Type of site News and opinion Owner Dow Jones & Company Alexa rank 8,023 (October 2016) | Available in English Website www.heatst.com Commercial Yes | |
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Heat Street is a news, opinion and commentary website based in the United States and United Kingdom. The website was launched in April 2016 by U.S. based British writer and former politician Louise Mensch. It is owned by News Corp under Dow Jones & Company and features sections on politics, technology, culture, business, entertainment, and life.
The website has been described as center-right and libertarian.
History
Mensch had first been exploring the idea of creating a blog under News Corp for about three years before it was pitched to Dow Jones CEO Will Lewis as a "libertarian Huffington Post." News Corp CEO Robert Thompson signed off on the project in late 2015.
The website was announced in February 2016. It launched officially on April 20, 2016. The website was to be headed by British journalist Louise Mensch and television executive Noah Kotch. The Washington Times' Jennifer Harper described the site as, "The politics here are right-leaning and libertarian-minded; the publication also covers culture wars, commentary, technology, celebrity, business and assorted lifestyle matters."
Miles Goslett was hired as the site's UK editor in January, prior to the site's launch. By Heat Street's seventh month of publication, it reported 8 million unique users to the site.
The site, which is housed under News Corp.'s Dow Jones & Company, uses a more informal tone than other sites run by the company, such as The Wall Street Journal.
In 2016 Mensch said Heat Street's avocation was less politics than "culture wars." The site has run articles sympathetic to Gamergate. Speaking to Politico, Mensch said the gaming community has been "maligned."
In December 2016, Mensch and the James Madison Project filed suit against five intelligence and law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice's National Security Division and the Department of Homeland Security over withheld documents detailing evidence of Russian interference in the presidential election.
In January 2017 Heat Street reported that Trump's daughter, Tiffany Trump, was registered to vote in two states. After the report was confirmed by other outlets, Trump aide Kellyanne Conway claimed the report was "flatly false."
In March 2017 President Donald Trump, citing no evidence, pronounced on social media that he had learned that former President Barack Obama had wiretapped his phones at his Trump Tower residence. The White House later cited several reports by media outlets including Heat Street, BBC, Fox News and Breitbart News. The Washington Post concluded that Breitbart re-presented Louise Mensch's original exclusive story (which had never made the "wire-tapping" claim) with a concocted claim of wiretapping. The Heat Street report had stated that the FBI sought and was granted a FISA court warrant to examine the activities of some people connected with Trump's campaign.