RedState

RedState is an American conservative political blog.

RedState
Type of site
Political blog
Available inEnglish
OwnerSalem Communications
Created byJoshua Treviño, Ben Domenech, and Mike Krempasky
URLRedState.com
Alexa rank 25,295 (December 2018)[1]
RegistrationOptional, required to comment
Launched2004
Current statusOnline

Prior to 2017, it organized "RedState gatherings", a summer convention for conservative activists and grassroots political activism which featured many prominent public figures in conservative politics.[2] RedState is owned by the Salem Media Group, a conservative media company.[3]

History

RedState was founded in 2004 as a 527 group by conservative bloggers Joshua Treviño,[4] Ben Domenech,[5] and Mike Krempasky.

In March 2006, co-founder Domenech was hired as a blogger by the Washington Post Online, but was criticised for alleged plagiarism in some of his prior writings during college. At the end of his first week, Domenech resigned, eventually admitting to plagiarism.[6] He took a leave of absence from RedState at the time, to which he returned in July 2006. Erick Erickson, who had joined RedState in 2006, became the editor-in-chief and CEO.

On November 16, 2006, former congressman Tom DeLay posted a diary.[7] Several other members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are regular diarists at RedState.

On December 20, 2006, RedState announced its sale to Eagle Publishing, Inc.,[8] effective January 2, 2007. Erickson remained Editor-in-Chief.

On July 12, 2008, RedState launched a new version of its site, called RS3, introducing new features such as the ability to organize contributor and user diaries by state; action centers allowing users to take action related to emerging political issues; links to share posts via other networking sites such as Facebook, Digg, and MySpace; and easier searching between related content on the Internet.

On August 13, 2011, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy for President of the United States at RedState's 2011 RedState Gathering.[9] The Austin American-Statesman reported that this was due to the growing influence of the site and Erickson.[10]

RedState has also created numerous offshoot blogs on specific political topics, including a site opposed to then Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Arlen Specter and a site supporting the judicial nominees of President George W. Bush.

Salem Media Group

In January 2014, Eagle Publishing was acquired by Salem Media Group.[11] In October 2015, Erickson announced he would be leaving the site by the end of the year to focus on his radio show.[12] Erickson and Leon Wolf were succeeded by former RedState contributors Caleb Howe and Jay Caruso as Managing Editor and Assistant Managing Editor respectively.

During the 2016 presidential election, some writers on the blog endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for President over Donald Trump.[13] This generated substantial criticism from some conservative organizations. Some commentators such as Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham argued that the site had abandoned conservatism.[14][15][16] The website has also been criticized by Donald Trump while he was a candidate.[17]

Notable incidents

In 2007, RedState banned new contributors who were posting in support of libertarian Ron Paul. The announcement on the blog read, "Effective immediately, new users may *not* shill for Ron Paul in any way shape, form or fashion."[18]

In June 2011, Politico reported that an account executive from Eagle Publishing sent an email advertising a "RedState Endorsement Program Featuring Erick Erickson", including "Erick's Video Endorsement (subject to final approval by Erick)".[19] Erickson said that neither he "nor his boss at Eagle" had seen the email before it went out and that "[his] endorsements are not for sale".[20]

In August 2015, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was disinvited from the annual RedState gathering following controversial statements he made about American journalist Megyn Kelly; Kelly was invited to the gathering instead.[2] RedState was then one of the main centers of conservative opposition to Trump's campaign for the Presidency, with most of its writers and editors vocally opposing Trump.[21][22]

In March 2018, a RedState contributor posted a story questioning whether David Hogg, a 17-year-old survivor in the Parkland school shooting, was actually in the school during the time of the shooting.[23] RedState backtracked later and the writer of the story apologized.[23] RedState added an "update" to the story, but did not provide a "correction".[23] RedState's update also blamed the story on confusing reports by other news organizations.[23] The false RedState story was shared widely by prominent conservatives, including Erick Erickson.[23]

That same month, a RedState contributor wrote an article criticizing Tammy Duckworth's defense of an undocumented immigrant Army veteran who was deported.[24] The RedState article said that Tammy Duckworth "really doesn't have a leg to stand on"; Duckworth is a veteran who lost both her legs in Iraq in 2004.[24] RedState's Assistant Editor, Andrea Ruth, who is also a double amputee, revised the statement.

In April 2018, there were mass firings of staff at RedState, including the managing editor, Caleb Howe.[3] CNN reported that multiple sources claimed that those who were fired were targeted for removal because they were insufficiently supportive of President Trump.[3]

In January 2019, three senior contributors for RedState resigned, after they noticed that articles for RedState critical about President Trump were not promoted via social media. In an article for TheBulwark.com, Kimberly Ross and Andrea Ruth stated that "it’s hard not to note the irony that Salem Media, a company that targets “audiences interested in Christian and family-themed content and conservative values,” threw its full support behind Donald Trump, a thrice-married lying philanderer who utilized bankruptcy laws and debt to con tenants and contractors out of their money. Salem now promotes anyone who is pro-Trump, even if those people gleefully flout Christian principles." [25]

In June 2019, RedState published an article that promoted murder of Seth Rich conspiracy theories. RedState deleted it on the same day.[26]

In October 2019, RedState published nude photographs of California politician Katie Hill and alleged that she engaged in two extramarital affairs (with a member of her campaign staff and a member of her US House staff).[27][28] Hill admitted an affair with the campaign staffer, but denied involvement with the House staffer,[29] and the latter allegation became the subject of a House Ethics Committee inquiry.[30] Hill announced her resignation from Congress,[31] describing herself as a victim of revenge porn and calling for the person who distributed nude photographs of her to be punished.[28] Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, said Hill had made "some errors in judgment that made her continued service as a Member untenable."[32]

gollark: OR ARE YOU?
gollark: The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.
gollark: Bees have been known to wear capes in certain situations.
gollark: But not exactly, as bees are only strongly correlated with apioforms.
gollark: Apiocity is basically bee-ness.

See also

References
  1. "Redstate.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  2. "Trump is un-invited to influential RedState Gathering event | Fox News". Fox News. 2015-08-08. Retrieved 2016-05-12.
  3. Stelter, Brian. "'Mass firing' at conservative site RedState". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  4. "Joshua Treviño Profile". The Guardian. London. February 9, 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  5. "Heartland Institute staff bio- Benjamin Domenech". heartland.org. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  6. Jim Brady (March 24, 2006). "Red America". Blog.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  7. Tom DeLay (November 16, 2006). "What's That Thumping? It's Time We Get Back To First Principles". RedState. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  8. The Directors. "RedState & Eagle Publishing: Growing The Conservative Movement Online". Redstate. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  9. "Perry Makes It Official: He's Running for President". Fox News. August 13, 2011.
  10. Embry, Jason (August 11, 2011). "Perry's announcement highlights RedState's growing influence". Austin American-Statesman.
  11. "Salem Communications Buys Eagle Publishing".
  12. Gold, Hadas. "Erick Erickson to leave RedState". POLITICO. Retrieved 2015-12-10.
  13. Woodruff, Betsy (2017-01-30). "When #NeverTrump Becomes #ImWithHer". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  14. "Laura Ingraham to Erick Erickson: Could You Write An Op-Ed On RedState.com Explaining Why You Prefer Clinton to Trump?". www.realclearpolitics.com. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  15. "'Cuckservative' — the conservative insult of the month, explained". Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  16. http://www.washingtontimes.com, The Washington Times. "Sean Hannity rips Red State over race row, claims 'site has been destroyed'". The Washington Times. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  17. Draper, Robert (2016-09-29). "How Donald Trump Set Off a Civil War Within the Right-Wing Media". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  18. Grim, Ryan (October 23, 2007). "Redstate.com bans new Ron Paul supporters - Ryan Grim". Politico. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
  19. Smith, Ben (June 7, 2011). "RedState sells 'endorsement'". Politico. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
  20. Erickson, Eric (June 7, 2011). "Selling Endorsements? [updated]".
  21. Tesfaye, Sophia. "Top conservative pundits lash out in disbelief after Ted Cruz and John Kasich fail to stop Donald Trump: "We are going to get our asses kicked in the general election!"". Salon.
  22. Woodruff, Betsy (30 January 2017). "When #NeverTrump Becomes #ImWithHer". The Daily Beast.
  23. Bromwich, Jonah Engel (2018-03-27). "Parkland Students Find Themselves Targets of Lies and Personal Attacks". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  24. "Right-Wing Blog RedState Says Amputee Senator 'Doesn't Have a Leg to Stand On'". New Haven Register. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  25. Kimberly Ross and Andrea Ruth. "Why We Are Quitting RedState". The Bulwark. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  26. Rodrigo, Chris Mills (2019-06-17). "Conservative site RedState takes down op-ed promoting Seth Rich conspiracy theory". TheHill. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
  27. "Rep. Katie Hill denies allegations that she had relationship with staffer". Rollcall.com. Archived from the original on 2019-10-24. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  28. "House lawmaker's alleged relationship investigated". 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  29. "House Ethics opens investigation into Rep. Katie Hill over alleged staffer relationship". Rollcall.com. Archived from the original on 2019-10-24. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  30. "Statement of the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Ethics Regarding Representative Katie Hill". Congress.gov. Archived from the original on 2019-10-25. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  31. "Rising Democratic star resigns amid affair claims". October 28, 2019 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  32. "Katie Hill, California congresswoman, resigns amid allegations of affairs with staff". www.cbsnews.com.
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