The Federalist
The Federalist's Self-Proclaimed Bias
In September 2013, co-founder Ben Domenech, a conservative writer and TV commentator, wrote that The Federalist was inspired by the worldview of the original TIME magazine, which he described as "[leaning] to the political right, with a small-c conservatism equipped with a populist respect for the middle class reader outside of New York and Washington, and an abiding love for America at a time when snark and cynicism were not considered substitutes for smart analysis."
Domenech wrote that The Federalist would be informed by TIME's 1920s “list of prejudices” for the magazine, which included principles such as:
- A belief that the world is round and an admiration of the statesman’s view of all the world.
- A general distrust of the present tendency toward increasing interference by government.
- A prejudice against the rising cost of government.
- Faith in the things which money cannot buy.
- A respect for the old, particularly in manners.
- An interest in the new, particularly in ideas.
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Media bias is an old constant. It has never and will never go away. A reporter or host can use all the proper, sanitized words he wants, but behind the scenes lie the decisions that went into which stories to pursue and which to drop; where to pull back and where to push forward; who to interview, who to skip; what is most important versus what can be buried or even cut.
And then, of course, there’s the cool kids’ club. True, it more strongly resembles grown and embittered theater kids who never quite made it, but it’s Washington, so things are not very real.
This club is a place anti-Trump conspiracies are treated with the upmost seriousness and obviously implausible pronouncements are called conventional wisdom; where Jim Acosta gets high-fives for reporting conspiracy theories and heckling Easter egg rolls; where people can be incorrect again and again to the point of irrelevance yet still maintain columns, airtime, and glowing profiles about their bravery in the face of wrong.