 | |
 Front cover ofWashington Examiner magazine for May 26, 2014 | |
| Type | Website, weekly magazine |
|---|---|
| Format | Internet, magazine |
| Owner | MediaDC |
| Founder | Philip Anschutz |
| Editor-in-chief | Hugo Gurdon[1] |
| Founded | 2005; 20 years ago (2005) (newspaper) (asMontgomery Journal,Prince George's Journal, andNorthern Virginia Journal) 2013 (2013) (magazine) |
| Ceased publication | 2013 (2013) (newspaper) |
| Political alignment | Conservative |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | 1152 15th St. NW Suite 200 Washington, D.C. 20005 |
| Circulation | 90,000 (as of 2021)[2] |
| ISSN | 2641-094X |
| Website | washingtonexaminer.com |
TheWashington Examiner is an Americanconservative news magazine based inWashington, D.C., consisting of a website and a weekly printed magazine. It is owned by billionaire businessmanPhilip Anschutz through MediaDC, a subsidiary ofClarity Media Group.[3]
From 2005 to 2013, theExaminer was published as a dailytabloid-sized newspaper, distributed throughout the Washington, D.C. metro area. The newspaper focused primarily on local news and political commentary.[4] The local newspaper ceased publication in June 2013, whereupon its content began to focus almost exclusively on national politics from a conservative point of view. TheExaminer switched its print edition from a daily newspaper to an expanded print weekly magazine format.[5][6][7]
The publication now known as theWashington Examiner began its life as a handful of suburban news outlets known as the Journal Newspapers, distributed not in Washington D.C. itself, but only in its suburbs:Montgomery Journal,Prince George's Journal,Fairfax Journal, andArlington Journal (later consolidated as theNorthern Virginia Journal).[8]Philip Anschutz purchased the parent company, Journal Newspapers Inc., in 2004.[9][10] On February 1, 2005, the paper's name changed to theWashington Examiner, and it adopted a logo and format similar to those of another newspaper Anschutz then owned,San Francisco Examiner.[8]
TheWashington Examiner became increasingly influential in conservative political circles, hiring much of the talent fromThe Washington Times.[11] The websiteDCist wrote in March 2013: "Despite the right-wing tilt of [theExaminer's] editorial pages and sensationalist front-page headlines, it also built a reputation as one of the best local sections in D.C."[12] The newspaper's local coverage also gained attention, including a write-up byThe New York Times,[13] for contributing to the arrest of more than fifty fugitives through a feature that each week spotlighted a different person wanted by law enforcement agencies.
In March 2013, the company announced that it would stop printing a daily edition in June and refocus on national politics. The print edition was converted to a weekly magazine, while the website was continually updated.[14] The new format was compared to that ofThe Hill.[6][14] In December 2018, Clarity Media announced that the magazine would become a publicly available, expanded print magazine.[15]
On January 27, 2020,Roy Moore filed a $40 milliondefamation lawsuit against theWashington Examiner. A former chief justice of theAlabama Supreme Court and candidate in the2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama for the seat left open whenJeff Sessions joined the Trump administration, Moore claimed that the magazine repeatedly wrote "fake news" attacks stemming fromallegations that he made unwanted sexual and romantic advances to girls as young as 15 when he was in his late 30s.[16]
In January 2020, breaking news editor Jon Nicosia was fired after showing a sexually explicit video to colleagues. Nicosia denied any wrongdoing, saying he had only shared the video "because he thought it might go viral ... and become a news story". Nicosia accused managing editorToby Harnden of abusive workplace behavior. An employee's complaint seen by CNN said that Harnden had created a "toxic work environment" and a climate of "workplace terror and bullying". Editor-in-chief Hugo Gurdon then announced Harnden had departed and that he was "enlisting a third-party to conduct a thorough investigation" into theExaminer. But CNN reported that "current and formerExaminer employees" said that "Gurdon was aware of Harnden's brutish managing style" long before it became a public issue and did nothing about it.[17][18]
In October 2020, theExaminer hired Greg Wilson as the new managing editor. As online editor of the Fox News website, Wilson had previously published a news story supporting the conspiracy theory about murdered Democratic aideSeth Rich andWikiLeaks.[19]
In June 2020, theExaminer published an op-ed by "Raphael Badani", a fake persona who was part of a broader network pushing propaganda for the United Arab Emirates and against Qatar, Turkey, and Iran.The Daily Beast subsequently disclosed that Badani's "profile photos are stolen from the blog of an unwitting San Diego startup founder" while his "LinkedIn profile, which described him as a graduate of George Washington and Georgetown, is equally fictitious."[20]
In 2013, the magazine's publisher said it would seek to distribute the magazine to at least "45,000 government, public affairs, advocacy, academia and political professionals".[12] The publisher also claimed theExaminer's readership is more likely to sign a petition, contact a politician, attend a political rally, or participate in a government advocacy group than those ofRoll Call,Politico, orThe Hill.[21] Its publisher claims that theExaminer has a high-earning and highly educated audience, with 26 percent holding amaster's orpostgraduate degree and a large percentage earning over $500,000 annually, likely to be working inexecutive orsenior management positions.[21]
TheExaminer has been described as conservative.[22] When Anschutz started it in its daily newspaper format, he envisioned creating a competitor toThe Washington Post with a conservative editorial line. According toPolitico: "When it came to the editorial page, Anschutz's instructions were explicit—he 'wanted nothing but conservative columns and conservative op-ed writers,' said one former employee."[4]
According to theColumbia Journalism Review, among the conservative media landscape, theExaminer "is structured more or less like a mainstream newspaper—complete with clear distinctions between news reporting and commentary roles. The outlet has one of the largest newsrooms in online conservative media, with dedicated breaking news reporters and more specialized beat reporters, and a full editorial hierarchy." According to editor-in-chief Hugo Gurdon, the paper's conservatism on the news side was largely based on story selection, citingThe Daily Telegraph as an inspiration.[23]
TheExaminer endorsedJohn McCain in the2008 presidential election[24] andAdrian Fenty in the2010 Washington, D.C., mayoral election.[25] On December 14, 2011, it endorsedMitt Romney for the2012 Republican presidential nomination, publishing an editorial saying he was the only Republican who could beatBarack Obama in the general election.[26]
On the day after former Trump White House aideCassidy Hutchinson testified before theHouse select committee on the January 6 attack in 2022, theExaminer published an editorial titled "Trump proven unfit for power again".[27][28] TheExaminer did not issue a formal endorsement in the 2024 election, but did publish various pro-Trump columns leading up to Election Day.[29][30]
As of 2025, theExaminer also releases news in video format, often featuring columnistByron York.[31][32]
In January 2019, theWashington Examiner published a story with the headline, "Border rancher: 'We've found prayer rugs out here. It's unreal'". Shortly thereafter, PresidentDonald Trump cited the story as another justification for a border wall amid the2018–19 federal government shutdown. The story in question cited one anonymous rancher who offered no evidence ofprayer rugs. The story provided no elaboration on how the rancher knew the rugs in question were Muslim prayer rugs. The author of the story formerly worked as press secretary for the anti-immigration groupFederation for American Immigration Reform. Stories of Muslim prayer rugs at the border areurban myths that have frequently popped up since at least 2005, but without evidence.[33] TheExaminer never issued a clarification or retracted the story.
In April 2019,Quartz reported that White House advisorStephen Miller had been purposely leaking information on border apprehensions and asylum seekers to theWashington Examiner so that the paper would publish stories with alarming statistics that sometimes criticized DHS secretaryKirstjen Nielsen, which he could then show to Trump to undermine her. Nielsen was fired in April 2019, reportedly for being insufficiently hawkish on immigration.[34][35]
While opposing illegal immigration, theWashington Examiner has published op-ed columns in favor of "legal immigration."[36][37] In May 2025, the newspaper's staff published an article titled "Becoming an American: How to fix the legal immigration system."[38]
TheWashington Examiner has published opinion pieces thatoppose or deny thescientific consensus on climate change.[39][40][41] In February 2010, it published an op-ed in whichMichael Barone, a pundit who writes frequently promoting skepticism of climate science,[42] citing theClimatic Research Unit email controversy to argue that the scientific consensus on climate change was "propaganda ... based on ... shoddy and dishonest evidence".[43][44] Daniel Sarewitz ofArizona State University criticized Barone, writing that Barone and other conservative climate change pundits erroneously "portrayed deviation from scientific certainty and highly idealized notions of 'the scientific method' as evidence against climate change", which he compared to "equally naïve and idealized" presentations on the other side of the debate, such as the filmAn Inconvenient Truth.[43]
In 2017, theWashington Examiner editorial board supported Trump's unilateral withdrawal from theParis Climate Accords, which theExaminer editorial board called "a big flashy set of empty promises... The Earth's climate is changing, as it always has. And part of the reason it is changing is due to human activity. But those two facts are excuses neither for alarmism and reflexive, but ineffective action, nor for sacrificing sovereignty to give politicians a short-term buzz of fake virtue and green guerrillas another weapon with which to ambush democratic policymaking."[45][46]
On August 31, 2019, theWashingtonExaminer published an op-ed column byPatrick Michaels and Caleb Stewart Rossiter titled "The Great Failure of the Climate Models".[47] It claimed that generally accepted climate models were not valid scientific tools. Some scientists described theExaminer op-ed as highly misleading, saying that there were numerous false assertions and cherry-picked data in the op-ed.[48]
In July 2025, theWashington Examiner published an op-ed column byEnvironmental Protection Agency AdministratorLee Zeldin, arguing in favor of "American energy dominance" and criticizing theBiden administration for "irresponsibly" abandoning energy sources such as coal, petroleum, natural gas, nuclear, and hydropower.[49][50]
{{cite AV media}}:External link in|title=| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
