And yet the news about conservative news organs lately has been a parade of dysfunction, a messy portrait in pixels. “Left-leaning observers and even moderates must now recognize the power of the conservative media in ways that were once overlooked,” he said. Such approval conceivably could have been jeopardized if Fox hadn’t distanced itself from Napolitano’s reporting, the liberal watchdog group Media Matters suggested. Sommer says the source of IJR’s trouble — hyping an erroneous Obama story — was its desire to maximize its audience amid intense competition for conservative readers. “Conservative journalism always has operated under scrutiny from critics eager to discredit opposing views,” said Matthew Continetti, the editor of the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news and commentary site.

Source: Washington Post March 23, 2017 16:43 UTC