Outlet profile

Hot Air

U.S. right (conservative)

Owned byOwned by Townhall Media, part of Salem Media Group, a publicly traded U.S. Christian and conservative media company. Salem bought the site from founder Michelle Malkin in 2010.

FundingMainly online advertising. The site also runs a paid membership tier, and its parent company has other revenue from radio, publishing and digital media.

On the administrationmixed

Background

Michelle Malkin launched Hot Air in April 2006 as a conservative blog and video site, with Allahpundit (Jazz Shaw's predecessor on the site) and Bryan Preston as early staff. Ed Morrissey, who had run the blog Captain's Quarters since 2003, joined in 2008 and later became managing editor and its best-known voice. In February 2010 Salem Communications bought the site from Malkin, and it was folded into Salem's Townhall network alongside RedState and PJ Media. In 2011 Salem also bought Malkin's Twitchy, and Hot Air has remained a Salem property since. Staff and contributors have included John Sexton and David Strom. In the Trump era the site had a reputation for a more skeptical, establishment-conservative tone than many right-leaning outlets, and Media Bias/Fact Check describes it as right-leaning but not uniformly pro-Trump. Its recent coverage, such as Morrissey's posts on the Iran conflict and Hormuz, tends to back the administration's foreign policy while still offering critical takes on some matters. As a commentary site, it mixes opinion with short news summaries and links, and its posts reflect its authors' views rather than neutral reporting.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-10-07; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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