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The Washington Free Beacon

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The Washington Free Beacon
File:Washington Free Beacon.jpg
TypeOnline news site
FormatWeb site
Editor-in-chiefMatthew Continetti
Managing editorSonny Bunch, Aaron MacLean, Stephanie Wang
Founded2012
Political alignmentConservative
LanguageEnglish
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
WebsiteFreeBeacon.com

The Washington Free Beacon is an American conservative political journalism web site launched in 2012. It states it is "dedicated to uncovering the stories that the powers that be hope will never see the light of day" and producing "in-depth investigative reporting on a wide range of issues, including public policy, government affairs, international security, and media."[1]

History

The Free Beacon was founded by Michael Goldfarb, Aaron Harrison, and Matthew Continetti, who remains its editor-in-chief. It launched on February 7, 2012, as a project of the 501(c)4 organization Center for American Freedom.[2] In August 2014, it announced it was becoming a for-profit news site.[3]

The site is noted for its conservative reporting, modeled after liberal counterparts in the media such as ThinkProgress and Talking Points Memo, intended to publicize stories and influence the coverage of the mainstream media.[2][4][5] Jack Hunter, a staff member of U.S. Senator Rand Paul's office, resigned in 2013 after a Free Beacon report detailing his past as a radio shock jock known as the "Southern Avenger" who wore a luchador mask of the Confederate flag.[6] The publication also broke several stories about former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's successful 1975 legal defense of an accused rapist that attracted national media attention.[4][7]

According to an October 27, 2017 article published in The New York Times, the Washington Free Beacon engaged Fusion GPS from October 2015 to May 2016 to conduct opposition research on "multiple candidates" during the 2016 Presidential Campaign.[8][9] Although the Free Beacon admitted to hiring Fusion GPS, the group behind the anti-Trump Steele Dossier, they stated they "had no knowledge of or connection to the Steele dossier, did not pay for the dossier, and never had contact with, knowledge of, or provided payment for any work performed by Christopher Steele."[9] The article in the Times said that Paul Singer, a billionaire and hedge fund manager", who is a major donor to the Free Beacon, was also unaware of the Steele dossier until it was published in BuzzFeed in January 2017.[8]

Reception

Jim Rutenburg of The New York Times described the reporting style of the Free Beacon as "gleeful evisceration."[10] Mother Jones magazine described the website as having "built genuine muckraking success" for breaking significant news stories.[11] Commenting on the Free Beacon's success at breaking news stories, The Washingtonian's Andrew Beaujon wrote that, "the Free Beacon regularly pounds out scoops any political reporter would envy. And many of its stories are difficult for their targets simply to dismiss, because they provide that rarest of internet wares: actual news."[12]

Its tactics have also led to attacks from media critics and watchdog groups.The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf called the Free Beacon's mission "decadent and unethical".[13] The progressive media watchdog group Media Matters for America's founder David Brock sent a letter to news organizations in 2014 saying, "If credible media outlets regard the unethical practices of The Free Beacon as valid, all of journalism will be debased."[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ "About Us". Washington Free Beacon. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  2. ^ a b Smith, Ben (5 January 2012). "How to fight liberals: Imitate them". Politico. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  3. ^ Rothstein, Betsy (4 August 2014). "Washington Free Beacon goes private". Daily Caller. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  4. ^ a b Auletta, Ken (2 June 2014). "The Hillary Show". The New Yorker. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  5. ^ Friedersdorf, Conor (8 February 2012). "The Worst Mission Statement in the History of D.C. Journalism". The Atlantic. theatlantic.com. Retrieved 2016-05-29. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |website= (help)
  6. ^ Antle, Jim (21 July 2013). "Southern Avenger no more: Rand Paul aide Jack Hunter leaves staff, returns to punditry". Daily Caller. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  7. ^ Kreutz, Liz (20 June 2014). "Hillary Clinton's Handling of 1975 Rape Case Emerges Again". ABC News. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  8. ^ a b Vogel, Kenneth P.; Haberman, Maggie (October 27, 2017). "Conservative Website First Funded Anti-Trump Research by Firm That Later Produced Dossier". The New York Times. Retrieved October 27, 2017. Mr. Singer initially supported Senator Marco Rubio's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. But after Mr. Rubio dropped out of the race, Mr. Singer spearheaded an effort to block Mr. Trump from winning the presidential nomination, drawing Mr. Trump's ire.
  9. ^ a b Continetti, Matthew; Goldfarb, Michael (27 October 2017). "Fusion GPS and the Washington Free Beacon". Washington Free Beacon. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  10. ^ Rutenberg, Jim (23 February 2014). "A Conservative Provocateur, Using a Blowtorch as His Pen". New York Times. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  11. ^ Baumann, Nick (March–April 2015). "Conservatives started a news website and it's actually kind of good". Mother Jones. motherjones.com. Retrieved 2016-05-29. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |website= (help)CS1 maint: date format (link)
  12. ^ "The Problem With the Mainstream Media: It's Not More Like the Washington Free Beacon". Washingtonian. 2015-08-06. Retrieved 2016-05-29.
  13. ^ Friedersdorf, Conor (8 January 2014). "The ascendant 'smear wing' of the conservative movement". The Atlantic. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  14. ^ "David Brock Advises Media Of The Washington Free Beacon's Unethical Practices". Media Matters for America. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
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