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The Raw Story is a progressive Internet news publication founded by John K. Byrne in 2004.
Rawstory is known primarily for its investigative reporting, but also provides hourly updates of news gathered from around the globe.
Raw Story has had their "reporting has been referenced by the New York Times, the Guardian, L.A. Weekly, the New York Post, the Toronto Star, The Hill, Roll Call, The Advocate and Hustler". *
The Raw Story is credited..."the first to reveal Sen. David Vitter (R-LA's) dinner with Jack Abramoff; the first to identify Valerie Plame's work on Iran; the first to expose the practices of the nonprofit that funded Tom DeLay (R-TX)'s trips to Scotland and Asia; the first to publish the Secret Service logs of Jeff Gannon's visits to the White House; the first to print the actual Terri Schiavo 'talking points' document; and the first to finger Vice President Dick Cheney's role in the CIA leak scandal."
Larisa Alexandrovna was the first to report that CIA covert officer, Valerie Plame Wilson, was working on Iran. Raw Story's reporting on Iraq pre-war intelligence and the Bush administration's behind machinations toward Iran has been ahead of most mainstream media.
The site features regular news updates, feature pieces, and original reporting, and Rawstory columns edited by Avery Walker.
The Current Masthead:
- Toby Slingerland - Publisher
- John Byrne - Executive Editor
- Larisa Alexandrovna - Managing Editor - News
- Avery Walker - Managing Editor - Front Page/Opinion
- Muriel Kane - Director of Research - News
- Ron Brynaert - Assistant Researcher - News
- Miriam Raftery - Sr. National Writer - News
- Carlos Miller - Freelance - News
- Melissa McEwan- Freelance - News
- Michael Rolston - Staff - Contributor
- Anthony Levensalor- Webmaster
- Michael Rogers- Staff - News
- Diana - Editorial Assistant
- Daniel O'Connor - Vice President of Business Development
- Chris Tackett - Advertising Manager
Contributing writers have included well known and respected journalists and political/historical scholars as well as elected officials, including Nafeez Ahmed, Michael Smith, and John Conyers.
The Valerie Plame Investigation
The Raw Story has reported extensively on the Valerie Plame investigation. In a December 15, 2005 posting on its website, The Raw Story outlined its investigative work on the Plame investigation. *.
- On October 12, 2005, The Raw Story reported "Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is trying to determine whether Vice President Dick Cheney had a role in the outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame-Wilson, individuals close to Fitzgerald say." The news source explained "Two officials close to Fitzgerald told RAW STORY they have seen documents obtained from the White House Iraq Group which state that Cheney was present at several of the group's meetings."* This story broke in the mainstream press four months later.
- On October 26, 2005, The Raw Story reported that "Fitzgerald asked the jury to indict Libby on a second charge: knowingly outing a covert operative...1982 law that made it illegal to unmask an undercover CIA agent." According to the report, "Fitzgerald needed more evidence to convince the grand jury that Plame was in fact an undercover agent *" target="_blank" >sent FBI agents to her residential neighborhood to obtain testimony from neighbors that they were unaware of Plame’s employment prior to her outing. Evidence collected in these inquiries was aimed at convincing the jury that she was covert", according to Raw Story sources.[http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Prosecutor_in_leak_case_seeks_indictments_1026.html
- On November 16, 2005, The Raw Story reported that "National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley was the senior administration official who told Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward that Valerie Plame Wilson was a CIA officer." According to Raw Story sources, Woodward testified before the federal grand jury that he had a "casual conversation" with Hadley in which Hadley "dismissed [former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger by saying his wife, a CIA officer who worked on WMD issues, had recommended him." Raw Story sources also revealed that Woodward intended to write a story on this information received from Hadley but decided not to after discussing the matter with other Bush Administration officials.
- Three intelligence officials who spoke under condition of anonymity told reporter Larisa Alexandrovna of The Raw Story that while Plame was undercover she was involved in an operation identifying and tracking weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran, suggesting that her outing "significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitor nuclear proliferation". They also stated that the outing of Plame also compromised the identity of other covert operatives who had been working, like Plame, under non-official cover status. These anonymous officials said that CIA work on WMDs has been set back "ten years" as a result of the compromise.*
Criticism of Raw Story and response
Raw Story has been criticized by many readers for its sensational teaser headlines which were used to heavily hype upcoming stories some of which didn't deliver exactly the earth-shattering news that the teaser headlines seemed to have promised. In addition, readers accused Raw Story of deliberately posting misleading teasers to drive up traffic to the web site. In response, Raw Story cut down on its use of sensational teasers and headlines.
External links
- Raw Story Official Webpage
- http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/20/ldt.01.html *http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/12/rs.01.html
"The Raw Story"