 | |
Type of site | News and opinion |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Headquarters | 529 14th St, N.W. Washington, D.C., and 712 5th Ave New York, NY, United States |
| Owner | The Fiscal Times Media Group, LLC |
| Founder | Peter G. Peterson |
| Key people | Jacqueline Leo (Editor-in-chief) Eric Pianin (Washington editor) Yuval Rosenberg (Executive editor) |
| URL | thefiscaltimes.com |
| Advertising | Native |
| Registration | Optional, but is required to comment |
| Launched | 2010 |
| Current status | Online |
The Fiscal Times (TFT) is anEnglish-language digital news, news analysis and opinion publication based inNew York City andWashington, D.C. It was founded in 2010 with initial funding from businessman and investment bankerPeter G. Peterson.Jacqueline Leo serves as the publication's editor-in-chief.
Through three core content channels—policy and politics, business and economy, and life and money—the publication focuses on howfiscal policy affects business and consumers and how business and consumer behavior influences government fiscal policy. The site's news coverage also tracks thePresidency,Congress and theFederal Reserve.
The publication bills itself as "The Source for All Things Fiscal."[1] It adds that it is "part of a new era of independently supported non-partisan journalism" on fiscal policy, which "works to present fair, accurate and balanced reporting and serve as an honest broker in sorting through a broad range of viewpoints, including the federal budget, the growing deficit, entitlements, health care, personal savings, taxation, and the global economy."[2]
The Fiscal Times' advisory committee periodically meets with TFT editors to assess performance and progress in meeting its goals and standards. The committee includesRobert D. Reischauer, president emeritus of theUrban Institute;[3] Drew Altman, CEO of theHenry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; Jim Brady, former executive editor ofThe Washington Post; Jodi T. Allen, senior editor of thePew Research Center; and G. William Hoagland, senior vice president at theBipartisan Policy Center.
BusinessmanPeter G. Peterson a controversial Wall Street billionaire who uses his wealth to underwrite numerous organizations and PR campaigns to generate public support for slashing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, foundedThe Fiscal Times by providing the initial funding for the publication in 2009 and 2010.Jackie Leo, former editor-in-chief ofReader's Digest was selected to be the publication's editor-in-chief. Other journalists involved in the launch of the publication included formerWashington Post budget reporter Eric Pianin, who became the publication's Washington editor, Ann Reilly Dowd fromFortune magazine, andMerrill Goozner, former chief financial writer for theChicago Tribune.[4] The publication was to launch in early 2010, but begancontent partnership programs with organizations includingThe Washington Post in 2009.
Some liberal advocacy groups accused Peterson of having a political agenda for funding the start-up organization.[5] On 31 December 2009, theWashington Post published a news article, "Support grows for tackling nation's debt," created byThe Fiscal Times as part of a content partnership agreement with the Post.[6] The liberalmedia watchdog groupFairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) issued an "Action Alert" in reaction to the story, saying that thePost had taken "special-interest 'propaganda' and passed it off as a news story."[7]Washington Postombudsman Andrew Alexander, responded to what he described as an "uproar" from critics,[8] criticized his paper's "glaring lack of transparency" on the partnership and wrote that the piece "was not sufficiently balanced," but nonetheless defendedThe Fiscal Times partnership, writing that Peterson had told him that his funding ofThe Fiscal Times had "no strings attached."[8][9] FAIR also criticized thePost for publishing anotherFiscal Times article that FAIR criticized as a "soft profile" of two members of theWhite House deficit reduction commission.[10] FAIR questioned whether the piece entertained "serious criticism of the ideas being advanced so far by the commission (cutting Social Security, most notably)."[10] TheNew York Times noted that several other start-up media publications includingPolitico andProPublica, which also supplied material to newspapers, also had prominent backers who donated to political causes.[5]
Celebrating the February 2010 launch of the website forThe Fiscal Times, an article in "The Washington Scene" section ofThe Hill stated that it had received "rave reviews, with guests and journalists commending the site on its non-partisan, clearly numbers-based approach to reporting the news of money."[11] EconomistDean Baker of the progressivethink tank theCenter for Economic and Policy Research wrote in April 2010 that the publication's news articles displayed pro-deficit-reduction bias.[12]
The Fiscal Times staff consists of several veteran reporters, including editor-in-chiefJackie Leo (former editor-in-chief forReader's Digest); Washington editor Eric Pianin (former editor and budget reporter for theWashington Post); Yuval Rosenberg (former editor atFortune); Maureen Mackey (former editor atReader's Digest); Rob Garver (former editor atProPublica);Mark Thoma (professor of economics at theUniversity of Oregon); Patrick Smith (former Hong Kong (and then Tokyo) bureau chief for theInternational Herald Tribune); and columnistEd Morrissey (blogger at the conservativeHot Air blog).[citation needed]
TFT has partnerships with a number of news organizations, including theWashington Post, which allows both publications to jointly produce as well as share content,[13]CNBC,Microsoft,Bloomberg Terminal,Business Insider,MSN Money andBankrate. In addition,TFT stories appear frequently on theHuffington Post andThe Week.[citation needed]