Washington Examiner

Last updated

Washington Examiner
Washington Examiner Masthead.png
Cover image of Washington Examiner magazine for July 29 2013.jpg
Front cover of Washington Examiner magazine for May 26, 2014
TypeWebsite, weekly magazine
FormatInternet, magazine
Owner(s) MediaDC
Founder(s) Philip Anschutz
Editor-in-chiefHugo Gurdon [1]
Founded2005;19 years ago (2005) (newspaper) (as Montgomery Journal, Prince George's Journal, and Northern Virginia Journal)
2013 (2013) (magazine)
Political alignment Conservative
LanguageEnglish
Ceased publication2013 (2013) (newspaper)
Headquarters1152 15th St. NW
Suite 200
Washington, D.C.
20005
Circulation 90,000(as of 2021) [2]
Website washingtonexaminer.com

The Washington Examiner is a U.S. conservative news outlet based in Washington, D.C., that consists principally of a website and a weekly printed magazine. It is owned by Philip Anschutz through MediaDC, a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group. [3]

Contents

From 2005 to 2013, the Examiner published a daily tabloid-sized newspaper, distributed throughout the D.C. metro area. The newspaper focused on local news and political commentary. [4] The local newspaper ceased publication on June 14, 2013, whereupon its content began to focus almost exclusively on national politics, from a conservative point of view, switching its print edition from a daily newspaper to an expanded print weekly magazine format. [5] [6] [7]

History

A Washington Examiner dispenser, from the time when the newspaper was a free daily paper. Washington Examiner vending machine.jpg
A Washington Examiner dispenser, from the time when the newspaper was a free daily paper.

The publication now known as the Washington Examiner began its life as a handful of suburban news outlets known as the Journal Newspapers, distributed not in Washington D.C. itself, but only in its suburbs: Montgomery Journal, Prince George's Journal, and Northern Virginia Journal. [8] Philip Anschutz purchased the parent company, Journal Newspapers Inc., in 2004. [4] [9] [10] On February 1, 2005, the paper's name changed to the Washington Examiner, and it adopted a logo and format similar to those of another newspaper Anschutz then owned, San Francisco Examiner . [8]

The Washington Examiner became increasingly influential in conservative political circles, hiring much of the talent from The Washington Times . [11] The website DCist wrote in March 2013: "Despite the right-wing tilt of [the Examiner's] editorial pages and sensationalist front-page headlines, it also built a reputation as one of the best local sections in D.C." [12] The newspaper's local coverage also gained attention, including a write-up by The New York Times , [13] for contributing to the arrest of more than 50 fugitives through a feature that each week spotlighted a different person wanted by law enforcement agencies.

In March 2013, the company announced that it would stop printing a daily edition in June and refocus on national politics. The print edition was converted to a weekly magazine, while the website was continually updated. [14] The new format was compared to that of The Hill . [6] [14] In December 2018, Clarity Media announced that the magazine would become a publicly available, expanded print magazine. [15]

On January 27, 2020, Roy Moore filed a $40 million defamation lawsuit against the Washington Examiner. A former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and candidate in the United States Senate special election in Alabama for the seat left open when Jeff Sessions joined the Trump administration, Moore claimed that the magazine repeatedly wrote "fake news" attacks stemming from allegations that he made unwanted sexual and romantic advances to girls as young as 15 when he was in his late 30s. [16]

In January 2020, breaking news editor Jon Nicosia was fired after showing a sexually explicit video to colleagues. Nicosia denied any wrongdoing, saying he had only shared the video "because he thought it might go viral ... and become a news story". Nicosia accused managing editor Toby Harnden of abusive workplace behavior. An employee's complaint seen by CNN said that Harnden had created a "toxic work environment" and a climate of "workplace terror and bullying". Editor-in-chief Hugo Gurdon then announced Harnden had departed and that he was "enlisting a third-party to conduct a thorough investigation" into the Examiner. But CNN reported that "current and former Examiner employees" said that "Gurdon was aware of Harnden's brutish managing style" long before it became a public issue and did nothing about it. [17] [18]

In October 2020, the Examiner hired Greg Wilson as the new managing editor. As online editor of the Fox News website, Wilson had previously published a news story supporting the conspiracy theory about murdered Democratic aide Seth Rich and WikiLeaks. [19]

In June 2020, the Examiner published an op-ed by "Raphael Badani", a fake persona who was part of a broader network pushing propaganda for the United Arab Emirates and against Qatar, Turkey, and Iran. The Daily Beast reported that Badani's "profile photos are stolen from the blog of an unwitting San Diego startup founder" while his "LinkedIn profile, which described him as a graduate of George Washington and Georgetown, is equally fictitious." [20]

Distribution and readership

The magazine's publisher said in 2013 that it would seek to distribute the magazine to at least "45,000 government, public affairs, advocacy, academia and political professionals". [12] The publisher also claimed the Examiner's readership is more likely to sign a petition, contact a politician, attend a political rally, or participate in a government advocacy group than those of Roll Call , Politico , or The Hill. [21] Its publisher claims that the Examiner has a high-earning and highly educated audience, with 26 percent holding a master's or postgraduate degree and a large percentage earning over $500,000 annually, likely to be working in executive or senior management positions. [21]

Notable columnists and contributors

Content and editorial stance

The Examiner has been described as and is widely regarded as conservative. [22] When Anschutz started it in its daily newspaper format, he envisioned creating a competitor to The Washington Post with a conservative editorial line. According to Politico : "When it came to the editorial page, Anschutz's instructions were explicit—he 'wanted nothing but conservative columns and conservative op-ed writers,' said one former employee." [4]

According to the Columbia Journalism Review , among the conservative media landscape, the Examiner "is structured more or less like a mainstream newspaper—complete with clear distinctions between news reporting and commentary roles. The outlet has one of the largest newsrooms in online conservative media, with dedicated breaking news reporters and more specialized beat reporters, and a full editorial hierarchy." According to Editor in Chief Hugo Gurdon, the paper's conservatism on the news side was largely based on story selection, citing The Daily Telegraph as an inspiration. [23]

The Examiner endorsed John McCain in the 2008 presidential election [24] and Adrian Fenty in the 2010 Washington, D.C., mayoral election. [25] On December 14, 2011, it endorsed Mitt Romney for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, publishing an editorial saying he was the only Republican who could beat Barack Obama in the general election. [26]

Anti-immigration stories

In January 2019, the Washington Examiner published a story with the headline, "Border rancher: 'We've found prayer rugs out here. It's unreal'". Shortly thereafter, President Donald Trump cited the story as another justification for a border wall amid the 2018–19 federal government shutdown. The story in question cited one anonymous rancher who offered no evidence of prayer rugs. The story provided no elaboration on how the rancher knew the rugs in question were Muslim prayer rugs. The author of the story formerly worked as press secretary for the anti-immigration group Federation for American Immigration Reform. Stories of Muslim prayer rugs at the border are urban myths that have frequently popped up since at least 2005, but without evidence. [27] The Examiner never issued a clarification or retracted the story.

In April 2019, Quartz reported that White House advisor Stephen Miller had been purposely leaking information on border apprehensions and asylum seekers to the Washington Examiner so that the paper would publish stories with alarming statistics that sometimes criticized DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, which he could then show to Trump to undermine her. Nielsen was fired in April 2019, reportedly for being insufficiently hawkish on immigration. [28] [29]

Climate change

The Washington Examiner has published opinion pieces that oppose or deny the scientific consensus on climate change. [30] [31] [32] [33] In February 2010, it published an op-ed in which Michael Barone, a pundit who writes frequently promoting skepticism of climate science, [34] citing the Climatic Research Unit email controversy to argue that the scientific consensus on climate change was "propaganda ... based on ... shoddy and dishonest evidence". [35] [36] Daniel Sarewitz of Arizona State University criticized Barone, writing that Barone and other conservative climate change pundits erroneously "portrayed deviation from scientific certainty and highly idealized notions of 'the scientific method' as evidence against climate change", which he compared to "equally naïve and idealized" presentations on the other side of the debate, such as the film An Inconvenient Truth . [35]

In 2017, the Washington Examiner editorial board supported Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords, which the Examiner editorial board called "a big flashy set of empty promises... The Earth's climate is changing, as it always has. And part of the reason it is changing is due to human activity. But those two facts are excuses neither for alarmism and reflexive, but ineffective action, nor for sacrificing sovereignty to give politicians a short-term buzz of fake virtue and green guerrillas another weapon with which to ambush democratic policymaking." [37] [38]

On August 31, 2019, the Examiner published an op-ed by Patrick Michaels and Caleb Stewart Rossiter titled "The Great Failure of the Climate Models". [39] It claimed that overwhelmingly accepted climate models were not valid scientific tools. Scientists described the Washington Examiner op-ed as highly misleading, noting that there were numerous false assertions and cherry-picked data in the op-ed. [40]

2022 rejection of Donald Trump

On the day after former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified before the House select committee on the January 6 attack, the Examiner published an editorial titled "Trump proven unfit for power again," writing in part:

Cassidy Hutchinson's Tuesday testimony ought to ring the death knell for former President Donald Trump's political career. Trump is unfit to be anywhere near power ever again ... Hutchinson's testimony confirmed a damning portrayal of Trump as unstable, unmoored, and absolutely heedless of his sworn duty to effectuate a peaceful transition of presidential power ... Trump is a disgrace. Republicans have far better options to lead the party in 2024. No one should think otherwise, much less support him, ever again. [41] [42]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox News</span> American conservative cable news channel

The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owned by the Fox Corporation. It is the most-watched cable news network in the U.S., and as of 2023 generates approximately 70% of its parent company's pre-tax profit. The channel broadcasts primarily from studios at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. Fox News provides a service to 86 countries and territories, with international broadcasts featuring Fox Extra segments during advertising breaks.

<i>The Washington Times</i> American broadsheet newspaper

The Washington Times is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It covers general interest topics with an emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout Washington, D.C. and the greater Washington metropolitan area, including suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia. It also publishes a subscription-based weekly tabloid edition aimed at a national audience. The Washington Times was one of the first American broadsheets to publish its front page in full color.

<i>The Washington Post</i> American daily newspaper

The Washington Post, locally known as the Post and, informally, WaPo or WP, is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area and has a national audience.

<i>New York Post</i> American conservative tabloid newspaper

The New York Post is an American daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The Post also operates three online sites, NYPost.com, PageSix.com, a gossip site, and Decider.com, an entertainment site.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), also referred to simply as the Journal, is an American business- and economic-focused international daily newspaper based in New York City. The Journal is published six days a week by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp. The newspaper is published in broadsheet format and online. The Journal has been printed continuously since its inception on July 8, 1889, and is regarded as a newspaper of record, particularly in terms of business and financial news. The newspaper has won 39 Pulitzer Prizes, the most recent in 2023.

<i>The Weekly Standard</i> Former American conservative opinion magazine

The Weekly Standard was an American neoconservative political magazine of news, analysis, and commentary that was published 48 times per year. Originally edited by founders Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard was described as a "redoubt of neoconservatism" and as "the neocon bible." Its founding publisher, News Corporation, debuted the title on September 18, 1995. In 2009, News Corporation sold the magazine to a subsidiary of the Anschutz Corporation. On December 14, 2018, its owners announced that the magazine would cease publication, with the last issue to be published on December 17. Sources have attributed its demise to an increasing divergence between Kristol and other editors' shift towards anti-Trump positions on the one hand, and the magazine's audience's shift towards Trumpism on the other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drudge Report</span> American news aggregation website

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 was generally regarded as a conservative publication, though 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.

<i>National Review</i> American conservative editorial magazine

National Review is an American conservative right-libertarian editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief is Rich Lowry, and its editor is Ramesh Ponnuru.

The Heritage Foundation, sometimes referred to simply as Heritage, is an activist American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1973, it took a leading role in the conservative movement in the 1980s during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies were taken from Heritage Foundation studies, including its Mandate for Leadership.

Philip Frederick Anschutz is an American billionaire businessman who owns or controls companies in a variety of industries, including energy, railroads, real estate, sports, newspapers, movies, theaters, arenas and music. In 2004, he purchased the parent company of the Journal Newspapers, which under Anschutz's direction became the American conservative editorial newspaper Washington Examiner. Anschutz is the son of Fred and Marian Pfister Anschutz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Will</span> American political commentator (born 1941)

George Frederick Will is an American libertarian conservative writer and political commentator, who writes regular columns for The Washington Post and provides commentary for NewsNation. In 1986, The Wall Street Journal called him "perhaps the most powerful journalist in America." Will won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Barone (pundit)</span> American journalist

Michael D. Barone is an American conservative political analyst, historian, pundit and journalist. He is best known as the principal author of The Almanac of American Politics.

<i>The Epoch Times</i> Far-right media company affiliated with Falun Gong

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.

<i>Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</i> Newspaper in Pennsylvania, United States

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Descended from the Pittsburgh Gazette, established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains, the paper formed under its present title in 1927 from the consolidation of the Pittsburgh Gazette Times and The Pittsburgh Post.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Moore (writer)</span> American writer and economic commentator

Stephen Moore is an American conservative writer and television commentator on economic issues. He co-founded and served as president of the Club for Growth from 1999 to 2004. Moore is a former member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. He worked at The Heritage Foundation from 1983 to 1987 and again since 2014. Moore advised Herman Cain's 2012 presidential campaign and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bret Stephens</span> American journalist (born 1973)

Bret Louis Stephens is an American conservative journalist, editor, and columnist. He has been an opinion columnist for The New York Times and a senior contributor to NBC News since 2017. Since 2021, he has been the inaugural editor-in-chief of SAPIR: A Journal of Jewish Conversations.

The Baltimore Examiner was a free daily newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland. It launched in 2006 and ceased publication in 2009.

<i>Breitbart News</i> American far-right news and opinion website

Breitbart News Network is an American far-right syndicated news, opinion, and commentary website founded in mid-2007 by American conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart. Its content has been described as misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist by academics and journalists. The site has published a number of conspiracy theories and intentionally misleading stories. Posts originating from the Breitbart News Facebook page are among the most widely shared political content on Facebook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Bennet (journalist)</span> American journalist and former editorial editor for the New York Times

James Douglas Bennet is an American journalist. He is a senior editor for The Economist, and writes the Lexington column for the magazine. He was editor-in-chief of The Atlantic from 2006–2016 and was the editorial page editor at The New York Times from May 2016 until his forced resignation in June 2020. He is the younger brother of U.S. Senator Michael Bennet.

The editorial board at The Wall Street Journal is the editorial board of the New York City newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The editorial board is known for its strong conservative positions which at times brings it into conflict with the Journal's news side.

References

  1. "Staff". washingtonexaminer.com. Archived from the original on May 23, 2020. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  2. "2021 Media Kit" (PDF). Washington Examiner. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 14, 2023. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  3. "The Forbes 400 2020: The Richest People in America". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 7, 2019. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 Calderone, Michael (October 16, 2009). "Phil Anschutz's Conservative Agenda". Politico . Archived from the original on March 27, 2017.
  5. Connolly, Matt (June 13, 2013). "The Washington Examiner local news team says goodbye after eight years". Washington Examiner. Archived from the original on July 2, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  6. 1 2 Sommer, Will (March 19, 2013). "Staffers Told Washington Examiner Will Cease Daily Publication". Washington City Paper . Archived from the original on August 22, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  7. Sommer, Will (March 19, 2013). "Washington Examiner Memo: New Weekly Paper to Target "Key Influencers"". Washington City Paper . Archived from the original on April 29, 2020. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  8. 1 2 Robertson, Lori (April–May 2007). "Home Free". American Journalism Review . Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  9. "Weekly Standard acquired by Washington Examiner parent company". Washington Examiner. June 16, 2009. Archived from the original on March 22, 2019. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
  10. Helman, Christopher (October 21, 2010). "The Man Behind the Curtain". Forbes . Archived from the original on March 21, 2014. Retrieved July 9, 2013.
  11. Joyner, James (March 19, 2013). "Washington Examiner Newspaper Closing, Becoming Weekly Magazine". Outside the Beltway. Archived from the original on March 23, 2013.
  12. 1 2 Freed, Benjamin R. (March 19, 2013). "Washington Examiner to Cease Daily Publication and Become Political Weekly Archived 2013-07-28 at the Wayback Machine". DCist. Gothamist. Archived from the original on July 28, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  13. Peters, Jeremy W. (December 12, 2010). "Washington Examiner Helps Capture Fugitives" . The New York Times . Archived from the original on July 23, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  14. 1 2 Bloomgarden-Smoke, Kara (March 19, 2013). "The Washington Examiner Announces a 'Shift' in Their Business Model". The New York Observer . Archived from the original on August 22, 2016. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  15. "Press Release: Washington Examiner to Expand into a Nationally Distributed Magazine with a Broadened Editorial Focus". Washington Examiner (Press release). December 3, 2018. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  16. Gattis, Paul (January 28, 2020). "Roy Moore files $40 million 'fake news' lawsuit". AL.com . Archived from the original on April 29, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  17. "How the Washington Examiner became a traffic monster". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  18. Darcy, Oliver (February 14, 2020). "Inside the climate of 'workplace terror and bullying' at the Washington Examiner, a conservative media outlet on the rise". CNN. Archived from the original on April 5, 2020.
  19. Rawnsley, Adam (July 6, 2020). "Washington Examiner Hires Editor Behind Fox News's Disastrous Seth Rich Story". Washingtonian. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  20. Beaujon, Andrew (October 14, 2020). "Right-Wing Media Outlets Duped by a Middle East Propaganda Campaign". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on July 7, 2020. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  21. 1 2 "MediaDC | Audience and Readership". influence.mediadc.com. Archived from the original on July 11, 2016. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  22. Adler, Ben (May–June 2009). "Heresy on the Right". Columbia Journalism Review . Archived from the original on April 29, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  23. "Conservative Newswork: A Report on the Values and Practices of Online Journalists on the Right". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on April 20, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  24. "The Examiner endorses McCain-Palin". Washington Examiner (editorial). September 24, 2008. Archived from the original on May 14, 2018. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  25. "Why Fenty deserves – and D.C. needs – four more years". Washington Examiner (editorial). September 7, 2010. Archived from the original on December 4, 2010.
  26. "Influential Conservative Newspaper Backs Romney for GOP Nomination". Fox News. December 14, 2011. Archived from the original on November 19, 2018. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
  27. Timmons, Heather (April 8, 2019). "Trump's anti-immigration zealot Stephen Miller is behind the purge at Homeland Security" . Quartz . Archived from the original on April 10, 2019. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  28. Wemple, Erik (April 9, 2019). "Report: Washington Examiner was used to undermine DHS boss Kirstjen Nielsen" . The Washington Post (editorial). Archived from the original on April 30, 2020.
  29. Chapa, Alec (2020). "In Trump We Trust: Epistemic Isolation, Conflict Narratives, and Climate Change Denial In Significant Portion of Trump's 2016 Election Base" (PDF). The Macksey Journal. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 4, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  30. Waldman, Scott. "Climate Denial Spreads on Facebook as Scientists Face Restrictions". Scientific American. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  31. "Dismissing The Deniers: Climate Change Is Real". www.wbur.org. June 3, 2014. Archived from the original on July 4, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  32. "Washington Examiner op-ed cherry-picks data and misleads readers about climate models". Climate Feedback. August 31, 2019. Archived from the original on October 25, 2019. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  33. Elsasser, Shaun W.; Dunlap, Riley E. (June 2013). "Leading Voices in the Denier Choir: Conservative Columnists' Dismissal of Global Warming and Denigration of Climate Science". American Behavioral Scientist. 57 (6): 754–776. doi:10.1177/0002764212469800. ISSN   0002-7642. S2CID   145593884. Archived from the original on October 19, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  34. 1 2 Sarewitz, Daniel (March 3, 2010). "World view: Curing climate backlash". Nature . 464 (7285): 28. doi: 10.1038/464028a . PMID   20203581.
  35. Barone, Michael (February 3, 2010). "How climate-change fanatics corrupted science". Washington Examiner. Archived from the original on July 4, 2020. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  36. "Trump will withdraw US from Paris climate agreement while California, New York, Washington unite to back climate pact". Carbon Brief. June 2, 2017. Archived from the original on June 17, 2017. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  37. Corneliussen, Steven T. (June 9, 2017). "Paris climate accord critics praise and defend US withdrawal". Physics Today . doi: 10.1063/PT.6.3.20170609a .
  38. Michaels, Patrick; Rossiter, Caleb Stewart (August 25, 2019). "The great failure of the climate models". Washington Examiner (op-ed). Archived from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  39. "Washington Examiner op-ed cherry-picks data and misleads readers about climate models". Climate Feedback. August 31, 2019. Archived from the original on October 25, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  40. Mastrangelo, Dominick (June 29, 2022). "Washington Examiner: Hutchinson testimony shows Trump should not hold office 'ever again'". The Hill. Archived from the original on July 15, 2022. Retrieved June 30, 2022.
  41. "Trump proven unfit for power again". The Washington Examiner. Editorial Board. June 29, 2022. Archived from the original on June 30, 2022. Retrieved June 30, 2022.