Offers Biden Robert F. Kennedy Offers Biden "No Spoiler Pledge" For One Of Them To Drop Out In October To Avoid Trump Victory

Joe Rogan: Universities Aren't Our Best And Brightest Anymore, Joe Rogan: Universities Aren't Our Best And Brightest Anymore, "You Guys Are Doing Nonsense" At "Cult Camp"

Jordan: When Biden Said The Vaccinated Couldn't Get Covid, Was It Misinformation Or Disinformation?Jordan: When Biden Said The Vaccinated Couldn't Get Covid, Was It Misinformation Or Disinformation?

trying to get the stank off? rcp boosted eastman, claremont...

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/02/12/the_federalist_society_stood_by_the_law_not_trump_145229.html

no lnx

The Federalist Society Stood by the Law, Not Trump

COMMENTARY

By Jonathan D. Urick February 12, 2021

In the aftermath of the election, critics have pounced on the conservative legal movement for its role in the Trump administration. But they miss the crucial role of those who boldly defended the rule of law.

President Trump notably selected many federal judges from the Federalist Society, the country’s leading association of conservative and libertarian lawyers. Even more society members joined his administration. These members faced significant pressure to ignore the facts and law, as Trump launched a months-long effort to overturn his election loss, culminating in the infamous assault on the U.S. Capitol.

[DeSantis: These Regulatory Agencies In The Government Have Become Subsidiaries Of The Pharmaceutical Companies

Steve Kornacki: Mayra Flores' Win In South Texas Shows The Hispanic Vote Could Be "Up For Grabs We Haven't Seen In A Long Time"

Saagar Enjeti: Documents Reveal Ministry of Truth's Twitter Collaboration

the False Assumptions Behind Climate Regulations in Pennsylvania

By Kevin Mooney

December 06, 2022

While they were in the majority, Pennsylvania House Republicans spent their political capital to advance American energy independence, free speech rights, and scientific integrity.

Unlike too many their counterparts in Washington D.C., they were not cowed by hostile press coverage or well-funded pressure groups that have a stake in undermining sound science. Most recently, for instance, the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a hearing this fall exploring the benefits of fossil fuels and pitfalls of “emergency declarations” advanced in the name of climate change.

Since Gov. Tom Wolf, the state’s outgoing Democratic governor, first announced back in October 2019 that he was taking executive action to combat climate change, Republican leaders have held a series of hearings calling attention to scientific data that debunks climate alarmism. They have also worked in partnership with Pennsylvania Democrats representing the energy sector to prevent Wolf from circumventing the state legislature along the way toward imposing carbon taxes.

In April, the Pennsylvania Senate fell just one vote shy of the requisite two-thirds majority needed to override Wolf’s veto of a concurrent resolution from the full General Assembly that would prevent the commonwealth from joining the multi-state climate change compact. Three Senate Democrats joined with Republicans in the override attempt. At issue, is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, commonly known as RGGI, a “cap and trade” regulatoryscheme operating under the guise of climate change that is designed to curtail carbon dioxide emissions throughout the 11 participating New England and Mid-Atlantic states. Government regulators in the RGGI states require electric power plants with a capacity of at least 25 megawatts to purchase carbon allowances at quarterly auctions whenever utilities surpass the greenhouse gas initiative’s predetermined cap on Co2 emissions. Speculators have latitude to resell allowances at higher prices. The auction process, which has been in motion since 2009, is where carbon taxes enter the equation. State Rep. Jim Struzzi, a Republican in Indiana County,explains why.

“RGGI is a tax,” Struzzi said in an interview. “It taxes the carbon dioxide emissions that come from plants anytime they are generating electricity and so basically it punishes these companies for being successful by creating the electricity we need for reliable energy in those cold winter months and hot summer months. If these companies are going to stay in business someone is going to have to pay these costs; and it’s going to be the factories, it’s going to be the consumers, and it’s going to affect everyone.”

Struzzi is the lead sponsor of legislation that would prohibit the governor from joining RGGI and imposing carbon taxes without legislative approval. Wolf vetoed an earlier version of the bill, which seven of his own Democrats co-sponsored on the House side. Wolf is not exactly an outlier among climate change activists in government who are actively working to circumvent the democratic process.

In his testimony before the Pennsylvania House, Marc Morano, the editor and publisher of the Climate Depot website, told lawmakers that he sees a certain parallel between climate change initiatives the COVID-19 lockdowns at all levels of government impacting businesses and schools across the country.

“The Biden administration believes that when democracy fails to achieve its climate goals, it's time to bypass democracy and Congress and follow the COVID model. Climate activists havelusted after the COVID lockdowns as the model for climate lockdowns,” Morano said. “The plan is to declare a 'climate emergency,' toss out elected representatives and follow China's one-party rule model by implementing energy restrictions through the bureaucracy. They don't need no stinkin' democracy. Throughout history, emergency declarations have been used and abused to crush freedom. For those who loved howunelected officials ruled our lives under COVID lockdowns, prepare for the attempts to make climate and energy lockdowns permanent.”

During the same hearing, Kevin Dayaratna, a statistician and data scientist with The Heritage Foundation, presented testimony focusing attention on the “Social Cost of Carbon,” or SCC, which federal regulators define as “economic damages per metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions.” The Biden administration is using the SCC in various climate models to determine the long-term impact of CO2, Dayaratna said. However, these models are based on assumptions that may not square with reality, the Heritage analyst warned. These assumptions tend, for example, to overlook the environmental benefits of Co2 emissions such as the “greening of the planet” that occurred between 1982 and 2009, Dayaratna said. At the same time, the models omit the deleterious effect of regulations that restrict Co2 emissions, he observed.Dayaratna cited figures from the Heritage Foundation that point to a severe economic fallout to U.S. that could result from rejoining the U.N.’s Paris Climate Agreement. By 2040, the U.S. could experience an average employment shortfall of more than 1.2 million lost jobs, loss of income of more than $87,000 for a family of four, and up to a 30% increase in household electricity expenditure, with an aggregate $7 trillion loss in GDP, Dayaratna said.

In Pennsylvania, the state-level outlook is every bit as bleak. The Commonwealth Foundation, a free-market group based in Harrisburg, has just published an analysis that finds RGGI’s “carbon tax regime” could lead to a 114% hike in electricity bills. Although Wolf had Pennsylvania join RGGI this year, the state has not participated in the most recent auctions since Wolf’s executive actions are the subject of legal challenges. Industry and labor groups have filed suit challenging the governor’s ability to act unilaterally on climate change policy as have state senators who have raised questions about the separation of powers. As a solution, the Commonwealth Foundation has proposed passing a constitutional amendment to allow the General Assembly “to disapprove regulations as a check on an agency’s power to restrict energy development in the state.”

Josh Shapiro, the incoming Democratic governor, expressed misgivings about Wolf’s approach toward RGGI while on the campaign trail. Since being elected, he hasn’t made any firm commitments about the state’s future participation. A constitutional amendment offers him a way out.

With his party poised to take a slim majority in the House next year, Shapiro will still need to contend with labor constituents and House Democrats residing in energy producing regions who are opposed to RGGI. Meanwhile, the scientific and economic rationale for the climate change initiative continues to unravel. Gregory Wrightstone, a geologist, and executive director of the Co2 Coalition, has repeatedly informed Pennsylvania House members thatCo2 is a “miracle molecule” that greatly benefits humanity and deserves greater appreciation.

“Critics of fossil fuels routinely exaggerate, and sometimes outright fabricate, their negative effects while ignoring altogether their enormous benefits,” Wrightstone said during his latest testimony before the Pennsylvania House.

“Coal and oil fueled the Industrial Revolution, which gave us unprecedented prosperity and health. Together with natural gas, they promise to raise billions of people in developing countries from poverty and deprivation. Modern economies cannot long survive without fossil fuels. In short, we love CO2 and so should you.”

In a victory forfree speech, climate skeptics have found expression before the Pennsylvania legislature like they have in few other public venues. In a potential victory for American energy, these same skeptics have also exposed the faulty assumptions underpinning costly regulations while alsocalling attention to unconstitutional executive actions.

Kevin Mooney is an investigative reporter with both the Commonwealth Foundation and the Heritage Foundation.

wiki 3 22

realClearPolitics (RCP) is an American political news website and polling data aggregator formed in 2000 byformer options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan.^[2][3][4][5] The site features selected political news stories and op-edsfrom various news publications in addition to commentary from its own contributors.^[6][3] The site is prominent during election seasons for its aggregation of polling data.^[7][8][9]

Since the end of 2017, RealClearPolitics has had a rightward, pro-Trump turn in its content according to The New York Times.^[10] According to a 2020 Knight Foundation study, RealClearPolitics is generally read by a moderate audience, leaning slightly toward the right.^[11]

Establishment[

The website was founded in 2000 by McIntyre, a former trader at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, and Bevan, a former advertising agency account executive.^[4] McIntyre explained "it really wasn't any more complicated than there should be a place online that pulled together all this quality information".^[12] They call what they do "intelligent aggregation."^[13] The site has grown in election-season spurts since it first went online. It has expanded from a two-man operation to a full-time staff of more than two dozen employees overseeing the company's mainstay, RealClearPolitics, as well as ten smaller sites.

Political orientation[

2000 to 2017[

In a 2001 article for Princeton Alumni Weekly noted that "The articles selected invariably demonstrate McIntyre and Bevan's political bent, about which they are unabashedly forthcoming." McIntyre said, "I'm not really a die-hard Republican because my interests are less on social issues, more on taxing and spending. ... But I definitely don't want the government telling me what to do with my property... Nevertheless, any political junkie—even a liberal—would enjoy our site because the topics we choose are current."^[6]

In a 2003 interview with the conservative magazineHuman Events, McIntyre described the philosophy behind the website as based on "freedom" and "common-sense values"; Bevan said that the website's owners shared the common conservative belief that the mainstream media was biased "against conservatives, religious conservatives, [and] Christian conservatives".^[3]

In a 2004 article for Time, Patrick Stack described the website's commentary section as "right-leaning".^[14]

In a 2008 interview with the Chicago Tribune, McIntyre said, "We're trying to pull together the best political stories, op-eds, news analyses, editorials out there. The proliferation of content is enormous. Part of what we're trying to do is distill it in a clear, simple way for people who don't have hours to spend searching the Net".^[15] In 2009, RealClearPolitics was described as a weblog "in the conservative pantheon" by Richard Davis.^[16][17]

During the 2008 elections, The Wall Street Journal repeatedly referred to RealClearPolitics as "nonpartisan".^[18][19] The New York Times referred to its polling practice as a "nonpartisan tally."^[20]

The 2012–2013 edition of academic text Cengage Advantage Books: American Government and Politics Today, Brief Edition describes the site as being run by conservatives, and containing "opinion pieces from multiple media sources".^[21]

Rightward turn during Trump's presidency[

An October 2019 article in The Daily Beast reported that RealClear Media manages a Facebook page of "far-right memes and Islamophobic smears." Anand Ramanujan, Chief Technology Officer for RealClear Media, responded that the company created the website that was affiliated with the Facebook page "as part of an effort to understand the flow of traffic from social media—particularly Facebook—to political websites."^[22]

Since 2017, when a large number of its straight news journalists were laid off, RealClearPolitics has had a rightward, aggressively pro-Trump turn with donations to its affiliated nonprofit increasing, with much of that from entities used by wealthy conservatives. Several journalists who talked to the New York Times in 2020 said they never felt any pressure from the site’s founders to bias their stories.^[10]

In November 2020, The New York Times said that "Real Clear became one of the most prominent platforms for elevating unverified and reckless stories about the president's political opponents,through a mix of its own content and articles from across conservative media" and that for days after the election "Real Clear Politics gave top billing to stories that reinforced the false narrative that the president could still somehow eke out a win."^[10] Some allies of Donald Trump falsely claimed that RealClearPolitics had rescinded its call of Pennsylvania for Biden; however, the website had not yet called a winner in the state.^[23][24]

Real Clear Politics heavily promotes content by The Federalist, a conservative websitewhich draws funding from the same pool of donor money as Real Clear Politics.^[10]

In 2016, RealClearInvestigations was launched,^[25] backed by foundations associated with conservative causes, such as the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation and**Sarah Scaife Foundation**.^[26] In 2019, the site published an article by a conservative author, Paul Sperry, containing the supposed name of a U.S. intelligence officer who blew the whistle on the Trump–Ukraine scandal.^[26] The article's publication came as part of a month-long effort by Trump allies on media and social media to "unmask" the whistleblower, whose identity was kept confidential by the U.S. government, in accordance with whistleblower protection (anti-retaliation) laws.^[26] Most publications declined to reveal the whistleblower's identity; RealClearInvestigations' editor defended the site's decision to publish the article.^[26]

Ownership[

Forbes Media LLC bought a 51% equity interest in the site in 2007.^[27] On May 19, 2015, RealClearInvestors and Crest Media announced that they had bought out Forbes's stake for an undisclosed amount.^[28]

RealClearPolitics also owns RealClearMarkets, RealClearWorld, and RealClearSports.^[29] RealClearMarkets and RealClearSports were launched in November 2007. RealClearWorld, the international news and politics site, was launched in August 2008.RealClearScience and RealClearReligion launched in October 2010.^[30] RealClearHistory launched in 2012; in 2013 RealClearDefense was launched to cover military, intelligence, and veterans' issues.^[31]

Original content[

In addition to linking to external content, RealClearPolitics also provides original commentary and reporting, with a staff that includes Washington Bureau Chief Carl M. Cannon (who also serves as Executive Editor of RealClear Media Group),^[32][33] Caitlin Huey-Burns,^[34] White House Correspondent Alexis Simendinger, James Arkin,^[35] and Senior Analyst Sean Trende.^[36][37] Former staff includes Scott Conroy and Erin McPike.^[38]

Political poll averaging[

RealClearPolitics aggregates polls for presidential and congressional races into averages, known as the RealClearPolitics average, which are widely cited by media outlets. In 2008, Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight said that RealClearPolitics was rigging its averages to favor Senator John McCain and other Republicans, although he later receded from this claim, indicating that his site and RCP had a friendly rivalry.^[39] McIntyre denied having a conservative bent, saying that the site was a business and had "no interest in screwing around with that for partisan purposes".^[39]

In 2016, Republicans performed 1.7% better than the final RealClearPolitics average,^[40] and Republicans performed 3.3% better than the site's average in 2014.^[41] In the 2016 presidential election, the final RealClearPolitics average margin overestimated Democrat Hillary Clinton's popular vote performance by 1.3%. The final electoral college prediction map produced by RealClearPolitics predicted the average outcome to be that she would narrowly win the election with 272 electoral votes. However, she lost the election to Republican Donald Trump in spite of winning the popular vote.^[42] In 2018, the site underestimated the Democratic vote in the 2018 congressional elections by just over one percentage point.^[43]

References

...

not climate denier mashey?

philip Wegmann is both a staff writer at The Federalist and the producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. In the past, he reported with the Daily Signal where he covered breaking national and international news, while also publishing in-depth regional stories from around the country. Graduating with honors from Hillsdale College, he earned bachelor’s degrees in History and Political Philosophy. Contact him at philip@thefederalist.com and follow him on Twitter.

alex k

https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/12/09/who-funds-the-federalist-finally-we-know/

For years, the funding behind the right-wing, pro-Trump publication The Federalist has been a total mystery. Many Twitter users have asked the website’s leaders, repeatedly, “Who funds The Federalist?” only to be blocked by the likes of publisher Ben Domenech, co-founder Sean Davis, or senior editor Mollie Hemingway. (This author is blocked by all three.)

Last year, Hemingway characterized the question as “a kind of a veiled threat” and a “clear, coordinated attempt to silence The Federalist.

However, a few months earlier, The Federalist’s affiliated nonprofit, FDRLST Media Foundation, had been certified as a 501(c)(3) charity by the Internal Revenue Service, meaning that donors could begin making tax-deductible contributions to the foundation. If the donor was a nonprofit organization like a family foundation or trade association, its grants to the FDRLST Media Foundation would eventually be part of the public record. Hemingway is a director and “governor” of the foundation.

Last week, CMD obtained the 2019 tax records of two right-wing funders who donated to the FDRLST Media Foundation that year: GOP megadonor and shipping supply billionaire Richard Uihlein and DonorsTrust, a donor-advised fund manager that has been dubbed “the dark money ATM” of the conservative movement.

The Uihleins

The Federalist may have once had a “never Trump” image, but the conservative publication moved quickly rightward as President Donald Trump became president and took over the Republican Party. The outlet is now known for vigorously defending Trump, for its trolling and conspiracy-laden posts, and for attacking liberal media. Sometimes trafficking in racism, The Federalist had a “black crime” tag until someone exposed the tag on Twitter.

It’s unclear when Uihlein, the Illinois-based founder of shipping supply company Uline, began funding The Federalist, but it makes sense that his foundation, the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, donated $400,000 to the FDRLST Media Foundation last year. Uihlein and his wife, Liz, are influential Trump donors and among the Republican Party’s biggest funders; Uihlein is the fifth-biggest donor to outside political spending groups of the 2020 federal elections, having doled out over $63 million tosuper PACs such as the pro-Trump America First Action, Club for Growth Action, the Senate Leadership Fund, and Restoration PAC, which he funded nearly exclusively.

The New York Times reported in August that, based on interviews, Richard Uihlein was a donor to The Federalist, but his foundation’s 2019 tax return is the first evidence of his financial support to be made public.

As The Federalist published story after story denying science and opposing mask wearing during the coronavirus pandemic—including one story allegedly written by an anonymous small-town mayor claiming that health officials order mask mandates for political, not scientific, reasons—Liz Uihlein minimized the virus, calling it “overhyped,” and endangered Uline workers by allegedly using lax safety practices and initially discouraging employees from working from home. Liz Uihlein, the president and CEO of Uline, got an exemption from Canada’s quarantine requirement to visit a Uline facility in the country, which she reached via private jet. The Uihleins would eventually contract COVID-19 in November.

The Uihleins have endorsed fringe candidates such as Roy Moore, the far-right Alabaman who ran for Senate in 2017 and was credibly accused of sexual misconduct with minors by multiple women. Liz Uihlein was a member of the 2016 Trump campaign’s economic council.

The Ed Uihlein Foundation gave to additional right-wing media outlets in 2019, including The Daily Caller News Foundation ($25,000), the Media Research Center ($275,000), and the Real Clear Foundation ($350,000), which has ties to The Federalist (see below). It also donated $400,000 to the Center for Security Policy, an anti-Muslim hate group. Its largest 2019 contribution, $3.2 million, went to the Foundation for Government Accountability, a State Policy Network member that advocated kicking people off of Medicaid this year during the pandemic. Since 2014, the Uihleins have given the Foundation for Government Accountability over $11 million.

The “Dark Money ATM” of the Conservative Movement

One of the political right’s biggest funding vehicles, DonorsTrust, gave $249,000 to the FDRLST Media Foundation in 2019. CMD was first to report on DonorsTrust’s 2019 tax records and on the group’s major donation to the white nationalist hate group VDARE, as well as a smaller amount to the New Century Foundation, the nonprofit behind the white nationalist publication American Renaissance.

DonorsTrust also gave $1,350,000 to the Real Clear Foundation and nearly $400,000 to the Media Research Center in 2019, part of $15 million in grants to conservative media operations that year.

DonorsTrust is a donor-advised fund sponsor, meaning that it manages individual charitable accounts of its wealthy clients, who have included GOP megadonors such the DeVos, Koch, and Mercer Families. These clients can donate appreciable assets into their accounts and score a double tax benefit: they get both a capital gains tax break and a charitable tax deduction. Clients then direct DonorsTrust to donate their money to the nonprofits of their choice, as long as the DonorsTrust board approves the proposed recipient. Donor-advised fund managers allow their clients to remain anonymous, as the manager legally owns and disperses the money.

DonorsTrust and its sister organization, Donors Capital Fund, distributed $165 million in grants in 2019, much of it going to right-wing think tanks, advocacy groups, litigation centers, media outlets, extremists, and climate deniers.

Past Clues

The Uihlein and DonorsTrust grants are the first known donations to The Federalist, but one financial tie was already public. Journalist Andrew Perez found that the George E. Coleman Jr. Foundation is an investor in FDRLST Media, LLC, the company behind The Federalist. In 2018, the Coleman Foundation had $148,000 invested in FDRLST Media. The foundation’s trustee, Daniel Oliver, is a former Reagan official who was once executive editor of the conservative National Review, which receives significant funding from DonorsTrust through its affiliated National Review Institute.

In advance of a 2019 Buzzfeed News article that cited the Coleman Foundation investment, Domenech, The Federalist’s publisher, refused to comment but tweeted that this impending revelation of public information amounted to “doxxing” an investor. “They will do this because they want to shut us down,” he claimed.

Federal tax records for the FDRLST Media Foundation are not yet public, but the Washington, D.C. secretary of state has public records of the foundation. David DesRosiers, the publisher of Real Clear Politics and the former executive vice president of the Uihlein-funded Manhattan Institute, is a director. Hemingway is both a director and a “governor.” Attorney Alan P. Dye is the third director.

It’s possible that more FDRLST Media Foundation donors will emerge as CMD obtains additional 2019 tax records from conservative foundations.

In September 2017, FDRLST Media filed an offering of debt securities with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At the time, $200,000 of the $750,000 offered had been sold. Listed as a director of FDRLST Media was John McIntyre, president and CEO of Real Clear Media. Someone named Jenn McIntyre was also listed as a director and an executive officer. The filing located FDRLST Media at the same Chicago address as Real Clear Politics, the main publication of Real Clear Media.

Real Clear has taken a “sharp right turn” in recent years, likely due to its increased funding from right-wing donors and its reaction to Trump’s takeover of the Republican party. A CMD report showed that at least 99 percent of the 2015 to 2018 revenue of the Real Clear Foundation, which funds the outlet’s investigative stories, came from right-wing funders, including DonorsTrust, Donors Capital Fund, the Uihlein Foundation, and two foundations of Charles Koch.

“As the administration lurched from one crisis after another,” wrote The New York Times’ Jeremy Peters last month, “Real Clear became one of the most prominent platforms for elevating unverified and reckless stories about the president’s political opponents, through a mix of its own content and articles from across conservative media.”

ron j fail not acknowledged? i saw a pix darkened but no sure (beacon?) rcp had bunch on hunter

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/09/23/biden_there_has_been_no_indication_of_a_conflict_of_interest_with_hunter_biden_in_ukraine.html

random grab 920

'Climate Clock' Reveals Decades of Premature Doom Prophecies

Daniel Payne, JTN

Kids Have Low Risk of Covid, Are Harmed by Precautions

Snape & Viner, Science

no lnx an 320

Here’s why Trump slammed Fox News for being too ‘politically correct’

Fox News

Written by Matthew Rozsa / Salon March 6, 2020

President Donald Trump blasted Fox News while appearing on the right-leaning network, telling its highest-rated host Sean Hannity that the cable channel invites “inappropriate” guests who criticize him in a desire to be “politically correct.”

“They put people on I think are inappropriate and say very, very false things, and people don’t challenge them. I think they’re trying to be very politically correct or ‘fair and balanced,’ right, is the term,” Trump told Hannity during a phone interview.

After Hannity agreed with Trump’s opinion, the president added: “I think they hurt themselves, if you want to know the truth.”

Earlier in the interview, Trump complained to Hannity that “the media is all on [the Democrats] side” with the exception of “yourself” and other Fox personalities, including Fox News host Mark Levin and Fox Business host Lou Dobbs. Trump also mentioned Rush Limbaugh, a radio host who the president incorrectly identified as working for the Fox networks.

Trump has a history of attacking Fox News after the network invites guests who are critical of the president or releases unfavorable poll numbers about him. During a rally in Colorado last month, Trump criticized Fox News and Fox Business Network host Neil Cavuto, saying “they had this woman on Neil Cavuto who doesn’t treat us good” and that Cavuto himself is “not too good.”

That comment referred to A. B. Stoddard, a RealClearPoliticsassociate editor who claimed that Trump performed poorly during the presidential debates in the 2016 cycle. Trump incorrectly claimed in a tweet that he “won every one of my debates,” even though respondents in post-debate polls picked Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as the winner of those contests.

The president also attacked Fox News in November for releasing a poll, which found that nearly half of Americans wanted him impeached and removed from office.

“You’re reading the wrong polls. I have the real polls,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “I have the real polls. The CNN polls are fake. The Fox polls have always been lousy. I tell them they ought to get themselves a real pollster. But the real polls — if you look at the polls that came out this morning — people don’t want anything to do with impeachment. It’s a phony scam. It’s a hoax.”

A spokesperson from Fox News pointed Salon to an earlier statement by the network saying “our polling unit has long been held in high regard for being a nonpartisan source of research.”

Trump criticized Fox personalities Andrew Napolitano, Shepard Smith (who left in October) and others one month earlier after Fox News released a poll showing an increase in support for his impeachment and removal from office.

“From the day I announced I was running for President, I have NEVER had a good @FoxNews Poll. Whoever their Pollster is, they suck. But @FoxNews is also much different than it used to be in the good old days,” Trump tweeted at the time.

The president then launched a series of personal attacks at Fox News personalities whose opinions he views as unfavorable, including Judge Andrew Napolitano.

“With people like Andrew Napolitano, who wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice & I turned him down (he’s been terrible ever since), Shep Smith, @donnabrazile (who gave Crooked Hillary the debate questions & got fired from @CNN), & others, @FoxNews doesn’t deliver for US anymore,” Trump added. “It is so different than it used to be. Oh well, I’m President!”

Fox News anchor Bret Baier,responding to a presidential attack in 2019 after the network released an unfavorable poll about Trump’s chances in the 2020 election, said that “we have a news side and an opinion side. The opinion folks express their opinions. We do polls. Our latest poll had the Democratic candidates head-to-head, several of them ahead of President Trump. And this poll tracks exactly what the Real Clear Politics average of polls — even a little the other way — and this poll matches what we are seeing out there.”

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Humeexpressed similar thoughts earlier that year when Trump attacked the network for hosting a town hall event with former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who at that time was running for president.

“Say this for Buttigieg. He’s willing to be questioned by Chris Wallace, something you’ve barely done since you’ve been president,” Hume wrote on Twitter.

He added, “Oh, and covering candidates of both parties is part of the job of a news channel.”

You can watch the full interview below via YouTube:

===

escalator

https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/how-a-right-wing-disinformation-network-keeps-republicans-steeped-in-lies/

no lnx

How a right-wing disinformation network keeps Republicans steeped in lies

Written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly December 30, 2019

While Democrats continue to wring their hands over the 2020 presidential primary, Donald Trump and his enablers decided a long time ago that the eventual nominee would be Joe Biden. That explains the pressure the president put on Ukraine to announce an investigation into the Bidens, a move that led to his impeachment.

But just as we saw with the attempts to smear Hillary Clinton in 2016, the disinformation campaign about the Bidens will continue unabated in an effort to drive up negative impressions of the former vice president. Nicholas Grosman has documented the origins of one of those campaigns that is underway.

Hunter Biden is currently involved in a paternity suit in Arkansas. The New York Post recently ran an article titled, “Private-eye firm claims Hunter Biden is linked to multiple criminal probes.” Here’s the lead paragraph.

Hunter Biden is the subject of multiple criminal investigations related to “fraud, money laundering and a counterfeiting scheme,” it’s claimed in court documents filed Monday in his Arkansas paternity case.

The documents they are referring to were filed by a Florida-based private-eye firm, D&A Investigations, and were almost immediately dismissed by the judge because they had nothing to do with the paternity case. Nowhere in the documents did D&A name the agencies behind the purported criminal probes of Biden.

Grossman did what the reporters at the New York Post apparently couldn’t be bothered to do: he googled D&A Investigations and found their web site. The home page lists “active investigations.”

D&A opened an independent investigation (Transparency) in August 2016 into Hillary R. Clinton (HRC), Jeffrey Epstein & the Democrat National Committee (DNC) claims of: Russia broke into the DNC.

At the time, William J. Clinton (WJC), HRC, John Podesta, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and John Kerry were in collusion with Rogue Officials in the British Isles, Hong Kong, Iran, Russia, the Ukraine, United States, et al, to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.

In other words, the firm is dedicated to spreading conspiracy theories—particularly those that originate as Russian propaganda.

Hunter Biden’s attorney, Brent Langdon, responded to the filings by saying that D&A was engaged in “a scheme by a non-party simply to make scandalous allegations in the pending suit to gain some quick media attention.” As confirmation, the charges were never substantiated and were almost immediately dismissed, and yet they’ve caught fire on right wing media.

Two days after the article in the Post, the story showed up on Fox News under the title, “Hunter Biden is subject of criminal probes, says PI firm hinting at more incriminating details.” Other than repeating what had already been reported and using the opportunity to rehash the claims about Burisma, they added that D&A told them “to expect an additional filing soon, and hinted that more incriminating details concerning Hunter Biden’s business dealings would soon come to light.”

The story was then picked up by OAN and made its way to RealClearPolitics. At this point, the title simply reads: “Court Filing Shows Hunter Biden Earned $156 Million From Ukraine Corruption.” We can assume that social media feeds are now inundated with these false claims.

It is worth noting that this attempt to spread disinformation is so blatant that reputable news organizations are simply ignoring it. But as Grossman writes, “to figure out what to do about disinformation, first we need understand how it works.” This case gives us an example of how that happens. Either news organizations like the New York Post, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics are complicit with a firm like D&A Investigations or they aren’t interested in verifying information when it reinforces their biases. As a result, they spread disinformation and lies.

That is how Trump is able to maintain his 40+ percent support in the polls. Republicans have a propaganda network that keeps them steeped in lies. Back in 2016, mainstream media gave credence to those lies about Hillary Clinton in the name of balance.Beyond offering a mea culpa for their complicity, reporters should do their part to expose the propaganda network for what it is. This story would be a good place to start.

Koch Foundations Increased Media Investments in 2018

by Alex Kotch | November 26th, 2019

Billionaire Charles Koch's two foundations spent nearly $3.5 million on media grants and contracts in 2018.

As the political and philanthropic network of billionaire libertarian Charles Koch employs its latest PR strategy, the Charles Koch Foundation (CKF) and the Charles Koch Institute (CKI) increased their giving to media organizations by roughly $1 million in 2018.

Koch has generally funded right-wing organizations such as the Daily Caller News Foundation, which funds much of the content on the Daily Caller website, and the Reason Foundation, which publishes libertarian-minded news and opinion on Reason.com. These and other donations continued in 2018, but the two foundations also contracted with conservative media outlet RealClearPolitics and two center-left publications, The Atlantic and Ozy Media.

Overall, CKF and CKI combined to spend nearly $3.5 million on media grants and contracts in 2018. This amount is a small, but growing, portion of the foundations’ annual donations. In 2018, CKF gave out $127.5 million in donations, mostly to fund Koch’s right-wing educational and political infrastructure.

Daily Caller News Foundation

CKF’s largest media grant in 2018, $746,250, went to the Daily Caller News Foundation. While less than the $960,000 it gave a year before, it was still Koch’s biggest contribution to a media organization last year, as it has been since 2015.

On Nov. 11, the Daily Caller News Foundation uploaded a mashup video to YouTube that included a clip of a neo-Nazi rapping about his support for President Donald Trump. In the verse of the original video that followed the clip used by Daily Caller, the neo-Nazi rapped about the “Great Replacement,” a central white nationalist propaganda theory that claims immigrants of color will replace white populations.

This wasn’t the first time the Daily Caller has been linked to white supremacy; it has published several white supremacists and antisemites and has had some on staff.

After a November 2018 Sludge report on the Koch foundations’ funding of pro-Trump media, three CKF top officials claimed to Washington Post opinion writer and Reason alumnus Radley Balko that, “they personally and the Kochs and their foundations more generally find the Daily Caller abhorrent, and feel the same way about Tucker Carlson.”The officials argued that the CFK funding went towards writer fellowships for articles that are made available by wire to a broader range of news outlets. It is not publicly known whether CFK has funded the Daily Caller News Foundation this year.

The Daily Caller New Foundation’s 2018 revenue numbers aren’t yet public, but CKF’s donations in 2016 amounted to 84 percent of the foundation’s annual contribution total.

RealClear

Two entities of the conservative media operation RealClear got money from the Koch foundations in 2018. The Real Clear Foundation, which funds RealClearInvestigations and “news aggregation and content creation that is in the public good,” according to tax records, received a $375,000 consulting contract from CKI.

RealClearPolitics, the company’s news, opinion, and poll aggregation website, and CKI teamed up to poll the public and veterans on military intervention and specific wars in 2017 and 2018. Also in 2017, the website published a piece critical of activists organizing against a Koch-funded center at Wake Forest University. RealClearPolitics accepts trainees from CKI’s Media and Journalism Fellowship program “with no strings attached.”

RealClearPolitics got $75,000 from CKF in 2018. Neither entity received money from the Koch foundations from 2015-17. RealClearPolitics published an op-ed from CKF official Will Ruger in October 2018 and another by Sarah Ruger, director of free expression at CKF, this June.

RealClear Foundation has been funded by right-wing megadonors for years. In fiscal year 2013, the sole disclosed donor was Nelson Broms, an insurance executive who co-founded the Koch-funded Manhattan Institute, who gave $50,000. By FY2016, the Real Clear Foundation had significantly increased its fundraising ability, getting $2,250,000 from the Koch-tied DonorsTrust. CMD has tracked over $5.5 million in Real Clear Foundation funding since April 2013, including $1 million from the similarly Koch-tied Donors Capital Fund and six-figure amounts from conservative megadonor foundations in the Koch funding network, such as the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation and the Sarah Scaife Foundation.

[graf]

RealClearPolitics co-founder John McIntyre is tied to the far-right Federalist website. He and his wife, Jenn, are listed as directors of The Federalist on a 2017 securities offering filing, alongside co-founders Ben Domenech, who is married to Meghan McCain, and Sean Davis. Jenn McIntyre is also listed as an executive for The Federalist, which is not connected to the Koch-funded Federalist Society.

Center-Left Publications

The foundation of Charles Koch, whose political network has installed scores of right-wing state and federal lawmakers and funded ideological free-market centers and conservative student groups on college campuses, began funding initiatives in 2018 to counter the political polarization that it has catalyzed.

On its 2018 tax return, CKF listed a $300,000 contract with The Atlantic Monthly Group, which publishes The Atlantic.

The Atlantic magazine has a long history of publishing liberal and centrist writers. Since the conservative-friendly Jeffrey Goldberg took the reins in late 2016, the publication has devoted its pages to stories questioning political correctness on college campuses, criticizing the #MeToo movement, anddefending controversial figures such as Jordan Peterson.

Peterson has been accused of misogyny, bigotry, and conspiracy theorizing. Conservative New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss interviewed Peterson at the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is presented by Atlantic Live and supported by Koch Industries and the foundation of GOP megadonor Paul Singer.

Goldberg even briefly hired extreme misogynist Kevin Williamson, whom he first defended and then let go under enormous public pressure. Still, the publication is seen as part of the liberal media sphere.

On Nov. 28, The Atlantic kicked off a year-long series, “The Speech Wars,” which was underwritten by CKF, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Fetzer Institute. The series presents “a marketplace for competing ideas,” said Goldberg. CKF is “excited” to “[support] The Atlantic‘s expansion of their courageous and nuanced coverage of growing polarization,” said CKF’s Ruger. “America’s an increasingly diverse nation, and we can be better for our differences. Dedicated efforts like The Atlantic‘s stand to deepen our understanding and ultimately address barriers to that peaceful and productive pluralism.”

A larger 2018 contract, $500,000 from CKI, went to Ozy Media, a company “tailor-made for the Change Generation–people from every corner of the globe who are challenging the status quo and bucking convention.” The money supported a PBS primetime series, “Take On America,” which has a similar theme to The Atlantic series: It “provides participants an opportunity to take a pause from the growing polarization by joining town hall meetings across the country.” Ozy CEO Carlos Watson, who co-founded the company with former Goldman Sachs associate Samir Rao, hosts the series, which is also funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

In addition to contracting with two media companies with liberal audiences, CKF also partnered with the Poynter Institute, a mainstream journalist education nonprofit, which it gave $225,000 in 2018. A year earlier, CKF gave Poynter its first grant, worth $75,000, to launch the Poynter College Media Project, a campus-based initiative that “encourage[s] the student press to use journalism to navigate divisive issues.”

The Koch operation, which has surveilled and attempted to smear well-known reporters such as Jane Mayer of The New Yorker, has a new line about journalism. “Media plays a vital role in the free flow of knowledge essential to society,” said Ruger. “Poynter’s program takes that one step further, highlighting the critical and continuing role a free press has in facilitating conversations on even our most difficult issues.”

This April, Poynter announced the Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism Fellowship, sponsored by CKI.

1119

several scalise BS on impeach

https://www.allsides.com/news-source/real-clear-politics

rating?!

Primary tabs

RealClearPolitics media bias rating is Center.

RealClearPolitics is a political news and polling data aggregator based in Chicago, Illinois. The site's founders say their goal is to give readers "ideological diversity". Politico Executive Editor Jim VandeHei has called the site "an essential stop for anyone interested in politics."

The site was founded in 2000 by former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan. Forbes Media LLC bought a 51% equity interest in the site in 2007.[8] RCP has expanded to include a number of sister sites.

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_clear_politics

Authors who have written for RealClearPolitics

Debra Saunders, Tim Hains, Carl M. Cannon

This list is provided by our.news. It is a beta feature and may not be 100% accurate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealClearPolitics

RealClearPolitics (RCP) is a Chicago-based political news and polling data aggregator formed in 2000^[3] by former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan.^[4][5][6] The site features selected political news stories and op-eds from various news publications in addition to commentary from its own contributors, often from a conservative perspective.^[7][4] The site describes itself as attempting to "counterbalance the common liberal bias of the mainstream press";^[7] the founders say their goal is to give readers "ideological diversity" in its commentary section.^[8]

The site is publishes an aggregation of polling data during election seasons, which is frequently cited by various media organizations that cover political issues.^[9][10][11]

Origin and philosophy:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Origin:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

The web site was founded in 2000 by McIntyre, a former trader at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, and Bevan, a former advertising agency account executive.^[5] McIntyre explained "it really wasn't any more complicated than there should be a place online that pulled together all this quality information".^[12] They call what they do "intelligent aggregation."^[13] The site has grown in election-season spurts since it first went online. It has expanded from a two-man operation to a full-time staff of more than two-dozen employees overseeing the company's mainstay, RealClearPolitics, as well as ten smaller sites.

Philosophy:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, McIntyre said, "We're trying to pull together the best political stories, op-eds, news analyses, editorials out there. The proliferation of content is enormous. Part of what we're trying to do is distill it in a clear, simple way for people who don't have hours to spend searching the Net".^[14] He told the Chicago Sun-Times that RealClearPolitics strives to feature "serious intellectual pieces" and that they're "not looking for the over-the-top, vitriolic, red-meat craziness on either side".^[15]

Patrick Stack of *Time* magazine has described the site's commentary section as "right-leaning".^[16] The site has been described as being run by conservatives, and containing "opinion pieces from multiple media sources".^[17] In 2009 RealClearPolitics was described as a weblog "in the conservative pantheon" by Richard Davis.^[18][19]

In an interview with the conservative magazine Human Events, McIntyre described the philosophy behind the Web site as based on "freedom"and "common-sense values". Said Bevan, "We think debate on the issues is a very important thing. We post a variety of opinions". He further stated, "we have a frustration all conservatives have", which is "the bias in media against conservatives, religious conservatives, [and] Christian conservatives".^[4]

In a 2001 article for Princeton Alumni Weekly, which noted that "The articles selected invariably demonstrate McIntyre and Bevan's political bent, about which they are unabashedly forthcoming." McIntyre said, "I'm not really a die-hard Republican because my interests are less on social issues, more on taxing and spending... But I definitely don't want the government telling me what to do with my property... Nevertheless, any political junkie—even a liberal—would enjoy our site because the topics we choose are current."^[7]

An October 2019 article in The Daily Beast reported that Real Clear Media manages a Facebook page of "far-right memes and Islamophobic smears." Anand Ramanujan, Chief Technology Officer for Real Clear Media, responded that the company created the website that was affiliated with the Facebook page "as part of an effort to understand the flow of traffic from social media—particularly Facebook—to political websites.” ^[20]

Format:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Updated continuously, RealClearPolitics' websites aggregate content from a wide range of sources, sources that run the gamut of locations and political persuasions. Stories from the Washington Post and other large-circulation media frequently run alongside articles from such lesser-known papers as the Ottawa Citizen, while analyses from the liberal New Republic may be paired with conservative publications such as the Weekly Standard. McIntyre's purported objective is "to give readers ideological diversity. We're trying to stay immersed in the nation's political bloodstream at all times. That way, we can show you every small, little twist and turn, and give multiple sides to every story".^[8]

Ownership:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Forbes Media LLC bought a 51% equity interest in the site in 2007.^[21] On May 19, 2015, it was announced that RealClearInvestors and Crest Media bought out Forbes's stake for an undisclosed amount.^[22][22]

RealClearPolitics also owns RealClearMarkets, RealClearWorld, and RealClearSports.^[23] RealClearMarkets and RealClearSports were launched in November 2007. RealClearWorld, the international news and politics site, was launched in August 2008. RealClearScience and RealClearReligion launched in October 2010.^[24] RealClearHistory launched in 2012; in 2013 RealClearDefense was launched to cover military, intelligence, and veterans issues.^[25] In 2016, RealClearInvestigations was launched, with a focus on investigative journalism.^[26]

Original content

In addition to linking to external content, RealClearPolitics also provides original commentary and reporting, with a staff that includes Carl Cannon, Scott Conroy, Erin McPike, Caitlin Huey-Burns, Alexis Simendinger, James Arkin, and Sean Trende.

Political poll averaging:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

RealClearPolitics aggregates polls for presidential and congressional races into averages, known as the RealClearPolitics average, which are widely cited by media outlets. However, some statisticians say that it is sometimes misleading to average results from multiple polls.^[27] When Nate Silver of rival site FiveThirtyEight claimed RealClearPolitics.com was rigging its averages to favor Senator John McCain and other Republicans, McIntyre denied having a conservative bent, stating, "We're running a business, We have no interest in screwing around with that for partisan purposes".^[28] Silver later backed away from the claim and said the two sites had a friendly rivalry and grudging respect for each other.^[28]

In 2016, Republicans performed 1.7% better than the final RealClearPolitics average, ^[29] and in 2014 Republicans performed 3.3% better than the site's average. ^[30] In the 2016 presidential election, the final RealClearPolitics average margin overestimated Democrat Hillary Clinton's popular vote performance by 1.3%. The final electoral college prediction map produced by RealClearPolitics predicted that she would narrowly win the election with 272 electoral votes. However, she lost the election to Republican Donald Trump in spite of winning the popular vote.^[31] In 2018, however, the site underestimated the Democratic vote in congressional elections by just over one percentage point.^[32]

References

Real Clear Politics - Media Bias/Fact Check

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com › real-clear-politics

:{:(style="border-color:#006621;;border-style:solid;border-width:5px 4px 0px;width:0px;height:0px;margin-left:3px;top:7.5px;margin-top:-4px;position:absolute;left:0px"):}:

:{Overall, we rate :{Real Clear Politics:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: as Right-Center biased based on source selection that leans right and Mixed for factual reporting due to use of multiple ...:(style="overflow-wrap:break-word"):}:

RealClearPolitics - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › RealClearPolitics

:{:(style="border-color:#006621;;border-style:solid;border-width:5px 4px 0px;width:0px;height:0px;margin-left:3px;top:7.5px;margin-top:-4px;position:absolute;left:0px"):}:

:{:{RealClearPolitics:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: (RCP) is a Chicago-based political news and polling data aggregator formed in 2000 by former options trader John McIntyre and former ...:(style="overflow-wrap:break-word"):}:

**Launched**‎: ‎February 3, 2000; 19 years ago

**Owner**‎: ‎RealClearInvestors and Crest Media

Created by‎: ‎John McIntyre, Tom Bevan

Origin and philosophy · ‎Format · ‎Ownership

RealClearPolitics Media Bias | AllSides

https://www.allsides.com › news-source › real-clear-politics

:{:(style="border-color:#006621;;border-style:solid;border-width:5px 4px 0px;width:0px;height:0px;margin-left:3px;top:7.5px;margin-top:-4px;position:absolute;left:0px"):}:

:{:{RealClearPolitics:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: is a political news and polling data aggregator based in Chicago, Illinois. The site's ... It is a beta feature and may not be 100% :{accurate:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:.:(style="overflow-wrap:break-word"):}:

919 grab

Texas: The Battle to Rewrite the State's History

Christopher Hooks, Texas Monthly - October 1, 2019

Read Full Story »

Investigative Issues: Dem Disaster Ahead if Pelosi’s Flip-Flop Doesn't Lead to Impeachment (or Even if It Does)

Michael Goodwin, New York Post - September 25, 2019

Any scenario's all but certain to fall short of conviction. Like generals fighting the last war, she and the radicals committed to taking their sore-loserdom to 2020 voters.

Read Full Story »

How Many Spy Targets Were There in Russiagate? One ... or Four?

Eric Felten, RealClearInvestigations - September 24, 2019

It has been more than a year since it was revealed that federal agents secured warrants to surveil onetime Trump presidential campaign adviser Carter Page both before and after the election. In all the arguments over whether those warrants were legitimately obtained, a related question has largely been neglected: Was Carter Page the only person in the Trump orbit to be put under surveillance? There is reason to think others were too.

Carter Page: Was he the only one?

AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File

A little-publicized Capitol Hill exchange suggests the possibility that three other campaign figures – Gen. Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and George Papadopoulos – were also the targets of FISA-approved surveillance.

This would be especially significant in the case of Flynn and Manafort because unlike the other two they were high-level figures in constant contact with Donald Trump. Investigators are generally empowered, under FISA’s “two hop” rule, to collect communications not only of the target, but of anyone in contact with the subject (hop one) and then anyone communicating with those contacts (hop two). Casting the net even wider, investigators are authorized to collect archived communications from well before the original warrant was issued. This suggests that Trump might not have been far off when he alleged that the Obama administration had his "wires tapped" in Trump Tower .

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch arrives for congressional questioning in December 2018.

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

The possibility of more spy warrants emerged last December when former Attorney General Loretta Lynch was interviewed by members of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees. (The exchange was reported by Breitbart News and Epoch Times after a transcript was released in June.)

Read Full Story »

New Jersey: How One Address Led to a $100 Million Tax Credit Scheme

Nick Corasaniti & Matthew Haag, New York Times - September 24, 2019

Read Full Story »

Iowa: 10,500 Steaks for Climate-Alarmed Dem Candidates

Hannah Bleau, Breitbart - September 23, 2019

Read Full Story »

California: The Sordid Story of a Top Democratic Donor, a Drug Lair, and Dead Gay Black Men

Jose A. Del Real and Laura M. Holson, New York Times - September 18, 2019

Read Full Story »

Woke History Is Making Big Inroads in America's High Schools

John Murawski, RealClearInvestigations - September 17, 2019

===

http://www.realclearinvestigations.com/links/2017/06/21/alaska_killer_whales_are_shaking_down_fishing_boats_103533.html

===

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By Rachelle Peterson

July 25, 2017

Story Stream

Alex B. Berezow's Projects

### Science Left Behind

- April 2011 to July 2012

Team Members: Alex B. Berezow, Hank Campbell

Book Release Date: Sept. 12, 2012

As pundits and political writers never miss a chance to remind us, evolution, stem cells, and climate change comprise the trifecta of conservative sins against science. Yet progressives have pet fallacies of their own. Aversion to nuclear power, animal research, and vaccines come naturally to many progressives, supported by little more than junk science and...more

Alex B. Berezow's Publications

### Beware of Stem Cell Therapy Claims

- USA Today
- May 15, 2013

Authors: Alex B. Berezow

Some stem cell therapy claims are the 21st Century equivalent of snake oil.

### Embracing the Promise of GMOs

- Wall Street Journal
- October 17, 2012

Authors: Alex B. Berezow

The campaign against biotechnology is based on misinformation and fear.

### No Sow's Ear

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Medical technology: Packing vaccines and other medicines into tiny silk purses could help them retain their potency in hot countries

### Vaccine-Autism Researcher Should Be Prosecuted

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- January 14, 2011

Authors: Alex B. Berezow

wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealClearPolitics

RealClearPolitics (RCP) is a Chicago-based political news and polling data aggregator founded in 2000.^[2] The site's founders say their goal is to give readers "ideological diversity".^[3] Politico Executive Editor Jim VandeHei has called the site "an essential stop for anyone interested in politics".^[4]

The site was founded in 2000 by conservatives, former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan.^[5][6][7] Forbes Media LLC bought a 51% equity interest in the site in 2007.^[8] RCP has expanded to include a number of sister sites.

Contents [hide]

Origin and philosophy[edit]

Origin[edit]

The Web site was founded in 2000 by McIntyre, a former trader at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, and Bevan, a former advertising agency account executive.^[6] McIntyre explained "it really wasn't any more complicated than there should be a place online that pulled together all this quality information".^[9] They call what they do "intelligent aggregation".^[10] The site has grown in election-season spurts since it first went online. It has expanded from a two-man operation to a full-time staff of more than two-dozen employees overseeing the company's mainstay, RealClearPolitics, as well as ten smaller sites.

Philosophy[edit]

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, McIntyre said, "We're trying to pull together the best political stories, op-eds, news analyses, editorials out there. The proliferation of content is enormous. Part of what we're trying to do is distill it in a clear, simple way for people who don't have hours to spend searching the Net".^[4] He told the Chicago Sun-Times that RealClearPolitics strives to feature "serious intellectual pieces" and that they're "not looking for the over-the-top, vitriolic, red-meat craziness on either side".^[11]

Patrick Stack of *Time* magazine has described the site's commentary as conservative-leaning.^[12]

In an interview with theconservative magazine Human Events,McIntyre described the philosophy behind the Web site as based on "freedom" and "common-sense values". Said Bevan, "We think debate on the issues is a very important thing. We post a variety of opinions". He further stated, "we have a frustration all conservatives have", which is "the bias in media against conservatives, religious conservatives, [and] Christian conservatives".^[5]

Format[edit]

Updated continuously, RealClearPolitics' websites aggregate content from a wide range of sources, sources that run the gamut of locations and political persuasions. Stories from the Washington Post and other large-circulation media frequently run alongside articles from such lesser-known papers as theOttawa Citizen, while analyses from the liberal New Republic may be paired with more conservative publications such as the Weekly Standard. McIntyre's purported objective is "to give readers ideological diversity. We're trying to stay immersed in the nation's political bloodstream at all times. That way, we can show you every small, little twist and turn, and give multiple sides to every story".^[3]

Ownership[edit]

Forbes Media announced on November 7, 2007, that it had acquired a 51% stake in RealClearPolitics.com. The founders will remain owners and management.^[8] In November, 2008, Forbes President and CEO Steve Forbes sent a memo directing that the company's online brands, includingForbes.com, Investopedia, and RealClearPolitics.com be combined.^[13]

RealClearPolitics also owns RealClearMarkets, RealClearWorld, and RealClearSports.^[14] RealClearMarkets and RealClearSports were launched in November 2007. RealClearWorld, the international news and politics site, was launched in August 2008. RealClearScience and RealClearReligion launched in October 2010.^[15] RealClearHistory launched in 2012; in 2013 RealClearDefense was launched to cover military, intelligence, and veterans issues. ^[16]

Original content[edit]

In addition to linking to external content, RealClearPolitics also provides original commentary and reporting, with a staff consisting of Carl Cannon, Scott Conroy, Erin McPike, Caitlin Huey-Burns, Alexis Simendinger, and Sean Trende.

The site's political commentary, election analysis and polling averages have been featured in national media outlets, including the New York Times,^[17] Fox News Channel,^[17] Investor's Business Daily,^[18] and the Chicago Sun-Times.^[19] RealClearPolitics polling averages are used on MSNBC's Hardball, Fox News, and the web sites of CBS News and the Washington Post.^[20]

Political poll averaging[edit]

RealClearPolitics aggregates polls for presidential and congressional races into averages, known as the RealClearPolitics average, which are widely cited by media outlets. New York Times contributor Neil Degrasse Tyson, wrote in an op-ed that "in swing states, the median result of all the polls conducted in the weeks prior to an election is an especially effective predictor of which candidate will win that election—even in states where the polls consistently fall within the margin of error".^[21] However, some statisticians say that it is sometimes misleading to average results from multiple polls.^[20] When Nate Silver of rival site FiveThirtyEight.com claimed RealClearPolitics.com was rigging its averages to favor Senator John McCain and other Republicans, McIntyre denied having a conservative bent, stating, "We're running a business, We have no interest in screwing around with that for partisan purposes".^[22] Silver later backed away from the claim and said the two sites had a friendly rivalry and grudging respect for each other.^[22]

References

RealClearPolitics (RCP)—RealClearPolitics.com—is a Chicago-based online "independent political website" founded in 2000 by John McIntyre and Tom Bevan, its website states. RCP also maintains a blog on Time magazine's website.

"Updated every morning and throughout the day, RCP culls and publishes the best commentary, news, polling data, and links to important resources from all points of the political compass and covering all the important issues of the day," its website states.

In November 2007, Forbes Media purchased a 51 percent interest in RCP.[1]

Contact Information

Website: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/

Weblog: http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/

This article is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

Categories:

RealClear Politics

the False Assumptions Behind Climate Regulations in Pennsylvania

Establishment[

Political orientation[

2000 to 2017[

Rightward turn during Trump's presidency[

Ownership[

Original content[

Political poll averaging[

References

The Uihleins

The “Dark Money ATM” of the Conservative Movement

Past Clues

Daily Caller News Foundation

RealClear

Center-Left Publications

Origin and philosophy:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Origin:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Philosophy:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Format:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Ownership:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Original content

Political poll averaging:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

References

Real Clear Politics - Media Bias/Fact Check

RealClearPolitics - Wikipedia

RealClearPolitics Media Bias | AllSides

One-and-a-Half Cheers for Claremont McKenna

Alex B. Berezow's Projects

Alex B. Berezow's Publications

Origin and philosophy[edit]

Origin[edit]

Philosophy[edit]

Format[edit]

Ownership[edit]

Original content[edit]

Political poll averaging[edit]

See also[edit]

References

Contact Information