The Tennessee Star – launched in 2017 – is the flagship news site of The Star News Network group of digital newspapers, which are owned by Star News Digital Media.
We feature award-winning articles reporting news, politics, and policy at the state level, primarily from Tennessee. We round out our daily coverage with national stories and thoughtful commentary of interest to our readers.
From time to time, we may feature Sponsored Posts on our site. These posts are created in partnership with brands or advertisers and are designed to provide valuable content to our readers. Sponsored Posts will always be clearly marked as “Sponsored” in the byline to distinguish them from our editorial content. We remain committed to maintaining transparency and ensuring that all sponsored content aligns with our overarching values and provides relevant information to our audience.
Additionally, some of the links on our site may be affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission if you make a purchase through them. These links will be clearly disclosed where applicable. We only recommend products and services that we genuinely believe our readers will find of interest, and we appreciate your support when using these links.
Senior Management TeamÂ
CEO & Editor-in-Chief
Michael Patrick Leahy
[email protected]
Executive Editor
Christina Botteri
[email protected]
The senior management team of Star News Digital Media are the majority shareholders of the company.
Michael Patrick Leahy is the CEO and Editor-in-chief of Star News Digital Media, which owns and operates a family of state focused conservative news sites, including The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. In 2025, he was awarded – together with reporter Tom Pappert and Executive Editor Christina Botteri – the prestigious Dao Prize for Best Local Reporting for The Tennessee Star’s coverage of the Kilmar Abrego Garcia 2022 traffic stop.
Leahy is also the host of The Michael Leahy Show, broadcast weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on AM760 The Flame WENO in Nashville.
Leahy was the sole proprietor of The Tennessee Star website from its launch in February 2017 to August 2018, when it was acquired by Star News Digital Media, a company in which he is the majority shareholder.
He has been a Breitbart News contributor since 2012, and is the author of Covenant of Liberty: The Ideological Origins of the Tea Party Movement, published by Harper Collins’ Broadside Books imprint in 2012, and co-author of The Star News Digital Media Guide to the Constitution and Bill of Rights for Secondary School Students, published in 2019. The Guide is now in its third printing.
He is the founder of State News Foundation and the creator of its project, The National Constitution Bee program, which began with the 2017 Tennessee Star Constitution Bee. In 2020, the Bee was postponed until October over pandemic concerns. In 2021 and 2022, the National Constitution Bee was held the third Saturday in October in Brentwood, Tennessee, where students from across the country gathered to compete. The next National Constitution Bee will be held in October 2026.
An early innovator in social media, Leahy founded Top Conservatives on Twitter in 2008 and organized and hosted the February 20, 2009 conference call of a handful of activists, including Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots, Dana Loesch, and Star News Digital Media co-founder Christina Botteri that launched the Tea Party Movement one week later.
A native of upstate New York, he is a graduate of Harvard College, has an MBA from Stanford University, and has lived in the Nashville area since 1991.
Christina Botteri is the CTO, Executive Editor, and co-founder of The Tennessee Star, The Star News Network, and Star News Digital Media.
In 2025, she was awarded the Dao Prize for Best Local Reporting alongside Michael Patrick Leahy and reporter Tom Pappert.
Botteri also co-founded the State News Foundation and the National Constitution Bee program. She designed, developed, and built the digital infrastructure for the Star News Network – including all brands, websites, books, and production studios.
She brings more than two decades of experience in communications, media and public relations, and social media for technology startups. She was an early organizer of the Tea Party movement in 2009-2010.
Staff
Lead Reporter
Tom Pappert
Follow on Twitter / X – @realTomPappert
Email – [email protected]
Digital Editor
Zachery Schmidt
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The Star News Digital Media network includes
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The Tennessee Star – tennesseestar.com
The Ohio Star – theohiostar.com
The Minnesota Sun –Â theminnesotasun.com
The Michigan Star – themichiganstar.com
The Virginia Star – thevirginiastar.com
The Georgia Star News – georgiastarnews.com
The Florida Capital Star – floridacapitalstar.com
The Arizona Sun Times – arizonasuntimes.com
The Wisconsin Daily Star – wisconsindailystar.com
The Pennsylvania Daily Star – pennsylvaniadailystar.com
The Connecticut Star – theconnecticutstar.com
The South Carolina Sun – thesouthcarolinasun.com
The Texas Lone Star – thetexaslonestar.com is coming soon
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The Tennessee Star is owned and operated by
Star News Digital Media, Inc.