RealClear Media Group
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]
Contents
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:
- RealClearPolitics
- RealClearEnergy
- RealClearReligion
- RealClearBooks
- RealClearHistory
- RealClearWorld
- RealClearDefense
- RealClearHealth
- RealClearScience
- RealClearEducation
- RealClearMarkets
- RealClearPolicy
- RealClearInvestigations
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
According to a 2019 piece by Center for Media and Democracy, "RealClear Foundation has been funded by right-wing megadonors for years."[6]
As CMD reports, from 2013-2018:[6]
- DonorsTrust has given $2,750,000.
- Donors Capital Fund has given $1,000,000.
- Thomas W. Smith Foundation has given $450,000.
- Ed Uihlein Family Foundation has given $250,000.
- Fisher Investments has given $250,000.
- Job Creators Network Foundation has given $250,000.
- Jaquelin Hume Foundation has given $200,000.
- Sarah Scaife Foundation has given $100,000.
- Robert & Ardis James Foundation has given $100,000.
- Richard Lounsbery Foundation has given $50,000.
- Nelson Broms (founder and former board member of Manhattan Institute for Policy Research)[7] has given $50,000.
- Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has given $11,250.
- Greater Kansas City Community Foundation has given $11,250.
- Ayn Rand Institute has given $6,000.
Core Financials
2019[8]
- Total Revenue: $3,756,506
- Total Expenses: $2,406,607
- Net Assets: $3,636,327
2018[9]
- Total Revenue: $3,250,000
- Total Expenses: $1,836,205
- Net Assets: $2,286,891
2017[10]
- Total Revenue: $3,050,000
- Total Expenses: $2,273,071
- Net Assets: $878,390
2016[11]
- Total Revenue: $1,696,000
- Total Expenses: $1,562,608
- Net Assets: $102,436
2015[12]
- Total Revenue: $405,000
- Total Expenses: $454,569
- Net Assets: $98
2014[13]
- Total Revenue: $375,000
- Total Expenses: $399,256
- Net Assets: $31,412
Personnel
As of December 2019:[8]
Staff
- David Desrosiers, President
Board of Directors
- David Desrosiers, Chairman and Secretary
- John McIntyre, Treasurer
- Andrew Walworth
Contact and Social Media
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
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
Related SourceWatch
- Ayn Rand Institute
- Barack Obama
- Center for Media and Democracy
- Donald Trump
- DonorsTrust
- Donors Capital Fund
- Ed Uihlein Family Foundation
- Jaquelin Hume Foundation
- Job Creators Network
- Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
- Richard Lounsbery Foundation
- Sarah Scaife Foundation
- Thomas W. Smith
- Vladimir V. Putin
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 RealClear Media Group, About, media website, accessed March 18, 2020.
- ↑ Conservative Country, Conservative Country, Facebook page, accessed March 27, 2020.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Sara Bobolitz, "RealClearPolitics Owner RealClear Media Runs Popular Far-Right Facebook Page", Huffington Post, October 8, 2019, accessed March 27, 2020.
- ↑ RealClear Foundation, About, foundation website, accessed March 24, 2020.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Alex Kotch, "Koch Foundations Increased Media Investments in 2018", Center for Media and Democracy, November 26, 2019, accessed March 18, 2020.
- ↑ C-SPAN, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, network website, accessed March 18, 2020.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 RealClear Media Group, 2019 990, organizational filing, February 15, 2021.
- ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2018 990, organizational filing, February 11, 2020.
- ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2017 990, organizational filing, January 17, 2019.
- ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2016 990, organizational filing, February 2, 2018.
- ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2015 990, organizational filing, February 13, 2018.
- ↑ RealClear Media Group, 2015 990, organizational filing, February 2, 2018.
