How Tracking Right-Wing Media Opened New Perspectives for Lifelong Journalist Howard Polskin

In this week’s episode, Jennifer welcomes Howard Polskin, president, founder, and chief curator of The Righting.com. Howard spent the first half of his career as a journalist, writing extensively about TV news for TV Guide magazine. Drawing on his media expertise, Howard founded The Righting, an aggregation platform that curates headlines from right-leaning publications and gives readers a comprehensive overview of conservative thought and analysis.

Howard and Jennifer engage in a thoughtful conversation about the gap between left and right media, the challenges of identifying media bias, and the effects of consuming news from a single perspective. Howard shares his motivation for launching The Righting after the 2016 election and describes how he discovered an entirely new media landscape. The episode covers Howard’s manual curation process, the intricacies of classifying media outlets, growing polarization in both cable news and politics, and the rise of extreme candidates driven by the primary system. Conversation topics include the contrasting coverage of post-October 7th campus protests, differing reports on the COVID-19 pandemic, and the evolving political center of the United States. Howard explains how regularly reading conservative commentary has shifted his understanding of certain issues, emphasizing the value of intellectual curiosity and a willingness to reconsider personal viewpoints.

“I look at the news from the right and the opinion pieces and the analysis like a scientist looking under a microscope at a deadly virus.”

- Howard Polskin

Today on The Political Contessa:

• The Righting.com aggregates and curates headlines from a diverse selection of right-leaning publications for daily insight.
• Howard Polskin launched The Righting.com after realizing in 2016 that much of the right-leaning media landscape was unfamiliar to him.
• It is easier to identify right-wing media outlets than to label progressive or mainstream ones.
• Left- and right-leaning media sources frame and prioritize major stories in dramatically different ways.
• Exposure to alternative viewpoints has meaningfully shaped Howard’s opinions on certain topics.
• Political polarization and extremism are fueled by current primary election systems.
• Coverage of contentious events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and campus protests, depends heavily on the news outlet.
• Howard Polskin curates The Righting manually each day, without AI, to ensure content is thorough and accurate.

Connect with Howard Polskin:

• The Righting Website: therighting.com

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