Two former writers at the National Review are banding together to start their own news organization that they say will be “Trump-skeptical”:
AXIOS – Jonah Goldberg is leaving National Review in the coming months to start a new conservative media company with Steve Hayes, who was editor-in-chief of The Weekly Standard when its owner shut it down in December.
Goldberg and Hayes tell me they plan a reporting-driven, Trump-skeptical company that will begin with newsletters as soon as this summer, then add a website in September, and perhaps ultimately a print magazine.
Hayes, the likely CEO, and Goldberg, likely the editor-in-chief, are the founders.
Hayes tells me about the startup, which doesn’t have a name now: “We believe there’s a great appetite on the center-right for an independent conservative media company that resists partisan boosterism and combines a focus on old-school reporting with interesting and provocative commentary and analysis.”
Hayes and Goldberg are seeking investors.
Goldberg joined National Review in 1998 and was the founding editor of National Review Online. He’ll continue as a fellow for the National Review Institute.
You know, I have absolutely no issue with being skeptical of Trump at times. Not everything he does is conservative and sometimes it deserves appropriate criticism.
Trade is a big one. But also some of the things he does and says – like today, giving cover for Kim Jong Un over Otto Warmbier’s murder.
It’s when the coverage is mostly or always anti-Trump that I would take issue, because some of what Trump has done policy wise have been great. Trump gets enough anti-Trump coverage from the MSM. No need for conservatives to join their hatefest, even though some have.
I’m not saying that’s what Goldberg and Hayes are going to do with this news organization. Not at all. I actually have great respect for their analysis and believe they are solid conservatives. I would expect them to be fair in their analysis and if they are, I wish them success in their new endeavors.