Politico.com Launches

January 23, 2007 5:40 PM

Politico.com has launched. Last year the venture made news due to the high-profile departures of John Harris and Jim VandeHei from the Washington Post. About 20 reporters from major newspapers have left their jobs to work at the new Web site which is devoted solely to politics.^* It’s launched by an established media company that owns several ABC affiliates - Allbritton Communications Company. They also are publishing a dead-tree version.
posted by ericb (14 comments total)

I like the fact that they're doing a dead-tree version too, I always wondered why more local web launches didn't try to at least have some print presence. It will be interesting to see how this goes.
posted by cell divide at 5:52 PM on January 23, 2007

Apparently they're depending on lobbyist cash to fund it with ads--so, will they accurately report on lobbying scandals and misdeeds? (it's very underwhelming so far)
posted by amberglow at 6:12 PM on January 23, 2007

I don't know why, exactly, but the website's layout made me think immediately of The Onion.
posted by Kattullus at 6:13 PM on January 23, 2007

they're not liveblogging the SOTU?
posted by amberglow at 6:26 PM on January 23, 2007

I guess not.

"Politico has made a deal to share coverage with CBS News. For a start, VandeHei and Allen will join Katie Couric to analyze President Bush’s State of the Union address."^*
posted by ericb at 6:30 PM on January 23, 2007

Hmm. Analysis from Katie Couric. Sounds promising!
posted by washburn at 6:35 PM on January 23, 2007

Rule Number One: don't have live video on the home page.

Rule Number Two: if you decide to break Rule Number One, have a way to pause or stop it.

Ewww, I managed to avoid the SOTU address all night until now. Buh bye!
posted by intermod at 6:50 PM on January 23, 2007

Sounds like rhetoric to me.
posted by macgenius at 7:11 PM on January 23, 2007

Content-wise it looks and sounds promising. Design-and-layout-wise, that shit is FUGLY.
posted by MaxVonCretin at 8:43 PM on January 23, 2007

I dunno. They have some pretty awesome scoops like this one:

Black Caucus: Whites Not Allowed

Investigative Journalism at its best.
posted by srboisvert at 4:09 AM on January 24, 2007

I think Brad Delong has the best comment on the Politico:

When I first ran across this, I laughed. I figured that Patrick Ruffini had either accidently or intentionally caused John Harris [editor-in-chief of The Politico] to mistake astroturf for grassroots--that due to John Harris's poor online research skills, he thought that Patrick was a grassroots conservative weblogger rather than a paid Republican message apparatchik.

Then I learned that I was wrong: that John Harris knew damned well who Patrick Ruffini was and knew damned well whose payroll he was on. He just didn't think he should tell his readers. And I was dumbfounded. John Harris had the sourcing ethics of Judy Miller--the reporter who had promised Vice Presidential aide Scooter Libby that she would identify him not as "a senior administration official" but as "a former Capitol Hill staffer."

So I'm not going to be reading The Politico. There are too many smart, dedicated people writing things trying as hard as they can to tell me how things are for me to spend time reading people who are trying to tell me how things aren't.

posted by jellicle at 5:22 AM on January 24, 2007

Mike Allen was on Washington Journal a couple of days ago, and he was by far he most ill-informed guest I've seen in at least six months.
posted by grimcity at 6:28 AM on January 24, 2007

"I always wondered why more local web launches didn't try to at least have some print presence."


KA-CHING!

That's why. Dead trees with pretties painted on them are spensive.

That said, this site is unpromising at best. Just what we need are more gutless beltway insider journalists clogging up the intertubes.
posted by stenseng at 8:17 AM on January 24, 2007

Just what we need are more gutless beltway insider journalists clogging up the intertubes.

It's true--Swampland from Time pretty much has that all covered.
posted by amberglow at 1:42 PM on January 24, 2007