RealClearPolitics (RCP) is an American
political news
Political journalism is a broad branch of journalism that includes coverage of all aspects of politics and political science, although the term usually refers specifically to coverage of civil governments and political power.
Political journa ...
website and
polling data aggregator formed in 2000 by former
options
Option or Options may refer to:
Computing
*Option key, a key on Apple computer keyboards
*Option type, a polymorphic data type in programming languages
* Command-line option, an optional parameter to a command
*OPTIONS, an HTTP request method
...
trader
Trader may refer to:
* Merchant, retailer or one who attempts to generally buy wholesale and sell later at a profit
* The owner of a trading post, where manufactured goods were exchanged with native peoples for furs and hides.
* Trader (finance), ...
John McIntyre and former
advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan
Thomas Bevan (c.1796 – 31 January 1819) was, with fellow Welshman David Jones, the first Christian missionaries to Madagascar, sent by the London Missionary Society.Gerald H. Anderson, ''Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions'', Wm. B. Ee ...
.
The site features selected political news stories and
op-ed
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
s from various news publications in addition to commentary from its own contributors.
The site is prominent during election seasons for its aggregation of polling data.
In 2008, the site's founders said their goal was to give readers "ideological diversity".
According to a 2012 article in the ''
Chicago Sun-Times'', competitors and people inside politics have praised the site's balance of stories,
although a 2020 article in ''
The New York Times'' noted that since the end of 2017, RealClearPolitics has had a
rightward, pro-
Donald Trump turn in its content.
According to a 2020
Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation that provides grants for journalism, communities, and the arts.
The organization was founded as the Knight Memorial Education ...
study, RealClearPolitics is generally read by a
moderate audience, leaning slightly toward the right.
Establishment
The website was founded in 2000 by McIntyre, a former
trader
Trader may refer to:
* Merchant, retailer or one who attempts to generally buy wholesale and sell later at a profit
* The owner of a trading post, where manufactured goods were exchanged with native peoples for furs and hides.
* Trader (finance), ...
at the
Chicago Board Options Exchange, and Bevan, a former
advertising agency account executive.
McIntyre explained "it really wasn't any more complicated than there should be a place online that pulled together all this quality information." They call what they do "intelligent aggregation". The site has grown in election-season spurts since it first went online. It has expanded from a two-man operation to a full-time staff of more than two dozen employees overseeing the company's mainstay, RealClearPolitics, as well as ten smaller sites.
Both co-founders graduated from
Princeton in 1991. When they launched the site, they would both start their day at 4 a.m., looking through articles from more than 50 sources. They post pieces on current events and topics, as well as news about opinion polls. The site reports on political races and projections, and features the average result of all current presidential polls and also offers a best-guess projection of
Electoral College votes.
Political orientation
2000 to 2017
In a 2001 article for ''
Princeton Alumni Weekly'', editor Rob MacKay noted that "The articles selected invariably demonstrate McIntyre and Bevan's political bent, about which they are unabashedly forthcoming." McIntyre said, "I'm not really a die-hard Republican because my interests are less on social issues, more on taxing and spending. ... But I definitely don't want the government telling me what to do with my property... Nevertheless, any political junkie—even a liberal—would enjoy our site because the topics we choose are current."
[Rob MacKay]
"Political junkies create Web site for opinion and analysis"
June 6, 2001 ''Princeton Alumni Weekly''. Princeton
In a 2003 interview with the conservative magazine ''
Human Events'', McIntyre described the philosophy behind the website as based on "freedom" and "common-sense values"; Bevan said that the website's owners shared the common conservative belief that the mainstream media was biased "against conservatives, religious conservatives,
ndChristian conservatives".
In a 2004 article for ''
Time'', Patrick Stack described the website's commentary section as "right-leaning".
In a 2008 interview with the ''
Chicago Tribune'', McIntyre said, "We're trying to pull together the best political stories, op-eds, news analyses, editorials out there. The proliferation of content is enormous. Part of what we're trying to do is distill it in a clear, simple way for people who don't have hours to spend searching the Net."
In 2008, the site's founders said their goal was to give readers "ideological diversity".
In 2008, ''
Politico'' executive editor
Jim VandeHei has called the site "an essential stop for anyone interested in politics".
In 2009, RealClearPolitics was described as a weblog "in the conservative pantheon" by Richard Davis.
[Richard Davis, ''Typing Politics: The Role of Blogs in American Politics'' p. 54 (2009) Oxford University Pressbr>Google]
During the
2008 elections
The following elections occurred in the year 2008.
* Electoral calendar 2008
* 2008 United Nations Security Council election
Africa
* 2008 Angolan legislative election
* 2008 Anjouan presidential election
* 2008 Republic of the Congo Senate elec ...
, ''
The Wall Street Journal'' repeatedly referred to RealClearPolitics as "nonpartisan". ''The New York Times'' referred to its polling practice as a "nonpartisan tally".
In 2012, the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' noted that "competitors, political operatives and elected officials who regularly consult the site say they appreciate the balance of stories that Bevan, McIntyre and their staff choose."
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...
's top editor called their polling average "the
Dow Jones Dow Jones is a combination of the names of business partners Charles Dow and Edward Jones.
Dow Jones & Company
Dow, Jones and Charles Bergstresser founded Dow Jones & Company in 1882. That company eventually became a subsidiary of News Corp, and ...
of campaign coverage".
The 2012–2013 edition of academic text ''Cengage Advantage Books: American Government and Politics Today, Brief Edition'' describes the site as being run by conservatives, and containing "opinion pieces from multiple media sources".
Rightward turn during Trump's presidency
In 2020, ''The New York Times'' noted that since 2017, when a large number of its straight news journalists were laid off, RealClearPolitics has had a rightward, pro-Trump turn with donations to its affiliated nonprofit increasing, with much of that from entities used by wealthy conservatives. Several journalists who talked to ''The New York Times'' in 2020 said they never felt any pressure from the site's founders to bias their stories.
''The New York Times'' also said that "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" and that for days after the election, "Real Clear Politics gave top billing to stories that reinforced the false narrative that the president could still somehow eke out a win."
Some allies of Donald Trump falsely claimed that RealClearPolitics had rescinded its call of Pennsylvania for Biden; however, the website had not yet called a winner in the state.
An October 2019 article in ''
The Daily Beast'' reported that RealClear Media manages a
Facebook page of "far-right memes and Islamophobic smears". Anand Ramanujan,
chief technology officer for RealClear Media, responded that the company created the website that was affiliated with the Facebook page "as part of an effort to understand the flow of traffic from social media—particularly Facebook—to political websites."
Real Clear Politics heavily promotes content by ''
The Federalist'', a conservative website which draws funding from the same pool of donor money as Real Clear Politics.
In 2016, RealClearInvestigations was launched, backed by foundations associated with conservative causes, such as the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation and
Sarah Scaife Foundation.
[Isaac Stanley-Becker & Craig Timberg]
Trump's allies turned to online campaign in quest to unmask Ukraine whistleblower
''Washington Post'' (November 7, 2019). In 2019, the site published an article by a conservative author, Paul Sperry, containing the supposed name of a U.S. intelligence officer who
blew the whistle
A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
on the
Trump–Ukraine scandal.
[ The article's publication came as part of a month-long effort by Trump allies on media and social media to "unmask" the whistleblower, whose identity was kept confidential by the U.S. government, in accordance with whistleblower protection (anti-retaliation) laws.][ Most publications declined to reveal the whistleblower's identity; Tom Kuntz, editor of RealClearInvestigations, defended the site's decision to publish the article.][
]
Ownership
Forbes Media LLC bought a 51% equity interest in the site in 2007.
Original content
In addition to linking to external content, RealClearPolitics also provides original commentary and reporting, with a staff that includes White House reporter Philip Wegmann, White House & national political correspondent Susan Crabtree, and associate editor and columnist A.B. Stoddard.
Former employees include Caitlin Huey-Burns, Alexis Simendinger, James Arkin, Mike Memoli, Kyle Trygstad, Reid Wilson, and Rebecca (Berg) Buck.
Political poll averaging
RealClearPolitics aggregates polls for presidential and congressional races into averages, known as the RealClearPolitics average, which are widely cited by media outlets. In 2008, Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight said that RealClearPolitics was rigging its averages to favor Senator John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...
and other Republicans, although he later receded from this claim, indicating that his site and RCP had a friendly rivalry.
See also
* Historical polling for United States presidential elections
Gallup was the first polling organization to conduct accurate opinion polling for United States presidential elections."Poll" in ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', 6th ed.' New York. Columbia University Press. 2012. Gallup polling has often been a ...
* List of polling organizations This is a list of notable Opinion poll, polling organizations by country. All the major television networks, alone or in conjunction with the largest newspapers or magazines, in virtually every country with elections, operate their own versions of p ...
* Opinion poll
References
External links
* {{Official website
2000 establishments in Illinois
American political websites
Internet properties established in 2000
News aggregators