BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith broke the news in his POLITICO column today of the birth of the Center for American Freedom, the right's answer to the Center for American Progress. It will publish the Washington Free Beacon, whose editor-in-chief, Matthew Continetti, emails a description of its mission:
Our models are the Center for American Progress / ThinkProgress, TPM, and Huff Po politics. These outlets have been at the cutting edge of ideological journalism for years, and it is time for the right to emulate their success. Our original reporting and commentary will hold the left to the same standards to which TP, TPM, and HP hold the right.
Liberals in journalism excel at portraying the GOP and conservatives as hypocritical self-dealers and lunatics. But it is only the activist press's ideological and partisan biases which prevent it from seeing the Obama administration, Democrats in Congress, and the broader progressive movement through exactly the same lens.
A glance at the popular left websites, with their incessant focus on the right, would lead one to believe that America is a one-party nation led by the Republicans—when in fact the GOP has controlled one measly chamber of Congress for one year, Democrats outspent Republicans in 2004, 2008, and 2010, and liberals shape the contours of acceptable opinion. Having failed to apply their own methods to both parties equally, the media have created a vacuum for coverage of the progressive movement that the Washington Free Beacon will be happy to fill. My motto is: "Do unto them." Because they assuredly will do unto us.
I am thrilled at the staff we have assembled so far and look forward to future expansion. My writers and editors will report original stories, seek out scoops, and focus on the connections between money and power in the progressive movement and Obama's Washington. They will incorporate CAF's research into their reporting, and our war-room will respond in real time to the factual misstatements and hyperbole of Democratic officials and liberal gasbags on MSNBC and talk radio.
The Beacon's website will be a place where readers will find the other half of the story: the inside deals, cronyism cloaked in kind intentions, and out-of-the-mainstream shibboleths of contemporary progressivism and its vehicle, the Democratic party.