Toronto Star

The Mooch launches namesake media outlet

Anthony Scaramucci says team has ‘absolutely no idea’ what the Scaramucci Post is

- DEREK HAWKINS

Anthony Scaramucci has worn many hats in his life — Harvard Law graduate, Goldman Sachs banker, hedge fund founder, political financier, White House communicat­ions director.

Now, two months after his chaotic 10-day stint in the Trump administra­tion, he has found yet another calling.

On Monday night, he formally launched the Scaramucci Post, his new media outlet, at an event in Midtown Manhattan.

What is the Scaramucci Post, exactly? No one really knows for certain — not even the Mooch himself. But rest assured, he said, it’s going to be big.

“We have absolutely no idea what the Scaramucci Post is, and neither do you,” he told a reporter from the Hill newspaper who asked him to describe his publicatio­n in 10 seconds. “But we launched it today and we launched with great fanfare, and so we’ll have to see how the whole thing unfolds.”

Scaramucci unveiled the venture at the Hunt and Fish Club, a posh restaurant near Times Square that the 53-year-old dabbler co-founded. The event was initially advertised as a party, but Scaramucci made a lastminute decision to turn it into a roundtable discussion on how to “move forward” following the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Reporters gathered for a quasipress conference in the restaurant’s softly-lit basement, which they quickly dubbed the “Mooch Cave.” There, Scaramucci offered a smattering of details that gave a sort of impression­istic idea of what his namesake project might be.

The Scaramucci Post will have no website, for one thing. Instead, it will distribute content on social media platforms with a focus on reaching millennial­s, Scaramucci said.

But the Scaramucci Post will have reporters — eventually. Right now, he is working with “limited personnel,” as he told reporters from Barstool Sports, a men’s lifestyle website. “But we’re going to turn it into a big enterprise.”

“Maybe we’ll be the Barstool Sports of the political discourse,” he said in the livestream­ed discussion. He described an “open seam in the society right now” with increasing­ly shrill news coming from the political left and right. He said the Scaramucci Post will “fill that seam,” somehow.

The Scaramucci Post will have advertiser­s, he told McClatchy, and the publicatio­n will begin with a focus on video interviews. There will be people “from the left on this as well as people from the right on this,” he said.

The Scaramucci Post will also have a tag line: “Everything in moderation, including moderation.”

There will be news, too. The Scaramucci Post will have “plain, vanilla news that is frankly unfiltered” as well as “components of this that are think-tank in their orientatio­n” and “parts that are policy-related,” he told McClatchy.

One thing’s for sure, though: the Scaramucci Post will not be Breitbart News, the right-wing nationalis­t outlet run by former White House chief strategist and Scaramucci nemesis Stephen K. Bannon. The Mooch said his publicatio­n would avoid “picking sides” on the political spectrum.

Before Monday night’s launch, Scaramucci was active on social media, teasing his new media outlet. A video he posted last week offered additional details — but little clarity — about the publicatio­n.

 ?? SAM HODGSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES ?? Anthony Scaramucci says the Scaramucci Post will have no website and will focus on reaching millennial­s.
SAM HODGSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES Anthony Scaramucci says the Scaramucci Post will have no website and will focus on reaching millennial­s.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada