RedState

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RedState is an American political weblog aimed at Republicans and conservatives. Originally founded in 2004 as a 527 group by conservative bloggers Joshua Trevino, Ben Domenech, and Mike Krempasky, the site is currently a subsidiary of Eagle Publishing, Inc. Erick Erickson is the CEO and Managing Editor, and Ben Domenech, Clayton Wagar, Jeff Emanuel, Thomas Crown, and Mike Krempasky are on the Board of Directors. Clayton Wagar serves as CFO.

Similar in format to Daily Kos, a progressive/liberal weblog which is powered by Scoop, RedState is not a standard blog, but an interactive site powered by the collaborative media application Drupal. Contributors to the site may post directly to the front page, or to a blog with shorter entries known as "RedHot," similar to the blog at National Review. Users may also post comments related to entries as well as diaries (now known as "User blogs") that can be recommended by fellow readers and promoted to the front page by contributors. RedState is an example of a collaborative blog.

RedState has also created numerous offshoot blogs on specific political topics, including a site opposed to Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Arlen Specter and a site supporting the judicial nominees of President George W. Bush.

In March 2006, co-founder Domenech was hired as a blogger by the Washington Post Online, but quickly came under criticism for his prior writings, some of which were plagiarized. At the end of his first week, Domenech resigned, eventually admitting to plagiarism. [1] He took a leave of absence from RedState at the time, from which he returned in July 2006 under a new handle (his own name), and still listed as a Senior Editor for RedState.

On November 16, 2006, former congressman Tom DeLay posted a diary, and he has followed up multiple times. [2] Several other members of the House of Representatives and the US Senate are regular diarists at RedState.

On December 20, 2006, RedState announced its sale to Eagle Publishing, Inc. [3], effective January 2, 2006. Erick Erickson will stay on as Editor.

[edit] Criticisms

In addition to the pall of plagiarism cast on RedState's credibility by Domenech's continued involvement, some have faulted RedState for its frequent and blatant copyright infringement, particularly its uses of the Wall Street Journal's signature "Hedcut" artwork by editor Mark Impomeni. [4][5] [6]

The site's editorial board contains Republicans who run the gamut from socially conservative to small government conservatives who are socially liberal. Some of the site's moderators regularly ban from the site (permanently) those users who break posting rules through personal attacks, use of profanity, etc. [7] [8] [9]

In January 2007, Adam Bonin [10] was banned after one and a half years, saying that RedState now "seems to represent the worst in partisan hackery rather than the intellectual, grassroots conservative site it had been" [11].

RedState diarist "the-lonewacko-blog" [12] - a self-described non-"liberal" - was banned for writing anti-Hispanic diaries during the immigration debate in March 2006 after posting almost 75 diary entries (not just comments) over a one and a half year period. He says that he never received a "good explanation" for the banning, but he believes it was due to him being "one of the few people there who dared criticize George Bush". [13]

Anyone with Internet access can register on the site and publish such content. Some have criticized RedState for articles by random diarists. Examples include diaries that referred to homosexuality as a "mental disorder" and Muslims as "inherently violent." Notably, the diary on homosexuality was closed to comment by the Directors for being out of line with the site's purpose and editorial views. [14] [15]

Despite its sale to Eagle Publishing, Inc., a conservative publishing house, RedState is still a grassroots organization. Eagle Publishing, Inc. and RedState, as part of the sale, agreed to let RedState maintain its editorial constructs as a collaborative grassroots site.

A recent decision (Oct 22, 2007) has been made to ban any new member that is less than 6 months old from posting about Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul. [16]^[1]