Power Line

Scott Johnson and John Hinderaker had been actively publishing op-eds, magazine articles and research articles for about a decade. On the weekend of Memorial Day, 2002, Hinderaker invited Johnson to start publishing on the Power Line site he had recently created. Johnson credited Hugh Hewitt's radio broadcasts as being the "first big break and recognition" the site received.{{cite news |title=Interviews Scott Johnson |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/interviews/johnson.html |access-date=26 November 2024 |work=Frontline (American TV program) |agency=Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) |date=26 August 2006 |language=en |quote=John [Hinderaker] and I had been writing together -- op-eds, articles for magazines, longer research articles -- for about 10 years [...] John dragged me along kicking and screaming. He called me up that Memorial Day weekend of 2002 to say he'd started a site and invited me to contribute to it [...] talk show radio host, Hugh Hewitt [...] the first big break and recognition and kind of shot in the arm}}

In 2004, Power Line was named Time magazine's first-ever "Blog of the Year".{{Cite magazine

| title=Blogs Have Their Day

| first=Unmesh |last=Kher |date=December 19, 2004

| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1009913,00.html

| magazine=Time

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504024550/https://time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1009913,00.html

|archive-date=2012-05-04

|url-status=dead}}

When AOL added blogs to their news website in 2007, Power Line was one of the five blogs included.{{cite web |url=https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2007/02/016571.php |title = Introducing Power Line AOL {{!}} Power Line| date=February 22, 2007 }}{{cite web |url=http://newsbloggers.aol.com/category/power-line/ |title=Power Line Blog | News Bloggers |website=newsbloggers.aol.com |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070304000738/http://newsbloggers.aol.com/category/power-line/ |archive-date=4 March 2007 |url-status=dead}} A 2007 memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee described Power Line as one of the five best-read national conservative blogs.{{Cite news

| url=http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0607/4483_Page2.html

| title=GOP issues rules to avoid Macaca moments

| first=Carrie |last=Budoff Brown |date=June 13, 2007

| work=Politico}} That same year, Forbes recognised Hinderaker as the #19th "biggest and brightest star on the web" on the strength of Powerline's work on Rathergate.{{cite news |last1=Ewalt |first1=David M. |title=In Pictures: The Web Celeb 25 |url=https://www.forbes.com/2007/01/23/web-celeb-25-tech-media_cx_de_06webceleb_0123top_slides.html?sh=7582e862dbc4 |access-date=16 April 2021 |work=Forbes |date=24 January 2007 |quote=John Hinderaker is a lawyer and fellow at the conservative Claremont Institute--but his claim to fame is as one of the editors of PowerLine, a right-wing blog best known for its 2004 reporting on "Rathergate."}}

In 2009, CBS News described Powerline as "a prominent conservative blog."{{cite news |title=How Not To Discredit A Poll |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-not-to-discredit-a-poll/ |access-date=16 April 2021 |work=CBS News |date=23 June 2009 |language=en |quote=John Hinderaker at Power Line, a prominent conservative blog, pushed back}} In 2014, CBS News reported the site had half a million readers and eight million page views.{{cite news |author1=Robin Johnson |title=Best Local Bloggers In Minnesota |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/best-local-bloggers-in-minnesota/ |access-date=26 November 2024 |work=CBS News - CBS Minnesota |quote=now has an estimated half million readers and make eight million page views every month}}

The main contributors to Power Line are John H. Hinderaker, Scott W. Johnson, Steven F. Hayward, and Lloyd Billingsley.{{cite web |title=About Us |url=https://www.powerlineblog.com/about-us |website=Powerline |date=June 20, 2011 |access-date=19 June 2021}} Susan Vass, writing under the name "Ammo Grrrll", contributes a humor column to the site every Friday.{{cite web |title=The 2018 CRB Christmas Reading List |url=https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/digital/the-2018-crb-christmas-reading-list/ |website=Claremont Review of Books |publisher=Claremont Institute |access-date=25 July 2023 |date=12 December 2018 |quote=Ammo Grrrll Hit the Target: A Humorist’s Friday Columns from Power Line. What do four boring middle-aged white guys need to liven up their group blog? A regular Friday humor column from former standup comedienne Susan Vass}}

{{See also|Killian documents authenticity issues}}

Power Line gained widespread recognition during the 2004 Killian documents controversy relating to a CBS report on George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard, starting with a post entitled "The Sixty-First Minute";{{cite web |title=Rathergate |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/tags/rathergate.html |website=Frontline (American TV program) |publisher=Public Broadcasting Service |access-date=16 April 2021 |date=2007 |quote=Of course your most famous bump-up in recognition came during the 2004 election. Can you just lay out the story for us? [...] I called that post "The 61st Minute,"}}{{Cite web| url=http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2004/09/007699.php| title=The sixty-first minute| first=Scott |last=Scott Johnson |date=September 9, 2004| publisher=Power Line}} Powerline is credited with helping break the story.{{cite news |last1=Jenny Attiyeh |title=Who's got the power? |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2005/02/whos-got-the-power/ |access-date=16 April 2021 |work=The Harvard Gazette |date=3 February 2005 |quote=Powerline, a conservative blog, was one of the first to raise questions about the authenticity of memos on President Bush’s National Guard service, broadcast by CBS on “60 Minutes.”}}{{cite news |last1=John Podhoretz |title=A Critic's Confession |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/a-critics-confession |access-date=16 April 2021 |work=Washington Examiner |date=9 November 2015 |quote=Scott Johnson of Powerline, the blog that first surfaced the Rathergate fraud, took on the task of debunking Truth}} Conservatives (including Power Line, National Review Online and Little Green Footballs) referred to the controversy as "Rathergate".{{cite news |last1=DAVID WEIGEL |title=We'll Always Have Dan Rather |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2012/09/media-research-center-dishonor-awards-why-conservative-media-critics-arent-laughing.html |access-date=16 April 2021 |work=Slate |date=28 September 2012 |quote=Dan Rather going on air with his 2004 story about George W. Bush’s service in the Air National Guard, then retracting the story because the key document was forged, then, years later, refusing to apologize. New conservative media—talk radio, blogs, message boards, Drudge—claimed his scalp. One of the key blogs, Powerline, was profiled by Time magazine. “Rathergate” changed the audience’s relationship with the media.}}{{cite news |title=Need to Know: Rather Not |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/need-to-know/need-know-rather-not/ |access-date=16 April 2021 |work=National Review |date=4 November 2015 |quote=Mona and Jay welcome Powerline blogger Scott Johnson to discuss the “Rathergate” scandal}} The blogs and their readers questioned the authenticity of the documents, presenting hints of supposed forgery. After noting that the alleged documents used a proportional font, Power Line helped advance the story, triggering coverage by mainstream media outlets.{{cite news |title=Courthouse Shooting in Seattle; Bolton Nomination Before the Senate ... Again; The Hunt of Osama bin Laden Continues; Saddam and the Downing Street Memo in the Blogs |url=https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/ip/date/2005-06-20/segment/02 |access-date=16 April 2021 |work=CNN |date=20 June 2005 |quote=over now to Powerlineblog.com. This is the three conservative lawyers who blog over here and maintain this site. They were the ones who were widely credited, along with their readers, with really blowing what is called in the blogosphere as Rathergate, those CBS documents last year about Bush's National Guard service.}} Dan Rather apologized and resigned from the CBS anchor chair.Dan Rather with Digby Diehl, Rather Outspoken,: My Life In the News (Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group, 2013), page 59.

• Alternative media (U.S. political right)

{{Reflist}}

• {{official|https://powerlineblog.com}}
• [https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0006779/ Library of Congress Web Archive for Powerline]

Category:Mass media in Minnesota

Category:American political blogs

Category:American conservative websites