 | |
Screenshot  Homepage in July 2021 | |
Type of site | News |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Owner | Raw Story Media |
| Created by | John K. Byrne |
| Editor | Roxanne Cooper |
| Key people |
|
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
The Raw Story (also stylized as RawStory) is an American progressive news website and online tabloid. It was founded in 2004 by John K. Byrne and is owned by Byrne and Michael Rogers. [1] The Raw Story is considered a hyperpartisan media outlet [2] [3] [4] and has been described as "junk news". [5] [6] [7]
Byrne, the former editor-in-chief of The Oberlin Review , founded The Raw Story he graduated from Oberlin College in 2003. [8] The outlet officially launched in 2004, with Rogers joining the site the same year. [1] [9]
On August 4, 2008, the Online News Association announced that The Raw Story was a finalist in the 2008 Online Journalism awards in the "Investigative, Small Site" category for the article "The permanent Republican majority", which was about improper partisan influence in the prosecution of former Governor Don Siegelman of Alabama. [10] [11]
An August 2017 study by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society found that between May 1, 2015, and November 7, 2016, The Raw Story was the fourth and fifth most popular left-wing news source on Twitter and Facebook, respectively. The study also found that The Raw Story was the 9th most shared media source on Twitter by Hillary Clinton supporters during the 2016 United States presidential election. [12] During the election, The Raw Story was heavily shared by Twitter accounts operated by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm engaged in online influence operations on behalf of Russian business and political interests. [13]
In 2017, The Raw Story was accepted as a member of the Association of Alternative News Media. [14]
In April 2018, Raw Story partners John K. Byrne and Michael Rogers announced that they had acquired AlterNet via a newly created company, AlterNet Media. [1]
In 2019, Raw Story partnered with Pulitzer Prize winner investigative journalist David Cay Johnston and his nonprofit news service DCReport, providing funding for DCReport's investigative reporting in exchange for original content for Raw Story's subscribers on financial regulation, taxes, energy, the environment, worker safety and corruption. [15] [16]
The Raw Story is an alternative news site that primarily aggregates stories from around the web. [17] [18] It is considered a hyperpartisan media outlet. [2] [3] [4] A study published by the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society classified The Raw Story as a "junk news" website, [5] while a 2018 report by the Oxford Internet Institute identified The Raw Story as one of the "Top 30 Junk News Sources on Twitter." [6] In 2016, DoubleVerify, an ad verification company, included The Raw Story in its "Inflammatory Politics & News" category. Advertisers would have the ability to block ads on websites appearing in the category. [19] [20] Journalist Michael Moynihan has referred to The Raw Story as a "conspiracy-friendly" website. [21]
In 2005, the site was described by Newsweek as: "Muck, raked: If you're looking for alleged GOP malfeasance, the folks at rawstory.com are frequently scooping the mainstream media." [22] In 2014, then-executive editor Tony Ortega described The Raw Story's editorial mission as trying to "expose" people "who try to exploit American ideas about fair play and equality by rigging things through their immense wealth or their discriminatory cultural myopia." [23]
In November 2008, The Raw Story reported that the United Mine Workers of America, which had endorsed Barack Obama's presidential campaign, had come to Obama's defense after John McCain's presidential campaign criticized him for a comment he had made about coal to the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle earlier that January. [24] Environmental journalist Andrew Revkin cited the article by The Raw Story in a post he wrote for The New York Times ' Dot Earth blog, and Curtis Brainard, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, described the article as "well-done". [25]
In 2011, The Raw Story was among the first outlets to report on the Apple assistant Siri apparently directing users away from abortion clinics and emergency contraception, instead providing results for the definition of emergency contraception or clinics far from the user. [26] The assistant, still in beta testing at the time, could, however, provide users with methods to acquire Viagra or use escort services. [27]
The same year, The Raw Story was the first to report on a United States Air Force contract to create fake social media profiles as a means of psychological warfare to be used against terrorist cells. [28] [29]
In 2012, then-executive editor Megan Carpentier wrote about undergoing a transvaginal ultrasound procedure in response to recent legislation in Virginia requiring an ultrasound prior to an abortion procedure. [30]
In 2014, Jennifer Mascia published a column on gun violence after compiling records for The New York Times . [31]
The same year, the outlet broke news of the connection between San Diego State University running back Adam Muema and Raymond "Lord Rayel" Howard-Lear. Howard-Lear claimed to be a prophet and made apocalyptic predictions online. Muema left the 2014 NFL Scouting Combine early and did not attend the San Diego State Pro Day while sending cryptic messages to reporters. [32] [33]
In September 2016, The Raw Story published a satirical article claiming that the Surgeon General of the United States warned that "drinking every time Trump lied during the first presidential debate could result in 'acute alcohol poisoning.'" The fake story was aggregated by Occupy Democrats, US Uncut, and other outlets as real news. [34]
On February 15, 2021, The Raw Story reported that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem had used a state airplane to travel to conservative political events. The report led Democratic lawmakers to formally request that the state's attorney general investigate Noem. [35]
The outlet has also reported on far-right extremists, including a report on January 6, 2021, hours before the attack in the U.S. Capitol that "predicted exactly what would happen," according to Editor & Publisher . [15] The Raw Story was among the first to report on instigators of the riots, including an alleged attempt to get then-President Trump to declare martial law using the Insurrection Act. [36]
In a viral post during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Raw Story asserted that Republicans were blocking a coronavirus bill because it would limit how much pharmaceutical companies could charge. [37]
In 2013, a hoax claiming that "oculolinctus," an eye-licking fetish, was proliferating in Japanese schools. Author and journalist Mark Schreiber was the first to debunk the credibility of the story. Schreiber contacted various media outlets to have them take the story down. The Raw Story refused to take down the hoax because The Guardian had not. When Schreiber contacted The Raw Story, an editor of the site responded: "We didn't write the story, dude. It's a syndicated story." [38] [39] [40]
In November 2013, The Raw Story, citing a local news report, claimed that teenagers were playing the "knockout game" and sharing the videos online. There was almost no evidence to suggest that teenagers were uploading videos of the knockout game. [41]
In February 2015, during the Gamergate controversy, a Wikipedia article incorrectly stated that a Wikipedia arbitration case resulted in the banning of five feminist editors. This falsehood was initially reported by The Guardian and then by The Raw Story, which never issued a correction. [42]
In July 2015, Inquisitr falsely reported that Costco stopped selling dinosaur cakes after a mother complained that the cake contained the demonic symbol "666". The hoax was aggregated by The Raw Story and other news outlets. [43] [44]
In January 2016, The Raw Story falsely reported that legislation introduced by Virginia lawmaker Mark Cole would require schools to "verify children’s [sic] genitals before using the restroom." The proposed legislation would require children to use the bathroom based on their "anatomical sex" but did not include any provisions on "genital checks." [45] [46]
In February 2016, The Raw Story reported that Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly had lost custody of his children because he had physically abused their mother; the article was cited by Occupy Democrats later that May. Snopes determined that the Gawker article cited by The Raw Story had reported that O'Reilly had lost custody of his children, but did not suggest that O'Reilly had lost custody due to violent behavior. [47]
In July 2016, The Raw Story attributed a tweet to Donald Trump Jr. in their reporting, even though the tweet originated from a parody account. The Raw Story later issued a correction. [48]
In February 2017, The Raw Story reported that the White House had turned off the recorder for a phone call between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The claim originated from Ilan Berman, vice-president of the American Foreign Policy Council, who later stated his comment was an "aside" and "not intended to be a factual statement." The Raw Story changed the headline of the article and issued a correction. [49]
In October 2017, The Raw Story picked up a false story that claimed that the chief deputy for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office was a white supremacist who wanted "to rape and kill a black man or a Jew." The story was found to be false, and activist Tim Wise, who had shared the Raw Story article on Facebook, said he would no longer share stories from the outlet due to their failure to fact-check. The story was later taken down. [50]
In December 2017, The Raw Story published an article based on a CNN report which mistakenly stated that on September 4, 2016, Donald Trump Jr. had received a website and a decryption key to preview the emails from the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak before they were made public by WikiLeaks; the date was later corrected by CNN to September 14, 2016, which was after the emails had been reported on publicly. The Raw Story did not include the correction in its article. [51]
On February 19, 2018, The Raw Story published a report claiming that Russian trolls co-opting the Me Too movement had forced Minnesota senator Al Franken to resign, and that an article by writer Ijeoma Oluo had been used as part of the campaign. [52] [53] Oluo told Snopes that her article had been published after Franken announced his resignation, adding: "I was hoping that the piece would give people context and help people grow from all of this into a better place." [52] The Raw Story later retracted its report. [53]
In April 2018, The Raw Story falsely reported that Fox News put up a graph showing that they were the least trusted news network compared to CNN and MSNBC; the three networks were actually being compared with Donald Trump as a trusted source of information. The falsehood was later shared by CNN commentator Chris Cuomo. [54] [55]
In November 2018, a college student faked being a Trump supporter and started a GoFundMe, claiming that her parents had cut her off financially. The Raw Story falsely reported that the student garnered $150,000 in donations, when the actual amount was only around $200. [56]
In October 2018, The Raw Story claimed that Meghan McCain, a co-host on The View, drew a comparison between bombs threats targeting Democrats and Republicans getting heckled at restaurants. A video of the episode showed that McCain did not directly compare the two. [57] McCain, the daughter of the late U.S. Senator John McCain, previously disputed The Raw Story's assertion that she "drank through" her father's cancer treatment. [58]
In June 2020, a Raw Story article attacked Trump for allegedly claiming that "if testing for the virus stopped then the coronavirus would disappear from the US." The Raw Story misinterpreted Trump's comments since he was stating since the US has conducted more testing than any other country, the outbreak appeared worse in the US. [59]
During the 2020 United States presidential election, The Raw Story published an article on November 4, 2020 which claimed that the United States Postal Service (USPS) had failed to deliver 27% of mail-in ballots in South Florida. PolitiFact determined that the figure was based on a misreading of Postal Service data, and the USPS stated that it had skipped some steps to get ballots to election offices faster. [60] [61]
In December 2021, The Raw Story and other news outlets incorrectly reported the date Mark Meadows said Trump ordered to "bust some heads and make some arrests" of protesters in Lafayette Square. The Raw Story and others issued a correction after the mistake was pointed out by CNN and a reporter. [62]
In 2022, through the use of a vague headline with polysemy terms, The Raw Story suggested that the Kushner family was trying to "cash in on" the pandemic. Joshua Kushner co-funded a health insurance start-up called Oscar, which released an online tool to locate COVID-19 testing centers, but "there is no evidence that the startup is linked to any public damage." [63]
According to the site's masthead, the editor and publisher of the site is Roxanne Cooper as of June 2021. Other editors include senior editors David Edwards, Travis Gettys, Sarah Burris, Bob Brigham, and Tom Boggioni. [64] [65] Editorial staff are members of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. [66]
Notable former editorial staff include New York Times senior staff editor Michael Roston, [67] NBC News political reporter Sahil Kapur, [68] [69] and former Village Voice executive editor Tony Ortega. [70]
Snopes, formerly known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been seen as a source for both validating and debunking urban legends and similar stories in American popular culture.
The Hill is an American newspaper and digital media company based in Washington, D.C. that was founded in 1994. In 2020, it was the largest independent political news site in the United States.
The Epoch Times is a far-right international multi-language newspaper and media company affiliated with the Falun Gong new religious movement. The newspaper, based in New York City, is part of the Epoch Media Group, which also operates New Tang Dynasty (NTD) Television. The Epoch Times has websites in 35 countries but is blocked in mainland China.
Ken LaCorte is a former executive at the Fox News Channel. He owns several websites including Conservative Edition News, Liberal Edition News, and LaCorte News.
One America News Network (OANN), also known as One America News (OAN), is a far-right, pro-Trump cable channel founded by Robert Herring Sr. and owned by Herring Networks, Inc., that launched on July 4, 2013. The network is headquartered in San Diego, California, and operates news bureaus in Washington, D.C., and New York City.
National Report is a fake news website that posts fictional articles related to world events. It is described by Snopes.com as a fake news site, by FactCheck.org as a satirical site, and by The Washington Post as part of a fake-news industry, making profits from "duping gullible Internet users with deceptively newsy headlines." The National Report describes itself as a "news and political satire web publication" and provides a disclaimer that "all news articles contained within National Report are fiction". The disclaimer, however, is not printed on the main page, which instead claims that the website is "America's #1 Independent News Source".
The Daily Wire is an American conservative news website and media company founded in 2015 by political commentator Ben Shapiro and film director Jeremy Boreing. The company is a leading publisher on Facebook, and produces podcasts such as The Ben Shapiro Show. In 2022, The Daily Wire launched DailyWire+, a video on demand platform featuring various Daily Wire content, including podcasts and video productions. The company has released five feature-length films and two television series. The Daily Wire is based in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Babylon Bee is a conservative Christian news satire website that publishes satirical articles on topics including religion, politics, current events, and public figures. It has been referred to as a Christian, evangelical, or conservative version of The Onion.
Sleeping Giants is a social media activism organization aiming to pressure companies into removing advertisements from conservative news outlets. The campaign started in November 2016, shortly after Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 United States presidential election, with the launch of a Twitter account aiming to boycott Breitbart News. The first tweet targeted personal finance company SoFi.
The Palmer Report is an American liberal fake news website, founded in 2016 by Bill Palmer. It is known for making unsubstantiated or false claims, producing hyperpartisan content, and publishing conspiracy theories, especially on matters relating to Donald Trump and Russia. Fact-checkers have debunked numerous Palmer Report stories, and organizations including the Columbia Journalism Review and the German Marshall Fund have listed the site among biased websites or false content producers.
Occupy Democrats is an American left-wing media outlet built around a Facebook page and corresponding website. Established in 2012, it publishes false information, hyperpartisan content, and clickbait. Posts originating from the Occupy Democrats Facebook page are among the most widely shared political content on Facebook.
The United States Intelligence Community concluded in early 2018 that the Russian government was continuing the interfence it started during the 2016 elections and was attempting to influence the 2018 United States mid-term elections by generating discord through social media. Primaries for candidates of parties began in some states in March and would continue through September. The leaders of intelligence agencies have noted that Russia is spreading disinformation through fake social media accounts in order to divide American society and foster anti-Americanism.
Karen Attiah is a Ghanaian-American writer and editor. She serves as Global Opinions editor for The Washington Post. With David Ignatius, Attiah won a 2019 George Polk Award for their writing about the murder of their colleague Jamal Khashoggi. She was also named 2019 Journalist of the Year Award by the National Association of Black Journalists for her coverage of Khashoggi's murder.
Daniel Dale is a Canadian journalist known for fact-checking former United States President Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign and presidency. Dale initially covered Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug for the Toronto Star from 2010 to 2014 before serving as the Star's Washington bureau chief from 2015 to 2019. In June 2019, Dale was hired by CNN as a full-time fact-checker.
Elizabeth Wheeler is an American conservative political commentator, author, and podcast host. From 2015 to 2020, Wheeler hosted One America News Network (OANN)'s Tipping Point with Liz Wheeler, where she was known for her finale segment, "Final Point." In 2019, Wheeler published her first book, Tipping Points: How to Topple the Left's House of Cards. In September 2020, Wheeler left OANN and currently hosts a podcast, The Liz Wheeler Show.
Unearthed is an environmental investigative journalism publication that is operated by the nonprofit organization Greenpeace UK.
The Herman Cain Award is a subreddit about an ironic award given to people who made public statements of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy, and who have later died from COVID-19 or COVID-19 complications. The award is named after American businessman and political figure Herman Cain, a Republican politician who died of COVID-19 complications after attending a 2020 Trump Tulsa rally in support of then-President Donald Trump without wearing a face mask. A text label which says "Awarded" is emblazoned on the conversation thread containing evidence and community discussions of a third party's anti-COVID mitigation positions and their subsequent death.
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