I find this post to be hypocritical. Especially considering you recently posted about content creators being valuable assests to the public at large, as it helps combat 'bias' and influence of legacy journalism. But when a content creator is 'right wing' people automatically label them as state run media.
It's a concern to me, that as so called independent journalism, anyone that platforms information not flattering or aligned with power is immediately labeled by power as a threat in some way.
Wake up. Anything the FBI. CIA, NSA, CISA, the justice department, etc. serve to or extend to journalists and content creators alike is from the state. It's the same thing state run media. Why do you think content creators and media were invited. It's not to be grilled and suffer an inquisition. It's to be used.
As a former teacher of journalism, the goal of it was not, nor ever has been, objectivity.
The goal of an independent press was to be adversarial.
If you think the algorithms of content platforms are going to promote information adversarial to the powerful, then good luck helping the public find truth.
When you realize that both content creators and legacy journalism are owned by the powerful, and realize we as American idiots, grew to believe "access" to power is equal to "asking" power difficult and challenging questions, then we can see why anyone was on the invite list.
If I'm the National committee chairs, I'm inviting content creators to share my narrow, carefully crafted messaging with the masses. Because, when you groom language through algorithms that are designed to label and tag then flash to specific audiences while simultaneously filtering contradicting information as evil state run media, you want content creators, the new legacy media, and the legacy media to share your truth. You become cheerleaders of truth.
One the powerful want us to see.
Please, anyone that reads this, don't be so naive as to think the DNC/RNC were noble in inviting content creators. Don't be so blindly passionate about your party that what the journalists catch and serve to you as reality to believe it is. Adversarial information is not undemocratic. Neither is sharing information, nor should it ever be.
Ask your favorite journalists and creators to be adversarial in their involvement with power, as I ask you Miss Lorenz. As you have access to powerful, you have to ask questions you don't like amd don't believe in, questions others can't ask, questions you think are a waste of time becuase you think there's no truth to them. You have to want them to fear your writing but need your followers. How else can we hold the powerful accountable?
I totally agree with you! For what it’s worth I never said that when a content creator is 'right wing' people automatically label them as state run media. I just think we need more transparency when it comes to funding across the media and the right wing creators have access to a funding infrastructure that simply doesn’t exist for left wing creators. But I could not agree more that creators (and journalists) across the political spectrum are corrupted by power. I think the points you made here are spot on. Thank you for taking time to write such a thoughtful reply!
Communism and social anarchism gets zero corporate money for some weird reason. I am struggling to build a viewership organically and I am asking for money more than ever and getting less than I got when I never asked. It’s very frustrating.
it doesn't help that one of the primary financiers of russian, iranian, and chinese shenanigans in the global economy just became co-chair of the trump transition team a few days ago...
Well Ghost has zero moderation, even less than Substack. I have been a Substack user since 2018 and I love the network and community on here. While there’s a lot Substack can improve upon, I don’t see any viable competitors right now. I’d love to build my own little home off ALL these platforms (bc let’s be real, they’re all overrun with terrible people), but that’s just not financially viable at this time. (It’s my long term goal though!)
This is a question I have asked many times while reading this article and also while listening to your podcast episodes on Hawk Tua and Oli London -- do you think a similar ecosystem is possible for left-wing creators?
I've never thought of independent media, or as you put it, "independent" media as being independent of anything other than corporate media. Perhaps a rebranding campaign is in order. As you know Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern are unnamed in the indictment and are not accused of anything by the government, only by corporate journalists.
Well, being used as a pawn in a foreign influence scheme isn’t a crime, but it certainly discredits everything these far right figures have claimed about being “independent.” As Alex Kantrowitz said, If you can’t figure out who the $100,000/week is coming from — crazy money for YouTube videos with 7,000 views — how can you be trusted on anything else?
I realize hard to say this without coming across as a right-wing whataboutism, but this is happening on the left with the DNC, DNC-affiliated PACs, and TikTok influencers as well.
Thank you!! But I just feel compelled to note that it's not happening on the left at all. In terms of centrists, the DNC doesn't sponsor any influencers or pay for any influencer-created content. DNC affiliated PACs don't back any leftist content creators and only spend a very small amount of marketing money on influencer outreach to centrists, and they don't offer any sort of sustained support for creators. There's no equivalent to the infrastructure on the right or the sustained ongoing support right wing creators get.
No, you're absolutely right. Poor comparison and word choice on my part.
I am concerned with DNC-courted influencers suddenly skirting topics like Gaza and the TikTok ban. From my understanding of your reporting, the Biden White House and DNC is paying talent agencies like Palette media for access to these influencers. Then, I'm taking the leap that the money goes "dark?"
That's a far cry from what the right is doing. But there are similar effects- we don't know, from video to video, whether our fav TikTok political influencers are speaking from the heart or DNC talking points.
If attention-rich, cash-poor influencers are afraid of losing access to these politicians and events, how is that affecting their reporting?
I find this post to be hypocritical. Especially considering you recently posted about content creators being valuable assests to the public at large, as it helps combat 'bias' and influence of legacy journalism. But when a content creator is 'right wing' people automatically label them as state run media.
It's a concern to me, that as so called independent journalism, anyone that platforms information not flattering or aligned with power is immediately labeled by power as a threat in some way.
Wake up. Anything the FBI. CIA, NSA, CISA, the justice department, etc. serve to or extend to journalists and content creators alike is from the state. It's the same thing state run media. Why do you think content creators and media were invited. It's not to be grilled and suffer an inquisition. It's to be used.
As a former teacher of journalism, the goal of it was not, nor ever has been, objectivity.
The goal of an independent press was to be adversarial.
If you think the algorithms of content platforms are going to promote information adversarial to the powerful, then good luck helping the public find truth.
When you realize that both content creators and legacy journalism are owned by the powerful, and realize we as American idiots, grew to believe "access" to power is equal to "asking" power difficult and challenging questions, then we can see why anyone was on the invite list.
If I'm the National committee chairs, I'm inviting content creators to share my narrow, carefully crafted messaging with the masses. Because, when you groom language through algorithms that are designed to label and tag then flash to specific audiences while simultaneously filtering contradicting information as evil state run media, you want content creators, the new legacy media, and the legacy media to share your truth. You become cheerleaders of truth.
One the powerful want us to see.
Please, anyone that reads this, don't be so naive as to think the DNC/RNC were noble in inviting content creators. Don't be so blindly passionate about your party that what the journalists catch and serve to you as reality to believe it is. Adversarial information is not undemocratic. Neither is sharing information, nor should it ever be.
Ask your favorite journalists and creators to be adversarial in their involvement with power, as I ask you Miss Lorenz. As you have access to powerful, you have to ask questions you don't like amd don't believe in, questions others can't ask, questions you think are a waste of time becuase you think there's no truth to them. You have to want them to fear your writing but need your followers. How else can we hold the powerful accountable?
I totally agree with you! For what it’s worth I never said that when a content creator is 'right wing' people automatically label them as state run media. I just think we need more transparency when it comes to funding across the media and the right wing creators have access to a funding infrastructure that simply doesn’t exist for left wing creators. But I could not agree more that creators (and journalists) across the political spectrum are corrupted by power. I think the points you made here are spot on. Thank you for taking time to write such a thoughtful reply!
Communism and social anarchism gets zero corporate money for some weird reason. I am struggling to build a viewership organically and I am asking for money more than ever and getting less than I got when I never asked. It’s very frustrating.
it doesn't help that one of the primary financiers of russian, iranian, and chinese shenanigans in the global economy just became co-chair of the trump transition team a few days ago...
https://cryptadamus.substack.com/p/trumps-transition-team-is-tethered
...and if you don't want to believe some anon on substack you can also read the new Wall Street Journal article out today about how Tether is the central bank of international criminal finance: https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/tether-crypto-us-dollar-sanctions-52f85459
Taylor, I’m surprised you remain on Substack given it allows Nazi content on the platform. Why not move to something like Ghost?
Well Ghost has zero moderation, even less than Substack. I have been a Substack user since 2018 and I love the network and community on here. While there’s a lot Substack can improve upon, I don’t see any viable competitors right now. I’d love to build my own little home off ALL these platforms (bc let’s be real, they’re all overrun with terrible people), but that’s just not financially viable at this time. (It’s my long term goal though!)
Ghost has even more Nazis and less moderation than substack
This is a question I have asked many times while reading this article and also while listening to your podcast episodes on Hawk Tua and Oli London -- do you think a similar ecosystem is possible for left-wing creators?
It very much could be if anyone with money wanted to fund the left wing creators!
I've never thought of independent media, or as you put it, "independent" media as being independent of anything other than corporate media. Perhaps a rebranding campaign is in order. As you know Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern are unnamed in the indictment and are not accused of anything by the government, only by corporate journalists.
Well, being used as a pawn in a foreign influence scheme isn’t a crime, but it certainly discredits everything these far right figures have claimed about being “independent.” As Alex Kantrowitz said, If you can’t figure out who the $100,000/week is coming from — crazy money for YouTube videos with 7,000 views — how can you be trusted on anything else?
I realize hard to say this without coming across as a right-wing whataboutism, but this is happening on the left with the DNC, DNC-affiliated PACs, and TikTok influencers as well.
Great article.
Thank you!! But I just feel compelled to note that it's not happening on the left at all. In terms of centrists, the DNC doesn't sponsor any influencers or pay for any influencer-created content. DNC affiliated PACs don't back any leftist content creators and only spend a very small amount of marketing money on influencer outreach to centrists, and they don't offer any sort of sustained support for creators. There's no equivalent to the infrastructure on the right or the sustained ongoing support right wing creators get.
No, you're absolutely right. Poor comparison and word choice on my part.
I am concerned with DNC-courted influencers suddenly skirting topics like Gaza and the TikTok ban. From my understanding of your reporting, the Biden White House and DNC is paying talent agencies like Palette media for access to these influencers. Then, I'm taking the leap that the money goes "dark?"
That's a far cry from what the right is doing. But there are similar effects- we don't know, from video to video, whether our fav TikTok political influencers are speaking from the heart or DNC talking points.
If attention-rich, cash-poor influencers are afraid of losing access to these politicians and events, how is that affecting their reporting?
Thanks for the response. I appreciate your work
What do you think about the corruption that RFK Jr. called out in his speech?
Do you say you are "independent" Taylor? I say you are an arm of the DNC.
Lmao give me a break. I’m literally being cancelled as we speak for calling Biden a war criminal.