Original reporting. Sharply written analysis. Lively commentary.

Hi,

My name is Michael Warren, and I joined The Dispatch because I believe in the mission: telling the truth through original reporting, sharply written analysis, and lively commentary.

Before I joined The Dispatch I was a reader and a fan. Now, as a senior editor, I get to report on and write about politics, edit the Dispatch Politics newsletter, and appear on the Dispatch Podcast. And I get to do it working alongside some of the best in the business, from terrific writers I’ve been reading for years to cherished former colleagues to a crop of eager, talented young journalists.

The Dispatch I joined in 2023 is well positioned to keep growing and thriving in a news marketplace where truth and integrity are in short supply.

Many mainstream news outlets try to tell the whole truth but suffer from groupthink and a lack of viewpoint diversity. In conservative media, the incentive structures often reward those who are “team players” at the expense of presenting uncomfortable or inconvenient truths. And some media figures co-opt the mantle of “truth teller” while knowingly lying to their audiences. News organizations tend to either underestimate their audiences or treat them with a mixture of fear and contempt.

There are plenty of economic reasons why this is the state of the news industry, and it can be particularly difficult to “zig in an era of zagging,” as Jonah and Steve put it in their manifesto for The Dispatch.

The inclination to go against the received wisdom of the mainstream and the base cynicism of ideological hardliners is exactly what’s needed on the supply side of journalism. Free citizens deserve better than incomplete news coverage, wagon-circling, and contempt from the media’s most powerful figures. They deserve the facts, honest analysis, and journalistic integrity. They deserve the truth.

I’m excited to be a part of a news organization like The Dispatch, and I hope you’ll consider being a part of it, too.

– Michael Warren