Over the weekend, Rep. Devin Nunes launched his own news website to fight the fake news. Unfortunately for Nunes, his foray into media entrepreneurship has gotten off to a rocky start.
Almost immediately after CARepublican.com launched on Sunday, the website was down for unclear reasons. The URL now redirects to a Facebook page for the site. It’s most recent post — 21 hours ago — apologizes to readers for the technical difficulties.
“Due to heavy traffic and an attack on our servers, you may encounter an error message when attempting to reach The Republican,” it reads. “We apologize for the inconvenience.”
https://www.facebook.com/carepublicancom/posts/397695493987014
A link on Facebook to the website’s most recent story, “Understanding the Process Behind #ReleaseTheMemo,” was also unavailable as of Monday morning.
https://www.facebook.com/carepublicancom/posts/392962311126999
The website has only existed as an archived page, which you view here. The idea seems to have been a basic conservative-leaning site with a focus on California issues. For now, there is no apparent effort at launching any original reporting, with the site currently relying on aggregated content.
Despite the difficulties, Nunes does enjoy one advantage over most digital media pioneers since as he has access to investors. The website is fully funded for by the Nunes congressional campaign committee, which you can see at the bottom of the archived site and reading the small print.
A rep for Nunes did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.