Redding News Review is a subscriber-supported breaking Black news web site and radio show founded by Robert Rob Redding Jr. in 1999. He started the site as X-Political.com in 1999 and relaunched it in the current form in 2002 to complement his talk radio program while at WAOK-AM in Atlanta.
Radio show
"The voice of the voiceless" and "the prophet of rage" is what many listeners say about Redding News Review host "America's Independent Voice" Rob Redding. Redding News Review has been the most listened to black independent talk show host in the United States of America – heard six days a week for nearly half decade and more than 420 episodes in all 50 states via Sirius XM Satellite Radio and on numerous radio stations for more than 6 years and 3,600 hours via his former network deal with Genesis Communications Network. The Redding New Review radio show host Rob Redding was named one of the "100 most important radio talk show hosts in America" by industry trade Talkers magazine. He has also been called a "rising star", "one of the most respected names in the media", "one of the most intellectual and intriguing radio talk show hosts since Tavis Smiley" and awarded a proclamation by the Atlanta City Council for his hard hitting uniquely Independent talk radio show. On April 1, 2014, Redding's talk show morphed into "Redding News Review Unrestricted" becoming the first ever and most successful stand-alone spoken word program available exclusively on a Web site - via ReddingNewsReview.com
Web site
Stories from the Redding News Review web site – the first subscriber-supported and oldest black news aggregation web site – have become a regular part of National Public Radio and Fox News Channel. Its comprehensive coverage of the black community became a resource for Fox News during the Don Imus "nappy-headed ho's" controversy. Its reports have also been used by Arutz Sheva, Israel's Channel 7 news. Its scoops have also been acknowledged or linked to by ABC News, BET, MSNBC, The Hill, Roll Call, Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington Times, and The National Newspaper Association. The web site, called "an Internet clearinghouse for African-American news " by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was the first to report former Mayor and Ambassador Andrew Young's comments on Senator Barack Obama not being ready to be president. The site has also been called the "vanguard of Internet news sites" by AllAccess.com writer Perry Michael Simon. The web site was credited by Editor & Publisher for breaking news of the harassment of Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts by a white supremacist group. The web site has been recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists for its Hurricane Katrina coverage. In December 2004, the site's breaking news coverage prompted Brian Williams, NBC News anchor and managing editor, to apologize for saying there are "bigger problems" than newsroom diversity. The web site's coverage also spurred NBC News President Neal Shapiro to vow to redouble the company's minority hiring efforts.
Awards
The site has won three consecutive "Black Web Awards" for being the "Best News Distribution" site in 2008 and the "Best News Directory" site in 2009 and 1010.
Controversy
In May 2011, Redding attracted the attention of talk icon Rush Limbaugh when he asked Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, about a skit in which a Limbaugh staffer "reinterpreted" his criticism of Pres. Obama's immigration speech in Ebonics. "I thought it was highly inappropriate," Steele told Redding. "It is stupid. It’s not something that furthers the conversation." Limbaugh responded:
