Conservative media struggles with new prominence under Trump
BY JONATHAN EASLEY
Conservative media outlets have suffered through a tumultuous few weeks punctuated by infighting
and public controversy, underscoring the difficulty some are having adjusting to the new levels
of attention and scrutiny that comes with their elevated status in the age of Trump.
GOP majorities in Congress and Donald Trump�s presidency have been a boon for conservative
media, which has benefitted from increased access to Washington�s power brokers and
a White House that has gone out of its way to accommodate outlets that were once considered
fringe.
But the transition from the edges of the media to its center can be difficult.
Conservative media�s mainstream peers have greeted them with suspicion and hostility,
often eager to highlight the newcomers� stumbles or question their legitimacy.
In interviews with nearly a dozen key figures in conservative media, right-leaning reporters
and editors spoke about their relative youth and inexperience and the need to professionalize
and move on from the sensationalism that initially helped them attract readers.
They see their challenge as one that mirrors what the Republican Party as a whole is experiencing,
as it makes the transition from being the opposition party to the party in power.
�I think there is a bit of an existential crisis,� said Lucian Wintrich, a 28-year-old
gay conservative provocateur who is moving to Washington to be the White House correspondent
for the Gateway Pundit blog.
�We�re having some growing pains as we try to expand our reach and become more mainstream
and less sensationalist in our writing and journalism.
It�s an interesting transition.
You have publications that historically have not had much oversight suddenly needing to
reevaluate how they do things.�
The millennial-focused conservative website Independent Journal Review (IJR) suspended
three staffers last week, including creative director Benny Johnson � a former BuzzFeed
reporter who had been a high-profile hire for the young outlet � for publishing a
conspiracy theory about President Obama.
The controversy provoked one of the site�s reporters to resign in frustration over the
direction of the company.
Also last week, Breitbart News investigative reporter Lee Stranahan quit the publication
after going public with his frustrations with the site�s political editor, Matthew Boyle,
who has greater editorial control now that former chairman Stephen Bannon has become
Trump�s chief White House strategist.
Meanwhile, Glenn Beck�s website, The Blaze, suspended one of its top personalities, the
unapologetically pro-Trump booster Tomi Lahren, for announcing on �The View� that she
supports abortion and for criticizing anti-abortion conservatives.
And Fox News yanked one of its top legal experts, Andrew Napolitano, after he alleged that a
British intelligence agency had wiretapped Trump Tower at Obama�s request.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer repeated the claim during a press briefing, resulting
in international backlash.
The errors and turmoil have frustrated some on the right, who warn that the mainstream
press and the left will seize on every misstep in an effort to delegitimize conservative
outlets.
�Conservative media has always been held to a higher standard than liberal media, and
as conservatives we have to live up to that higher standard,� said Matthew Continetti,
the editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon.
�When we don�t, it not only undermines our work as journalists, but also the conservative
project as a whole.�
Tensions between the mainstream press and right-wing media outlets have spilled into
the open in recent weeks.
State Department reporters cried foul when only one outlet � the conservative IJR � was
allowed to travel abroad with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
IJR instructed its reporter, Erin McPike, not to tweet or write daily news reports.
She focused instead on a single feature story they could be packaged as an exclusive.
Reporters excluded from the trip were furious that McPike didn�t act as their eyes and
ears by filing incremental news stories or pool reports.
And Wintrich, the Gateway Pundit correspondent who once ran an art installation for young
gay men called �Twinks 4 Trump,� was accosted in the White House briefing room and called
a racist by a Fox News Radio reporter who berated him in front of the press corps.
�If you�re legacy media and have been trading on that access for decades, when the
new guy comes in and gets your access, it�s enraging,� said Sean Davis, a co-founder
of The Federalist.
�I don�t buy that this is about conservative outlets making errors or not knowing what
they�re doing.
This is legacy outlets acting like an entitled monopoly or a cartel when someone new comes
in and does the job better than they do.�
Still, many conservative media players interviewed by The Hill acknowledged that adjusting to
the brighter spotlight, coupled with the gravity of covering the White House, has been a challenge.
�A lot of them aren�t ready for prime time,� said John Ziegler, a Trump critic
who spent 20 years in conservative media but left his radio show last year after he grew
weary of battling his pro-Trump audience.
�A lot of so-called conservative media is like the dog that caught the car and now they
don�t know what the hell to do.
They�re completely confused because they�ve never been in this situation before.�
Many are rushing to �professionalize� or �institutionalize� their operations.
Some conservative outlets have never before been in the rotation for White House pool
duty.
Their reporters are learning on the fly as they follow the president around the country
to file reports for the benefit of the entire press corps, in what has traditionally been
the domain of nonpartisan outlets.
Breitbart has applied for its first permanent congressional credentials, a process that
opens the outlet to new scrutiny about its investors.
In order to get the credentials, Breitbart had to disclose that the conservative billionaire
Robert Mercer, a major Trump backer, is a part owner.
These outlets are also facing editorial challenges over how to cover a political landscape that
is dominated by like-minded conservatives.
�It was a lot easier under Obama, when you could just hate on everything he did,� said
one source who works in conservative media but requested anonymity.
And covering Trump, who is not a traditional conservative and who is viewed as reckless
and dangerous by some in his own party, presents a unique challenge.
�Trump has added a new dynamic to conservatism,� said Ben Shapiro, a former Breitbart editor
who now runs the Daily Wire, another conservative news site.
�Politics used to exist on a right-left X-axis.
Now we've added a pro-Trump, anti-Trump Y-axis.
And that's throwing everything into turmoil.�
Indeed, the way these outlets cover Trump is often itself news � especially if the
story is coming from Breitbart.
Under Boyle�s stewardship, Breitbart has steadfastly backed Trump, even as the president
whipped support for an ObamaCare replacement bill that the outlet has tried to sink.
As they have long done, Breitbart cast GOP leadership as the villains in the drama.
That editorial decision has been controversial and is one of the criticisms Stranahan, the
site�s former investigative reporter, made as he unleashed a litany of frustrations with
Breitbart�s direction.
�Bannon was such a visionary and when he left it was significant,� Stranahan said.
�It is still a good company.
But there is a difference between being a good company and a disruptive one.
When Steve left, it was a big deal.�
Still, Breitbart�s impact on the political landscape remains.
They lobbied hard to doom the GOP healthcare bill, making themselves instrumental in shielding
Trump from political damage while setting Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) up for defeat.
Boyle is one of only a handful of reporters to score an Oval Office interview with Trump.
But access can have its downsides.
Breitbart scored an exclusive interview on Facebook Live with White House press secretary
Sean Spicer minutes after a judge blocked Trump�s travel ban � a much-watched scoop
that was undermined by the broadcast�s poor production values and awkward camera angles.
Even as these tensions play out in public, though, conservatives argue that the growing
pains are a good problem to have.
They believe that conservative media can appeal to a growing audience frustrated with the
mainstream press.
�This is healthy.
These outlets are earning their battle scars,� said one editor at a conservative outlet.
�These are the key moments every outlet needs to survive and get to the next stage.
It sucks now, but we�ll get there.�
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