Raw Story

U.S. left/progressive

Background

Raw Story was launched on February 1, 2004, by John K. Byrne — a recent Oberlin College graduate — and Michael Rogers, explicitly conceived as a liberal counterpart to the conservative-leaning Drudge Report. In its early years the site focused on stories it felt mainstream outlets were downplaying, including coverage of closeted anti-gay politicians, the Iraq War, and Bush-era surveillance programs. Through the mid-2000s and into the Obama years it built an audience by aggregating and originating politically charged investigative pieces aimed at a progressive readership. In 2018, Byrne and Rogers acquired AlterNet — a progressive news and commentary outlet originally founded in 1987 — and The New Civil Rights Movement, partly as a response to declining Facebook referral traffic that was hurting independent digital outlets. In 2023, the outlet hired veteran journalists Dave Levinthal as Editor-in-Chief and Adam Nichols as Executive Editor to strengthen its investigative and enterprise reporting. Multiple independent media-monitoring organizations — including Media Bias/Fact Check (rated LEFT), AllSides (rated Left), and Ad Fontes Media (Strong Left) — consistently place Raw Story on the left end of the political spectrum, crediting it with generally reliable factual reporting while noting a pronounced progressive slant in story selection, framing, and opinion content.

Sources

1. Raw Story – Wikipedia
2. John K. Byrne – Wikipedia
3. Ownership & Funding – Raw Story
4. Raw Story – Media Bias/Fact Check
5. Raw Story Media Bias – AllSides
6. Raw Story Bias and Reliability – Ad Fontes Media
7. Raw Story Partners Announce Acquisition of AlterNet.org – PR Newswire
8. 'Raw Story' Acquires 'AlterNet' To Assuage Lost Facebook Traffic – MediaPost

Profile compiled 2026-06-28; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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