More on Capitol Hill Blue website

[trof]

From a friend:
I did some checking on the internet. First of all, the source, Capital Hill
Blue appears to be an apolitical "alternative news" source reportedly an
outlet for reporters with stories their own newspapers won't print. The
website is owned by the Save American Foundation. To my surprise, I
discovered that its president and CEO is Hank Erwin, the Republican Alabama
state senator from my niece's district!!! I don't know his whole record but
I do know that he has been a leading opponent of legalizing gambling in
Alabama and has been outspoken against the Massachusetts court decision on
gay marriage. Presumably, if the sponsor is a Southern conservative
Republican with two religion degrees from evangelical colleges (plus a
public university liberal arts degree), we can at least safely assume that
his web site is not a Yankee, liberal, Democrat, atheist, left wing
conspiracy. Maybe it is just honest investigative journalism!

I checked up on the author. His bio* is given after the article. The
co-author Theresa Hampton is an editor for Capitol Hill Blue. I didn't
learn much about her.

*bio:
Doug Thompson realized the value of capturing history 45 years ago as a
10-year-old schoolboy in Farmville, Virginia, when the community, caught up
in a fight over integration, closed the public schools and opened an
all-white private school.

Thompson wrote about his experiences and submitted his story to The
Farmville Herald, the local newspaper. His essay was picked up by other
newspapers around he country. He also took pictures for the paper.

When his family relocated to the Blue Ridge Mountain community of Floyd, the
then 14-year-old Thompson took his photographs and stories to Pete Hallman,
editor of the weekly Floyd Press. Hallman encouraged the young man to
continue writing and taking photos, teaching him the ins and outs of the
newspaper business.

Thompson went on to join the staff of The Roanoke Times where he covered the
police beat, emerging racial turmoil in the city and tackled other tough
subjects. His story about a young girl who obtained an abortion (illegal at
the time) won the top feature writing award from the Virginia Press
Association. Another, about street racers in the city, won another feature
writing award while his coverage of the murder of a Southwest Roanoke couple
and the abduction and rape of their teenaged daughters brought the top news
writing award from the association

After moving on to The Telegraph in Alton, Illinois, Thompson continued to
win awards for writing and photography, capturing the Illinois Associated
Press Managing Editors top prizes for news, feature and column writing as
well as first place awards from the Illinois Press Association.

Thompson took a sabbatical from newspapers in 1981 and moved to Washington
and work on Capitol Hill, where he served as press secretary to two members
of Congress, Chief of Staff to a third and then Special Assistant to the
Ranking Member of the House Space, Science and Technology Committee.

The committee worked with the National Science Foundation to bring the
Internet into the private sector and Thompson saw the tremendous potential
of the 'Net as a communications tool. He used that foresight to start a web
hosting and design company in 1994 and that same year launched Capitol Hill
Blue as the web's first political news site.

Today, Doug Thompson Media encompasses the original web hosting and design
company (The Buffalo Mountain Company), a photography business (Blue Ridge
Photography), documentary films (Buffalo Mountain Films), a foundation (Our
America) and several other companies.

In 2001, Our America launched a 10-year project to document and first decade
of the new century through stories, photos and films.

In 2003, Thompson started American NewsReel.

Besides American NewsReel and Capitol Hill Blue, Thompson also publishes a
number of other web sites, including D.C. Darkside.

Despite his success in new media, Thompson remains a newspaperman at heart
and lives by the creed that it is the role of a newspaperman to "comfort the
afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

[lil-petunia]

1. and these are the guys who broke the story on Bush

being on drugs, having sissy and hissy fits and being out of control.

Doesn't seem like they have an axe to grind.

[trof]

2. You'd think, hunh?

I'd thought they were a little left-wingy-nut, but it sounds like not.

[lil-petunia]

3. I've gotten on them thar rantie thingie

seems like a broad range of opinions, and not much attacking on each other. Actually, they seem to be nice.
strange, that. in this day and age.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Good research but CPH is truly a right of center

as it used to be defined, news outlet... once you know this you know that they are fairly accurate. Now they do have some axes to grind but over the last three years they have been ahead of the curve with many a story

[Shopaholic]

5. But here's the point--total lies that Drudge posted got repeated

as facts all over the place. As did the story about Kerry's alleged affair. So why is it that they won't go near this story?

[trof]

7. CPH?

Whuzzat?
What did I miss?
Thanks.

[marzipanni]

6. The word 'iconoclast' comes to mind

Then I think I might have a term for us DU people and our cohorts: 'Neoconoclasts'.

[depakid]

8. Capitol Hill Blue is no better than the Enquirer

while people may want to believe their schlok- and while it may seem plausible, ever notice how their "exclusive" unsourced scoops never amount to anything? At best, it's unsubstantiated rumor- at worst, it's Judy Miller.

[trof]

10. Then that makes it the perfect website to use

to refute all the right-wing made up, anonymous, undocumented, and unreferenced crap they send out. At least I can attach a URL to their stuff. I love it.

[depakid]

11. Personally I prefer facts

that can be corroborated or that come from a credible source, but if you want to torment right-wingers with innuendo, I guess turnabout is fair play....;-)

[trof]

14. That's my desire.

If they don't need facts (which I also prefer, by far) then I can play too.

[DancingBear]

15. The same Enquirer that broke the Limbaugh drug story?

Careful, now... :)

Let this story play out a bit, look for follow-up, etc.

Do not discount this as out of hand - yet. CHB gets read by more people in Washington than one would imagine.

[seemslikeadream]

9. I'm sure there's some info on Theresa Hampton here

I'll start looking

Bush Using Drugs to Control Depression, Erratic Behavior
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=712979

or maybe it was here

Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=602189

[fishnfla]

12. Jim Robinson (FR) last year:

"He (Doug Thompson) is one of the good guys"

This was after a story he ran, which for the life of me I cant remember the specifics, but the source turned out to be bogus...a phoney baloney CIA agent or somesuch....Freepers were all up in arms and RimJob apparantly knows the guy and vouched for him

Edit:oops

[lil-petunia]

13. who is he?

Doug Thompson?
Paul ????

[fishnfla]

16. oops, guy I went to high school with is Paul

other guy is Doug

Thanks for the heads up.

[lil-petunia]

17. no problem, but as stated elsewhere, I'm easily confoooosed

So these guys aren't freepers
They aren't in one camp or another.

hmmm time to see more

[ramblin_dave]

18. AL state senator Erwin denies association with CHB

I emailed Alabama State Senator Hank Erwin to ask if his Save America Foundation is indeed the owner of Capitol Hill Blue. He replied saying his organization should be spelled "The Sav-America Foundation", that it is 11 years old and designed to promote biblical values in American families. He is a staunch Bush supporter and has gotten other inquiries asking if he is associated with CHB. He hasn't responded publically yet because he doesn't want to give CHB any publicity.