The Federalist is an American conservative online magazine and podcast that covers politics, policy, culture, and religion, and publishes a newsletter. The site was co-founded by Ben Domenech and Sean Davis and launched in September 2013.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, The Federalist published many pieces that contained false information, pseudoscience, and contradictions or misrepresentations of the recommendations of public health authorities. While ballots were being counted in the 2020 United States presidential election, The Federalist made false claims that there had been large-scale election fraud.
History
The Federalist was co-founded by Ben Domenech and Sean Davis; senior editors include David Harsanyi and Mollie Hemingway. Domenech wrote that The Federalist was inspired by the mission and worldview of the original Time magazine's editor, Henry Luce, which he described as, "[leaning] to the political right, with a small-c conservatism equipped with a populist respect for the middle class reader outside of New York and Washington, and an abiding love for America at a time when snark and cynicism were not considered substitutes for smart analysis." Quoted in The Washington Post in 2018, Domenech described The Federalist as having no office and a staff that was "majority female, half millennial, and a quarter minority."
Finances
The Federalist has not disclosed its funding sources and critics have asked who is funding the site, since ad revenue alone would not be enough for the publication to sustain its staff of 14. Two sources with knowledge of the publication's finances said that one of the major backers of The Federalist is Dick Uihlein, a packing supply magnate and Trump donor who has a history of supporting hard-right political candidates.
According to BuzzFeed News, the website's funding has prompted "a considerable amount of speculation in the political media world, with the phrase 'Who funds the Federalist?' becoming a recurring meme." In response, the website once sold an "I Fund the Federalist" T-shirt to supporters.
In 2020, The Federalist received at least $200,000 in COVID-19 relief funds from the Paycheck Protection Program.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
In late 2014, The Federalist published an article alleging that Neil deGrasse Tyson had used "misstated" quotes in his public presentations, including one attributed to George W. Bush. Tyson later cited the Bush quote to a speech given after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, and apologized to Bush for misremembering the date and context.
Roy Moore
In November 2017, The Federalist came under criticism from both conservatives and liberals for publishing an opinion piece by Tully Borland, Ouachita Baptist University philosopher, defending Roy Moore for allegedly dating teenagers while he was in his 30s, and arguing that such behavior was "not without some merit if one wants to raise a large family". Noah Rothman of the conservative Commentary magazine stated that the op-ed was "rationalizing away child molestation". Molly Roberts of The Washington Post wrote that the op-ed was "uniquely awful". Ben Domenech defended The Federalist for publishing Borland's op-ed saying the magazine "remains avowedly committed to offering alternative views. For those that have a problem with this, the question is simple: what are you afraid of?"
"Black crime" tag
Until October 2017, The Federalist had a "black crime" tag, which aggregated articles related to criminal activity by African Americans. Dan McLaughlin of National Review, a former Federalist contributor, said that the phrasing of the "black crime" tag was "unfortunate", that when he had written for The Federalist he had "never even noticed that there were tags at the bottom of my essays," and that The Federalist "had deleted the tag as soon as it attracted any notice—over a couple of years the tag appeared on only five or six posts."