RealClear Media Group

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RealClear Media Group (RCMG) is a media company that grew out of the RealClearPolitics (RCP) website. RealClearPolitics, founded in 2000, originally aggregated political stories from the internet.[1]

Since RCP's founding, RCMG has expanded, "encompassing 14 specialty areas of coverage, original reporting from our staff of seasoned reporters, the well-known RCP Poll Average, and original video."[1]


News and Controversies

Right-Wing Facebook Site Secretly Linked to RealClear Media

RealClear Media has run a right-wing Facebook page called "Conservative Country"[2] since the page's creation in 2014, but the media organization's connection with the page is not made transparent.[3][4]

Discussing the lack of prominent RealClear branding on the Facebook page, Daily Beast commented, "RealClearPolitics has taken major pains to be seen as nonpartisan and non-ideological in its reporting... But the willingness to share and aggregate all political views has also made the site more receptive to Trump-friendly writing than some other outlets. Of the seven featured "opinion writers" listed in a tab on the site, three— including occasional Trump adviser Steve Cortes— are openly supportive of the president’s agenda.[3]

Conservative Country's posts include conspiratorial and extreme right-wing content. As described by Daily Beast, one "post showed a man training two assault rifles at a closed door with the caption "Just sitting here waiting on Beto." Others wink at right-wing conspiracy theories about Barack Obama’s "ties to Islam" or the Clintons having their enemies killed, or portray Muslim members of Congress as terrorist infiltrators. The page is effusive with praise for Vladimir Putin, and one post portrays Russia as the last bastion of freedom in Europe."[3]

RealClear Media Brands

RealClear Media Group contains fourteen brands:

RealClear Foundation

The RealClear Foundation supports some of the media group's projects. The foundation self-describes as "a donor-financed 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that carries out journalistic and educational programs in the public interest. As newsrooms across the country are shuttering their investigative units, the Foundation has committed itself to raising the resources necessary to support long-form investigative journalism—typically the most expensive and labor-intensive news to produce. So too does the Foundation launch and develop other projects to edify public discourse such as Fact Check Review, educational webpages (part of RealClear’s Public Affairs series), opinion surveys, and events."[5]

Funding

Real Clear Foundation is not required to disclose its funders but major foundation supporters can be found through their IRS filings. Here are some known contributors:

Core Financials

2022[6]

  • Total Revenue: $8,476,449
  • Total Expenses: $9,154,676
  • Net Assets: $2,532,975

Grants Distributed

  • DonorsTrust: $350,000
  • Real Clear Holdings LLC: $3,100,000
  • Real Clear Media Fund: $25,000
  • Palladium Pictures LLC: $575,000

2021[7]

  • Total Revenue: $3,614,001
  • Total Expenses: $5,265,385
  • Net Assets: $3,209,034

Grants Distributed

  • Twenty-First Century Journalism & News Foundation: $100,000

2020[8]

  • Total Revenue: $5,318,894
  • Total Expenses: $4,094,803
  • Net Assets: $4,860,418

Grants Distributed

2019[9]

  • Total Revenue: $3,756,506
  • Total Expenses: $2,406,607
  • Net Assets: $3,636,327

2018[10]

  • Total Revenue: $3,250,000
  • Total Expenses: $1,836,205
  • Net Assets: $2,286,891

2017[11]

  • Total Revenue: $3,050,000
  • Total Expenses: $2,273,071
  • Net Assets: $878,390

2016[12]

  • Total Revenue: $1,696,000
  • Total Expenses: $1,562,608
  • Net Assets: $102,436

2015[13]

  • Total Revenue: $405,000
  • Total Expenses: $454,569
  • Net Assets: $98

2014[14]

  • Total Revenue: $375,000
  • Total Expenses: $399,256
  • Net Assets: $31,412

Personnel

As of March 2023:[15]

Staff

  • David Desrosiers, President

Board of Directors

  • David Desrosiers
  • John McIntyre, Treasurer
  • Andrew Walworth

Contact Information

Chicago office:

RealClear Media Group
666 Dundee Road, Bldg. 600
Northbrook, IL 60062

Washington, D.C. office:

RealClear Media Group
1725 DeSales Street NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036

Website: http://www.realclearmediagroup.com
Phone: (202) 644-8780
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/realclearpolitics
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealClearNews

Articles and Resources

IRS Form 990 Filings

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

Related SourceWatch

References

  1. ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 RealClear Media Group, About, media website, accessed March 18, 2020.
  2. ↑ Conservative Country, Conservative Country, Facebook page, accessed March 27, 2020.
  3. ↑ Jump up to: 3.0 3.1 3.2 Kevin Poulsen and Maxwell Tani, "RealClear Media Has a Secret Facebook Page to Push Far-Right Memes", Daily Beast, October 8, 2019, accessed March 27, 2020.
  4. ↑ Sara Bobolitz, "RealClearPolitics Owner RealClear Media Runs Popular Far-Right Facebook Page", Huffington Post, October 8, 2019, accessed March 27, 2020.
  5. ↑ RealClear Foundation, About, foundation website, accessed March 24, 2020.
  6. ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2022 990, organizational filing, February 13, 2024.
  7. ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2021 990, organizational filing, February 13, 2023.
  8. ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2020 990, organizational filing, February 14, 2022.
  9. ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2019 990, organizational filing, February 15, 2021.
  10. ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2018 990, organizational filing, February 11, 2020.
  11. ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2017 990, organizational filing, January 17, 2019.
  12. ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2016 990, organizational filing, February 2, 2018.
  13. ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2015 990, organizational filing, February 13, 2018.
  14. ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2015 990, organizational filing, February 2, 2018.
  15. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named 2012irs
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