Opinion | How the rise of Politico shifted political journalism off course

Politico largely embraced these prevailing orthodoxies of political journalism, significantly in its early days — it was Beltway-focused, obsessive about not offending Republican readers, generally resembled sports activities protection and its main reporters have been almost all White. It was in some ways only a quicker, extra fascinating model of how politics had lengthy been coated. And that actually labored. Politico turned very influential, significantly amongst individuals concerned in politics, in addition to amongst political journalists and editors who didn’t work at Politico. For greater than a decade, not solely did Politico hold gaining power, however the complete political media turned extra like Politico. Editors rushed to rent staffers from the Northern Virginia-based outlet. In addition they pressed their current staffers to cowl politics the best way Politico did — extra scoops, extra insider gossip, a quicker tempo.