 | |
Screenshot | |
Type of site | News |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Area served | South Carolina, United States |
| Key people | Will Folks (Founding Editor) Dylan Nolan (Director of Special Projects) |
| URL | fitsnews |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional |
| Current status | Active |
FITSNews is a United States-based news website that covers politics and current events in South Carolina.
FITSNews founder Will Folks worked as a campaign staffer and spokesman for Republican Gov. Mark Sanford until 2005, when Folks resigned and pleaded guilty to a domestic violence charge. [1] [2] Folks announced he was reviving his political consulting company Viewpolitik in 2005 and founded FITSNews in 2006. [3] Folks has been called by The State the "bad boy of South Carolina journalism" and a "Palmetto State politico with a reputation as a hell raiser" by The Guardian. [4] [5] The Columbia Journalism Review called FITSNews a "conservative-libertarian website covering politics," and The New York Times said it is a "jarring mix of political scoops ... and photos of scantily clad women accompanied by off-color remarks." [6] [7]
In 2010, as South Carolina state Rep. Nikki Haley campaigned in a Republican primary for governor, Folks published a series of blog posts claiming that Haley had engaged in an extramarital affair with him. Haley denied the allegations. [8] [9] Politico magazine compared the episode to the Bill Clinton sex scandal of the 1990s. [10]
Nancy Mace, who has served in both the South Carolina and United States House of Representatives, was a onetime co-owner of the site, but sold her stake in 2013. She began working for Folks in 2007 by providing marketing and technical support for the site. [11] [12]
In 2017 FITSNews was sued for libel by former South Carolina legislator Kenny Bingham over a story it published which cited anonymous sources alleging ethics violations by Bingham. [13] After Folks refused to reveal the site's sources for the story, Bingham's attorney sought to have him held in contempt of court. [14] The South Carolina Press Association supported FITSNews' defense against the potential contempt citation, which judge William P. Keesley declined to impose. A jury ultimately ruled in favor of Bingham, and imposed nominal damages of $1 on FITSNews. [15]
"FITS" in the site's name, FITSNews, stands for "Faith in the Sound". [16]
FITSNews covers news and events in South Carolina. The Columbia Journalism Review has described it as "a must-read for Palmetto State politicos". [17] In 2010, FITSNews was named to The Washington Post's list of the "best state political blogs" in the country. [18]
Matthew Nathan Drudge is an American journalist and the creator/editor of the Drudge Report, an American news aggregator. Drudge is also an author and a former radio and television show host.
The Drudge Report is a U.S.-based news aggregation website founded by Matt Drudge, and run with the help of Charles Hurt and Daniel Halper. The site prior to the 2020 US presidential election was generally regarded as a conservative publication, but its ownership and political leanings have been questioned following business model changes in mid-to-late 2019. The site consists mainly of links to news stories from other outlets about politics, entertainment, and current events; it also has links to many columnists.
Marshall Clement "Mark" Sanford Jr. is an American politician and author who served as the U.S. representative for South Carolina's 1st congressional district from 1995 to 2001 and from 2013 to 2019, and as the 115th governor of South Carolina from 2003 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Joshua Micah Jesajan-Dorja Marshall is an American journalist and blogger who founded Talking Points Memo. A liberal, he currently presides over a network of progressive-oriented sites that operate under the TPM Media banner and average 400,000-page views every weekday and 750,000 unique visitors every month.
Talking Points Memo (TPM) is a liberal political news and opinion website created and run by Josh Marshall that debuted on November 12, 2000. The name is a reference to the memo consisting of the issues (points) discussed by one's side in a debate or used to support a position taken on an issue. By 2007, TPM received an average of 400,000 page views every weekday.
Henry Dargan McMaster is an American politician and attorney serving as the 117th governor of South Carolina since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 50th Attorney General of South Carolina from 2003 to 2011 and the 91st lieutenant governor of South Carolina from 2015 to 2017 under Governor Nikki Haley.
Ezra Klein is an American journalist, political analyst, New York Times columnist, and the host of The Ezra Klein Show podcast. He is a co-founder of Vox and formerly was the website's editor-at-large. He has held editorial positions at The Washington Post and The American Prospect, and was a regular contributor to Bloomberg News and MSNBC. His first book, Why We're Polarized, was published by Simon & Schuster in January 2020.
Columbia City Paper was a free alternative newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, featuring investigative articles, political commentary, humor, music, arts and entertainment coverage.
Nimarata Nikki Haley is an American politician and diplomat who served as the 116th governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017 and as the 29th U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from January 2017 to December 2018. A Republican, Haley is the first Indian American to serve in a presidential cabinet. She was a candidate in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries. Her victory in the Washington, D.C. primary on March 3, 2024, made her the first woman ever to win a Republican Party presidential primary contest.
While the term "blog" was not coined until the late 1990s, the history of blogging starts with several digital precursors to it. Before "blogging" became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum software, such as WebEx, created running conversations with "threads". Threads are topical connections between messages on a metaphorical "corkboard". Some have likened blogging to the Mass-Observation project of the mid-20th century.
David Weigel is an American journalist. He works for Semafor. Weigel previously covered politics for The Washington Post,Slate, and Bloomberg Politics and is a contributing editor for Reason magazine.
Guido Fawkes is a right-wing political website published by British-Irish political blogger Paul Staines.
The 2014 South Carolina gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 2014, to elect the Governor of South Carolina, concurrently with the regularly-scheduled election and special election to both of South Carolina's U.S. Senate seats, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
James Raymond Davenport III, born in Great Falls, Montana, was an American journalist and reporter with the Associated Press, based in South Carolina. Davenport graduated from the University of South Carolina, with a bachelor's and a master's degree in English and journalism.
The 2018 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 2018, to elect the Governor of South Carolina. Incumbent Republican Governor Henry McMaster, who took office after Nikki Haley resigned to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, ran for election to a full term. The primary was held on June 12, with the Democrats nominating State Representative James E. Smith Jr. McMaster failed to win a majority of the vote, and then defeated John Warren in the Republican runoff on June 26. In the general election, McMaster defeated Smith, winning election to a full term.
The 2022 South Carolina gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of South Carolina. Incumbent Republican Governor Henry McMaster ran for re-election for a second full term in office and secured the Republican nomination in the June 14 primary. Joe Cunningham, former United States Representative from South Carolina's 1st congressional district, was the Democratic nominee. McMaster won the general election with 58% of the vote — a larger margin than in 2018.
The 2022 United States Senate election in South Carolina was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of South Carolina. Incumbent senator Tim Scott won reelection to a second full term, defeating state representative Krystle Matthews. This was the third consecutive election for this seat where both major party nominees were black.
Palmetto Family Council is a nonprofit public policy organization focused upon implementing conservative Christian ideas in South Carolina state law, especially concerning sexual morality. It opposes same-sex marriage, sex education, and vaccination against sexually transmitted infection. It supports restrictions on abortion and pornography. It works to place symbols of Christianity into schools and civic institutions, violating the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Similar national groups include the Family Research Council, a domestic hate group.
The 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina were held on November 8, 2022, to elect the seven U.S. representatives from the state of South Carolina, one from each of the state's seven congressional districts. The elections coincided with other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections.
The 2022 South Carolina Attorney General election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the Attorney General of South Carolina. Incumbent Attorney General Alan Wilson won a fourth term. The only two candidates to file for the election were Wilson and another Republican attorney, Lauren Martel.
Folks says he admires Matt Drudge, who made his name breaking news about the sex scandal that almost got Bill Clinton thrown out of office. But Folks has established a new model of sex scandal for the new-media age. In South Carolina's latest circus, Folks isn't just Drudge; he's also Monica Lewinsky.
He also has a business partner, Nancy Mace—Folks notes that she is the first woman to graduate from The Citadel—who built the site and works as his promoter and occasional editor.