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RedState Editor Erick Erickson Says 'Conservative Media Is Failing'

Erick Erickson, considered to be an influential conservative blogger and editor-in-chief for conservative website RedState, said in a recent blog post that he believes the conservative media in the U.S. is failing, and that it needs to focus on the basic tenets of reporting instead of highlighting controversies.

"I think conservative media is failing to advance ideas and stories," Erickson, also a contributor to Fox News, wrote in a Feb. 27 blog post on RedState titled "W5 + H = A Baseline for Integrity."

"Certainly part of that is because the general media has an ideological bias against conservatives, which makes it harder for the media to take our views seriously. But many conservatives are, instead of working doubly hard to overcome that bias, just yelling louder about the same things," Erickson continued.

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The well-known political blogger went on to argue that conservative journalists are trying "so hard to highlight controversies," that they have forgotten the basic teachings of journalism, including researching the "who, what, when, where, why, and how" of a story before reporting on it.

This baseline must be the beginning point from which conservative journalists can expound on more outrageous stories, Erickson argued.

"I think conservatives need to reset some of their reportorial resources to tell the stories that need to be told by focusing on the facts at hand in a world view of the right. We need to establish a baseline for integrity in reporting that then allows us to highlight the truly outrageous," Erickson wrote.

"Conservatives must start telling stories, not just producing white papers and peddling daily outrage," he added.

Although Erickson mentioned no specific examples which caused him to write the blog post, the entry comes shortly after conservative website Breitbart.com produced incorrect information regarding newly-minted U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's connection to a fictional group named "Friends of Hamas."

In early February, Breitbart.com reported that Hagel had reportedly taken money from a group known as "Friends of Hamas," thus fueling the argument by some that Hagel held allegedly hostile sentiment toward Israel.

The group, which ended up being fictional, was initially created as part of a joke made by New York Daily News reporter Dan Friedman, but Breitbart.com received an influx of criticism from the media community for failing to check facts with multiple sources.

Erickson concluded his blog post by announcing that RedState will be hiring reporters, although previously it has focused more on activism than reporting.

"RedState has a very simple mission statement: educate conservative activists, motivate them to engage, and provide tools for easy activation and empowerment," Erickson wrote.

"I want RedState's focus to be the daily news that should direct the focus of the conservative movement and then take the next step of uncovering how both Democrats and squishy Republicans are abusing the trust of the American people."

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