LifeZette

LifeZette

Type of site	News and opinion
Available in	English
Founded	October 2014
Headquarters	1055 Thomas Jefferson Street, Suite 301 Washington, DC 20007[1] United States, United States
Owner	Katz Group of Companies and Laura Ingraham
Founder(s)	Laura Ingraham Peter Anthony
Key people	Laura Ingraham (Editor-in-chief)
URL	LifeZette.com
Advertising	Native
Registration	Optional, but is required to comment
Launched	July 2015
Current status	Online

LifeZette is a conservative American website founded in 2015 by conservative political commentator Laura Ingraham and businessman Peter Anthony.^[2] In January 2018, Ingraham confirmed that she had sold the majority stake in LifeZette to The Katz Group, owned by Canadian billionaire Daryl Katz.^[3]

LifeZette is based in Washington, D.C.^[4] As of 2015, Maureen Mackey was its managing editor and Peter Anthony was its chief executive officer.^[5] As was the case with several online-only opinion and commentary outlets, the site received criticism for promoting the Vincent Foster and Seth Rich conspiracy theories in the run-up to the 2016 United States presidential election.^[6][7]

History

Peter Anthony registered LifeZette.com in October 2014. He developed the site with Ingraham and they launched LifeZette in July 2015.^[8]

The site first hired outgoing Daily Caller reporter Neil Munro to be its political editor, but Munro withdrew before the site's launch. Quin Hillyer was enlisted to be its political editor, before he was replaced by Keith Koffler in August 2015. Koffler left the site in May 2016 to work at the Washington Examiner.^[9]

LifeZette was the first organization called on by Sean Spicer during the initial White House press conference in January 2017.^[2] Later, Ingraham was announced as the host of Fox News weeknight program The Ingraham Angle.^[10]

In January 2019, LifeZette laid off six staffers.^[11]

Promotion of conspiracy theories

Two weeks before the 2016 presidential election, the website posted a video about voting machines possibly being compromised because of links to a company tied to liberal billionaire George Soros.^[12]

LifeZette also published a video titled "Clinton Body Count", which promoted conspiracy theories regarding Bill and Hillary Clinton.^[13] LifeZette removed the video and later released a statement saying that "[t]he video was made in jest, and merely noted that the theories existed," comparing them to viral videos made by "left-leaning digital outlets like BuzzFeed."^[14]

References

1. "Contact Us". LifeZette.
2. "WITH ONE WORD, SPICER FLIPS THE WHITE HOUSE MEDIA ORDER". Vanity Fair. 25 January 2017.
3. Gold, Hadas (2018-01-30). "Canadian billionaire's company buys Laura Ingraham's site LifeZette". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
4. "Ingraham Media Group, Inc.: Private Company Information - Businessweek". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-05-14.
5. "Laura Ingraham To Launch LifeZette | Cision". Cision. 2015-04-06. Retrieved 2016-05-14.
6. "Laura Ingraham's 'LifeZette' website promotes conspiracy theory Clintons have been involved in murders". Business Insider. 25 October 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
7. "Pro-Trump site that published fake news gets 1st question at White House briefing". Chicago Tribune. 24 January 2017. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
8. "Laura Ingraham's new site: LifeZette.com". POLITICO. Retrieved 2016-05-14.
9. "Laura Ingraham's Site LifeZette Loses Another Editor". www.mediaite.com. Retrieved 2016-05-14.
10. Victor, Daniel (18 September 2017). "Laura Ingraham Will Host 10 O'Clock Show as Part of Fox News Shuffle". The New York Times.
11. Palmer, Anna; Sherman, Jake; Lippman, Daniel; Okun, Eli; Ross, Garrett. "Playbook PM". POLITICO. Retrieved 2019-01-11.
12. "Pro-Trump site that published fake news gets 1st question at White House briefing". Chicago Tribune. 24 January 2017. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
13. Darcy, Oliver (October 25, 2016). "Laura Ingraham's 'LifeZette' website promotes conspiracy theory Clintons have been involved in murders". Business Insider.
14. "Snubbed by Spicer, AP Throws Temper Tantrum". LifeZette. 25 January 2017.