The Raw Story
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Raw Story is a progressive Internet news publication founded by John K. Byrne in 2004. It proclaims "a rational voice." It is known primarily for its investigative reporting, and provides hourly updates of news gathered from around the globe. Frequently breaking down and rebutting the Conservative agenda, Raw Story also points out the fraudulent and manipulated news stories of other web sites, such as Matt Drudge.[1] The Raw Story currently follows daily local and world news coverage, the economy, as well as publishing its own editorials, and investigative pieces. Raw was a prominent figure in the reporting and breaking of the Valerie Plame Leak scandal.
Raw Story has been reported and featured in the New York Times, the Guardian, L.A. Weekly, the New York Post, the Toronto Star, The Hill, Roll Call, The Advocate and Hustler.[2]
Boasting an average 3.6 million readers, the site is quoted by Newsweek as, "Muck, raked: If you're looking for alleged GOP malfeasance, the folks at rawstory.com are frequently scooping the mainstream media."
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[edit] Broken stories
The Raw Story "broke" the following stories:
- Raw Story revealed Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)'s dinner with convicted Congressional lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
- Raw was the first to expose the practices of the nonprofit that funded Tom DeLay (R-TX)'s trips to Scotland and Asia.
- Raw Story published the Secret Service logs of self-admitted gay ex-prostitute Jeff Gannon's numerous visits to the White House, even when no press corps were present (or needed). This led many to speculate that Gannon had a contact within the White House that was for more than just his questionable journalistic skills. Gannon was hired by the White House to throw softball questions at the Bush Administration's expense during various press conferences with the media.
- Raw reported on the Diebold whistleblower, which resulted in the CEO of the company resigning the day after the story was broken.
- Raw Story was the first to print the actual Terri Schiavo Republican "talking points" memo, designed to gain political capital by orchastrating a political uproar siding with the Schiavo family, keeping Schiavo on life support, and overruling circut court judges, to make gains politically with the religious right.
- Raw broke Vice President Dick Cheney's role in the CIA leak scandal.
- Larisa Alexandrovna was the first to report that CIA covert officer, Valerie Plame Wilson, was working on Iran in some way.
- Raw reported extensively on the "body dumping" scandal during the Hurricane Katrina disaster.[3]
[edit] The Valerie Plame Investigation
The Raw Story has reported extensively on the Valerie Plame investigation. In a December 15, 2005 posting on its website, The Raw Story outlined its investigative work on the Plame investigation. [1]
[edit] Content and layout
Since its inception, Raw Story has tested at least two distinct layouts, finalizing on its current format that ensures its readers get access to the information they need, while also enabling the site to cover all aspects current events on its front page.
Breaking news stories appear atop the middle of the page, typed in red or black boldface. The top four stories appear below the breaking headlines; all others are catalogued into groups depending on their subject:
Nation - covers news related to the United States.
World - covers news related to world events.
Money|Biz - economic news, covering stocks, corporations, buyouts, corporate bids, monetary gains and losses.
Blogs/Media - covering the web's expanding Blogsphere both left and right.
Features - Raw's own editorial columns and stories of interest.
Mojo - off-site links to political stories.
Readers are allowed to comment on each story reported. Registration is not required for posting.
[edit] Current masthead
- Toby Slingerland - Publisher
- John Byrne - Founder
- Larry Womack - Editor
- Larisa Alexandrovna - Managing Editor - News
- Muriel Kane - Director of Research - News
- Ron Brynaert - Assistant Researcher - News
- Miriam Raftery - Sr. National Writer - News
- Christian Avard - Freelance - News
- Carlos Miller - Freelance - News
- Melissa McEwan- Freelance - News
- Michael Rolston - Staff - Contributor
- Mike Sheehan - Staff - Contributor
- Diana - Editorial Assistant
- Daniel O'Connor - Vice President of Business Development
- Chris Tackett - Advertising Manager
- Contributing writers have included well known and respected journalists and political/historical scholars as well as elected officials, including Nafeez Ahmed, Michael Smith, and John Conyers.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Raw Story Official Webpage
- Raw Story Editorials & Features
- Larisa Alexandrovna's Editorials on the Huffington Post
- Fox News cites Raw Story for their information and in depth reporting on the Plame Affair but fails to link to them
- Raw Story on Wonkette
- The Raw Story on Myspace
- CNN RELIABLE SOURCES CNN Transcript
- CNN RELIABLE SOURCES CNN Transcript June 12, 2005
