EXCLUSIVE: How The Capitol Forum sells “access to our best in class journalists,” uses writers from Jacobin, and partners with lobbying and law firms
Note: The Capitol Forum is a left-wing outlet that we had never heard of until its reporters—including one who also writes for the Marxist site Jacobin—began contacting the Washington Reporter’s sponsors about a negative story it planned to publish.
The story focuses on the fact that the Washington Reporter is owned by public affairs pros and political operatives, and that we cover companies and organizations that have partnered with our outlet or worked with members of our team.
Our response:
First, we have been transparent from day one about who owns and operates the Washington Reporter. Read about our launch here. The Reporter is a part-time project for all of us.
Second, we will cover any company, issue, or policy story we believe is newsworthy without apology. We are of course biased–just like every other outlet–including The Capitol Forum. But we also publish op-eds or stories on both sides of nearly every fight in D.C. Our stories aren’t always fair. But if they’re inaccurate, we correct them.
Third, the idea that a publication should not cover companies because they advertise, sponsor events, or have business relationships is absurd. Open any major political newsletter sponsored by a company like Anthropic, and you’ll find stories about that same company. This includes outlets such as Politico, Axios, and Punchbowl.
The irony is, as our story below explains, The Capitol Forum appears to do this far more aggressively than anything it accuses us of doing.
For just one example, the Capitol Forum has hosted events with a theme of calling for more regulations of credit cards–a topic the Reporter has taken the opposite side on in our editorials.
The Washington Reporter will continue breaking news from a conservative perspective, interviewing more lawmakers than almost any outlet, and having fun while doing it.
********
The Capitol Forum is a subscription-based news site that covers antitrust, corporate regulation and the intersection of business and public policy. Its reporting is marketed to a specialized audience that includes “policymakers, investors, law firms, [and] industry stakeholders.” The site’s CEO is Ted Downey.
The Capitol Forum uses a subscription model and while current rates are not easily accessible online, in 2017 Bloomberg reported that the Capitol Forum’s costs are “comparable to a Bloomberg terminal subscription ($24,000 per year), per Downey.”
In pitching its subscription model, a 2024 sales sheet from the Capitol Forum says a subscription includes “access to our team of best in class journalists and editors.”
Who might subscribe to the Capitol Forum? According to the site, “policymakers, investors, law firms, [and] industry stakeholders” comprise its readers.
Offering “access” to “best in class journalists” could be highly desirable to investors and stakeholders who have interests in the companies that the Capitol Forum is covering.
Additionally, the Capitol Forum has multiple reporters who also write or have written for Jacobin, an expressly socialist outlet. Jacobin recently published a piece calling to “Burn the Constitution Again,” and responded to President Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory by calling him a “fascist.” Jacobin has also published a piece asking whether America “should invade Israel.”
The Washington Reporter became aware of the publication’s existence after a Capitol Forum reporter contacted this outlet regarding a negative story he planned to publish about the Washington Reporter. During that reporting process, the Washington Reporter identified multiple massive factual inaccuracies that it raised with the Capitol Forum.
Multiple high-level operatives quickly told the Washington Reporter that the Reporter is a must-read on Capitol Hill and beyond. “The Washington Reporter has top notch contributors, interviews high level officials, and breaks news,” Chuck Flint, a former Senate chief of staff, noted. “This is a tired beltway smear tactic. It’s the price of success unfortunately,” Flint said of a potential Capitol Forum piece targeting the Washington Reporter.
“Unlike most of the DC newsletters, the Washington Reporter is a must read when it hits your inbox,” Nate Brand, a veteran communications strategist, added. “They’re better sourced on Capitol Hill, downtown, and at the White House than many of their largest competitors. Their rapid growth, scoops, and access clearly has become the envy of other publications.”
The Washington Reporter separately launched an investigation into Capitol Forum’s business model and raised questions about how the publication handles potential conflicts of interest involving a lobbying firm that Capitol Forum has had a financial arrangement with, and around Capitol Forum’s coverage of companies that are clients of the lobbying firm.
According to Capitol Forum’s own announcement, Capitol Forum partnered with FGS Global, a major public affairs and lobbying firm, to host an antitrust conference in April 2025 featuring senior officials from the Trump administration’s Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The Washington Reporter asked Capitol Forum’s CEO Ted Downey if Capitol Forum had a financial arrangement with FGS Global for the event. Downey acknowledged to the Washington Reporter that “FGS Global and The Capitol Forum evenly split the costs to put on the event,” but declined to say what the cost was.
FGS Global represents numerous major corporations that regularly appear in Capitol Forum’s coverage. Examples of FGS Global’s clients, according to the Senate Lobbying Disclosure site, include Walmart, Verizon, Disney, FanDuel, Herbalife, Arnold Ventures, and Apple.
While most of Capitol Forum’s coverage is behind its Bloomberg-esque paywall, a quick search shows that Capitol Forum has covered each of the companies represented by FGS Global, the company that partnered with Capitol Forum. For example, on June 3 2026, Capitol Forum wrote about FGS Global’s client Apple involving an Indian antitrust suit, without any disclosure of its past ties to FGS Global.
While not all of these stories are fully available without a paid subscription, the Washington Reporter has found no evidence of Capitol Forum disclosing in its stories about FGS Global’s clients anything about Capitol Forum’s partnership with FGS Global.
The Capitol Forum has also partnered with a law firm, Geradin Partners, a firm involved in antitrust cases against Google, in hosting an event. The Capitol Forum covers Google’s antitrust cases in Europe extensively, and while not all of the stories are fully available without a paid subscription, the Reporter could not find a disclaimer.
When asked directly by the Washington Reporter why the Capitol Forum did not disclose this relationship in its stories, Downey declined to answer that question, although he did answer a different question.
The Washington Reporter also asked Downey whether it has a policy governing disclosure when reporting on companies represented by firms that have entered financial arrangements with the publication. Downey also declined to answer that question.
The publication’s articles also routinely identify publicly traded companies by their stock ticker symbols, a common convention in financial journalism that allows readers to quickly identify securities discussed in an article.
The Washington Reporter asked Capitol Forum whether investment firms pay for access to its corporate investigations–which appear to be a product that Capitol Forum sells–and whether the publication has any disclosure policy if subscribers hold financial positions in companies it covers.
Downey, again, declined to answer those questions.
