A media organization spearheaded by a Hillary Clinton ally will be led by a frequent Hillary Clinton critic.
True Blue Media, angling to become the left’s answer to Breitbart News, will be helmed by the veteran journalist and syndicated columnist David Sirota, who has done investigative work at the troubled International Business Times since 2014.
The news was first reported by BuzzFeed.
Sirota has earned a reputation as a muckraking reporter with an eye for corruption and corporate influence in politics. As a result, he was a frequent critic of Clinton’s, making him a peculiar fit for his new employer.
But in a statement, Sirota insisted he’ll still be more journalist than activist.
“At a time when mass misinformation threatens journalism and American democracy, compelling accountability reporting is needed now more than ever,” he said. “The public is being inundated with gossip, half-truths, partisan propaganda and stories that have little connection to people’s daily lives — and all this is happening just as major crises threaten our country and our planet.”
“Our mission is straightforward: to fearlessly report on the most important issues of the day, to break original news, and to scrutinize the political forces and elite powerbrokers that affect — and often harm — the public at large,” he added. “Our coverage areas will not be dictated by Beltway conventional wisdom, but instead by the real issues and crises facing millions of people throughout the country.”
True Blue oversees ShareBlue, a pro-Clinton site owned by David Brock, a conservative commentator turned Democratic operative who founded the liberal watchdog group Media Matters.
A fierce Clinton loyalist, Brock said last month that he was seeking money to fund “a Breitbart of the left,” referring to the right-wing outlet that has become a top news source for supporters of Donald Trump. (Stephen Bannon, who will be a senior counselor to Trump in the White House, was until last summer the chair of Breitbart News.)
In a speech to activists on Friday, Brock will reportedly tweak that description; instead, he is expected to call for “an answer to Breitbart on the left.”
Brock said in a statement that he was “thrilled” to bring Sirota on board “at this critical juncture.”
“Now more than ever, people are hungry for substantive, incisive, fearless reporting—and that’s Sirota’s trademark,” Brock said. “I’ve admired his work for years, and am excited to see True Blue Media grow and evolve under his leadership.”
The feeling might not have always been mutual.
After Clinton’s defeat in November, Brock unveiled plans to launch a donor network modeled after the one started by the billionaire Koch brothers. The network, Brock said, would exist to “kick Donald Trump’s ass.” The brash statement drew an eye roll from Sirota.
“Your job was to do this before the election,” Sirota tweeted at the time. “Why are Clinton aides the right people to lead the effort now?”
