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News Outlet's Lazy Reporting Misrepresents The Western Journal, Botches Facts in Herman Cain Story

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Business Insider mischaracterized The Western Journal in a story regarding Herman Cain’s decision to withdraw his name from consideration for the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, describing The Western Journal as a “far-right blog site.”

Other establishment outlets also appeared to seek to discredit The Western Journal in their descriptions.

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that Cain had contacted him and requested he not be nominated for the Federal Reserve.

In an opinion piece for his homepage later in the day, the former presidential candidate explained the reasons for his decision not to go forward with the nomination process.

Several news outlets published stories based on Cain’s Op-Ed — like The Hill, The Daily Beast and Newsmax — and they simply noted it was located at The Western Journal.

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Some — such as Reuters, Politico, Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times — took what they may have considered a small jab at The Western Journal by describing it as a “conservative website,” rather than simply using the news site’s name or referring to it as a publisher.

CNN described Cain’s opinion piece as a “blog post,” but did characterize The Western Journal as a “conservative news site.”

None of these outlets reached out to The Western Journal regarding the nature of the relationship it has with Cain, who hosts a daily online video program in addition to publishing opinion pieces on his homepage, which is a section of The Western Journal.

Cain addressed his decision to withdraw from consideration for the Federal Reserve on Tuesday’s program.

In his story about Cain’s decision, Business Insider’s David Choi called The Western Journal a “far-right blog site,” which elicited a multi-tweet response from Deputy Editor-in-Chief George Upper.

“@businessinsider clearly doesn’t know who we are or what we do, nor did they take the 9 seconds it would require to understand that this was not a ‘column’ on our site, but a column on Herman Cain’s homepage,” Upper wrote in his first tweet, linking to Choi’s story.

Upper further highlighted that Choi did not get the news site’s name right, omitting “The” from the title and referring to it as “Western Journal.”

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The editor further added that if Business Insider wants to describe The Western Journal as a “far right blog,” it clearly does not “have the knowledge needed to be reporting on the right at all.”

“I have to say I’m disappointed. I respect @businessinsider. Or I used to, anyway. Maybe they’ll do some homework and issue a correction,” Upper tweeted.

BizPacReview journalist Samantha Chang agreed, tweeting: “Left-wing shills Business Insider has no idea how centrist and moderate the Western Journal really is. In fact, they get criticized for being too centrist.”

In response to Chang’s tweet, Upper pointed out, like many news outlets, multiple stories at The Western Journal each day are syndicated directly from the Associated Press, which is hardly known for producing “far right” pieces.

Chang also posted a chart showing The Western Journal has nearly the same Alexa visitor traffic ranking as Business Insider (144 versus 122 in the U.S.), and its long- term trajectory has been up, while BI’s has been down.

The Western Journal receives over 1.3 million page views per day and consistently ranks among the most engaged news sites on Facebook (usually above Business Insider) and in the top five conservative news sites in the country. The Western Journal also has 40 million likes among the multiple Facebook pages it operates, including Conservative Tribune by WJ, Liftable by WJ, and The Wildcard by WJ.

In one final shot at BI, Upper tweeted that Choi’s story would not have been published on The Western Journal because it does not “meet our editorial standards for fact checking.”

“This is the quality of establishment media coverage Big Tech thinks you should be limited to. Never forget that,” Upper wrote.

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Randy DeSoto has written more than 2,000 articles for The Western Journal since he joined the company in 2015. He is a graduate of West Point and Regent University School of Law. He is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths" and screenwriter of the political documentary "I Want Your Money."
Randy DeSoto is the senior staff writer for The Western Journal. He wrote and was the assistant producer of the documentary film "I Want Your Money" about the perils of Big Government, comparing the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Randy is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths," which addresses how leaders have appealed to beliefs found in the Declaration of Independence at defining moments in our nation's history. He has been published in several political sites and newspapers.

Randy graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a BS in political science and Regent University School of Law with a juris doctorate.
Birthplace
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Nationality
American
Honors/Awards
Graduated dean's list from West Point
Education
United States Military Academy at West Point, Regent University School of Law
Books Written
We Hold These Truths
Professional Memberships
Virginia and Pennsylvania state bars
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Entertainment, Faith




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