April 29, 2021 - 1:10pm
In the Trump era, news and poll aggregation website RealClearPolitics took a rightward, aggressively pro-Trump turn, according to
The New York Times.
As it did so, its funding from ideological, right-wing foundations increased considerably.
The result? 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, per
The Times.
During that time, RealClearPolitics owner, RealClear Media, secretly operated a far-right website and a connected Facebook page that churned out racist and pro-Trump memes.
The publication s nonprofit, the Real Clear Foundation, funds its investigative stories, some of which have been so unsubstantiated or so ethically concerning that other outlets, including conservative ones, and social media giant Facebook steered clear.
December 10, 2020 - 10:13am
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 gov