Breitbart News

Breitbart News is among the media that consultants and staffers for Republican candidates talk to, as do their bosses, to deal more directly with the conservative base.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Jim Jordan is a conservative's conservative, with a rare lifetime rating of 100 -- a perfect score -- from the American Conservative Union. So the Republican congressman seemed like a good guy to ask: When you want conservative news and viewpoints, where do you turn?

Jordan, from Champaign County, Ohio, took out his iPhone to answer.

Look at the apps, he said, pointing to an uncluttered screen. There was an icon for Politico, a Washington, D.C., political news outfit that displays no bias other than wanting the scoop, all day, every day. Interpretation: Jordan, 51, an unassuming-looking man who favors shirtsleeves while his colleagues keep their suit coats on, watches Washington's political chessboard.

But there was also an app for Fox News. And one for the Drudge Report. "You read Drudge, don't you?" Jordan asked.

If you follow politics and culture, enjoy a bit of outrage and want to know when there's a whiff of hypocrisy, often involving liberals, you probably do. Likewise, many conservatives stay in tune with Fox and its mix of news and opinionated personalities.

But did you know that U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican with a skillfully crafted campaign, gave an interview to a web-based outlet called Breitbart News shortly before announcing that he was running for president? Do you even know what Breitbart News is?

Maybe you caught Jeb Bush -- or Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, Ben Carson, John Kasich or any other Republican who matters -- on Hugh Hewitt's syndicated radio show. That's assuming that you listen to Hewitt, described by Republican political operatives as cerebral and important.

This is a story about, and a guide to, conservative media. They are already playing roles in helping candidates communicate with donors and voters leading up to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Not all outlets are created equal in the segmented mediascape of 2015. Some are more opinionated than others -- or, to be fair and balanced about it, some are proudly open about biases and thrive on discussing why. Academics say they fear an "echo chamber" effect as Americans select news sources that fit their preconceived notions and tune out others. Ideological broadcasts and websites are given to flame-throwing to marginalize the other side.

But political pros who work on campaigns say that they use these media to get out specific talking points or tap a vein of donations. As for credibility in this slice of media, Ohio State University journalism professor Gerald Kosicki said, "Credibility is kind of a narrow perspective in that sense."

The left does it too. Heavily so.

But before this digresses into an MSNBC-vs.-Fox-vs.-PBS debate (feel free to comment below), the list here is in service of the road to RNC 2016: The Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Politicians who will be there already pay attention to these outlets, and are giving them interviews you might be unaware of.

You may agree or disagree with their viewpoints. But if you want to understand where they're coming from when they hit the North Coast -- an army of red in deep-blue territory -- here's your chance. This selection resulted from conversations with conservatives including Republican campaign consultants and aides. In no particular order:

Fox News: This is the the biggie and, like Rush Limbaugh's radio program, barely needs mentioning because you know it already. "The O'Reilly Factor," Bill O'Reilly's nightly show (8 p.m. and 11 p.m.), is king of talk TV ratings, and can get more than 3 million viewers a night. Most of them are voters. Many are donors. And politicians want to reach them all. Just a short guest spot on "O'Reilly" can trigger $50,000 in donations shooting into a candidate's website, said Barry Bennett, a political consultant who manages Carson's presidential campaign and runs a super PAC, the Fighting for Ohio Fund, supporting U.S. Sen. Rob Portman's reelection.

Breitbart News: Originally a website run by the late Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger and commentator, this has turned into a news/opinion video site with its own reporters and contributors -- and with a high outrage quotient. Examples include this: "Hillary Clinton caught in another email lie," a story that relies upon New York Times reporting -- even though Breitbart is known to make fun of mainstream media including the New York Times. Breitbart.com can be a cornucopia of fun, facts and opinion; who can resist, "After losing to Jay Leno, David Letterman's bitterness cost him his Indiana soul," by editor-at-large John Nolte? Breitbart's audience size is not publicly available, but conservatives mention the site consistently and believe its audience is large, which helps it attract presidential candidates for interviews and campaign strategists for strategic leaks.

Hugh Hewitt's syndicated radio show: Hugh Hewitt has built a following with mainstream Republicans and mainstream media (whose members are occasional guests) thanks to his sharp-minded, generally non-acerbic approach. He's got a Harvard education, a Michigan Law degree and a side gig teaching constitutional law -- so he sometimes plays the role of prosecutor to his guests, as an unusual but delicious exchange (no matter who you think is right) earlier this year with David Corn of Mother Jones shows. Hewitt grew up in Warren, Ohio and lists Cleveland and Ohio State sports among his passions. He's got a "cerebral" approach, as one campaign consultant put it, which helps him get anyone and everyone worthy of a national GOP audience. National Journal called Hewitt the GOP's "go-to pundit." Come September, you'll see the silver-haired Hewitt posing questions with CNN at the second Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California -- an institution whose construction Hewitt oversaw. Hewitt's show is on various radio stations including WHK-1420 in Cleveland at 6 p.m. weeknights, or on his website, which also features transcripts, or on his mobile app.

Mark Levin's radio show: You've no doubt heard of Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, significant players in conservative media. But have you heard of Mark Levin (pronounced LeVIN)? He's an attorney, author, conservative talker, former Reagan administration official and president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, a conservative, public-interest law firm. This means he's staked not just his voice but also his legal chops by filing U.S. Supreme Court briefs criticizing the Affordable Care Act and supporting the right of Kansas and Arizona to require proof of citizenship for voter eligibility. Yet Levin's radio show and webcasts are hardly mannerly, may-it-please-the-court affairs. Levin enjoys a good fight or rant, especially if it involves mocking a liberal. He describes "leftist crazies," "phony populists" and "socialists," and says the "media are the Praetorian Guard for the left." Amtrak is "a black hole where money is poured in." The Democratic Party "has destroyed the inner city." Several political professionals interviewed for this list called Levin influential, partly because he is on more than 300 radio stations nationwide (including WHK-1420 in Cleveland at 9 p.m., just after Hewitt's show). He also can be heard through his website.

David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network: Christian Broadcasting's audience may not be as large as Rush Limbaugh's (speaking of influential), but as a campaign manager said, the viewers lean heavily Republican -- and they vote. So David Brody, CBN's chief political correspondent, makes the list because he gets the interviews, both in his reporting capacity for CBN News -- which can be seen on the 700 Club, with 1 million viewers daily -- and for his blog, The Brody File. Candidates seem comfortable discussing faith with Brody, and he easily segues from foreign policy and domestic news to a kind of religious intimacy seldom seen in traditional media. Carly Fiorina recently discussed at some length with Brody how she would not have endured tragedies in her life "without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ." Marco Rubio used a recent interview with Brody to reach out to the religious right on gay marriage, warning that gay-rights proponents who denounce their opponents as homophobes will next turn on the "teachings of mainstream Christianity, the catechism of the Catholic Church" and even will argue that these represent hate speech. Rubio took heat from gay-rights supporters -- but Brody wrote on his blog that the Florida U.S. senator was "right on the money." Interviews and analyses by Brody, who authored the book "The Teavangelicals," are a regular feature on the 700 Club. He also features his work on a CBN website.

Erick Erickson and Red State: Erick Erickson has a trifecta -- an afternoon radio show, a leading role at a website (Red State Blog) and an annual conference that draws the likes of Marco Rubio, Scott Walker and Jeb Bush. He's a Fox News contributor. Conservative leaders whisper in his ear, although he has chafed at the Republican establishment. Unlike some other commentators, Erickson actively supports candidates, and his list of winners -- Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz among them -- has bolstered his conservative credentials. The Atlantic called him "arguably the most powerful conservative in America today." Although RedState.com does not have the largest audience -- about 746,000 unique visitors a month, according the metrics site Quantcast -- Erickson's drive-time show radio show is heard widely, anchored by one of the nation's largest stations, in Atlanta, and is also available online. His pronouncements can light up a congressman's switchboard, but they're not always for sensitive tastes. He once wondered in a blog post whether President Barack Obama was "shagging hookers," but concluded it was unlikely because Michelle Obama was a "Marxist harpy" who would "go Lorena Bobbit on him should he even think about it." Erickson later told media critic Howard Kurtz, then on CNN (now on Fox), that he had learned not to get so personal -- yet earlier this year, he called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a "eunuch" who has acted "as if he needs testosterone injections."

Townhall: Townhall.com is website that serves as a bulletin board, making it ideal for taking the conservative pulse. Between 2.7 million and 3.2 million people do so a month, according to Quantcast figures. That generally means they get news and aggregations about Obama administration scandals, and Hillary Clinton news. And China news. And more Clinton news. With a home page attractively organized with lots of boxes, there were no fewer than eight boxes -- for eight separate stories -- on the former secretary of state one day recently. Some were staff written; editor Katie Pavlich, author of a book about the Left's "War on Women," and her staff are prolific. But mainstream sources including the Associated Press and CBS News are represented, too. One of Townhall's best features is its wide assortment of voices, with columns by writers including political analyst Michael Barone (of the Washington Examiner and the American Enterprise Institute), Fox News contributor and columnist Michelle Malkin, Erick Erickson (see Red State, above), writer and former MSNBC host S. E. Cupp, Jonah Goldberg of the National Review, Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan, and on and on. Townhall has links to conservative radio shows. It has links to Hot Air, an affiliated website. Proof of a vast, right-wing conspiracy? Actually, it's more like a business conglomerate: California-based Salem Media Group owns Townhall, Hot Air, Red State, more than 100 radio stations and book publisher Regnery Publishing.

NewsMax: This website's audience is large (6.9 million viewers a month, according to Quantcast), its aesthetic clean, and many of its columnists, called "Insiders," are on speed-dial with the Washington establishment: Charles Krauthammer, Fareed Zakaria, Rich Lowry. In a universe where websites scream and shout, Newsmax offers a sheen of calm. Don't think of it as too buttoned down, though. It has returned time and again to topics such as President Obama's true birthplace -- or as Newsmax prefers to call it, "Barack Obama's citizenship scandal." Although Newsmax does original reporting and analysis, it also has a steady stream of news stories from mainstream media including the Associated Press and Bloomberg News. Bloomberg Businessweek reported last year that almost every Republican presidential candidate makes a visit to Newsmax's West Palm Beach, Florida, headquarters, where a 200,000-circulation monthly magazine is produced. The website started in 1998, putting it at the forefront of the conservative movement's web presence. An aside: Newsmax also promotes vitamin supplements.

Others to check out:

The Blaze

The Daily Caller

The Washington Examiner

The Washington Free Beacon