Housekeeping 22, JUN 2023 - Didn't Want to Discuss This Again, But Here We Are

Please keep the good work. I love both of you. It’s heartbreaking to see you apart. And I agree with your way to handle this. Let’s just move on. I believe both sides have their own stories and both of you have sufficient reasons for the decision you made.

Just ignore it. Focus on the war against totalitarians, misinformation and disinformation - because the truth matters. The rest is just noise...

Luke

Bluntly what does it matter if you're spending the money on keeping your finances sorted. We are paying for you and your team to do the job that you're doing. In the same way my employer doesn't have any say in the way I spend my own money they pay me, we don't really have much say in yours. If they don't want to employ or pay me for what I do then they don't have to and they lose access to my compensated labour. You're not doing anything illegal (per my ignorant understanding of the law) and frankly the in fighting is pathetic and stupid. The enemy is Russia and their war on not just Ukraine, but truth and democracy, not each other. I feel that people are losing sight of this. And it's why extremists are winning. While they are generally united in the dissemination of total bullshit, out side are arguing about how to tell the truth.

Echoing Dan Pierson. I'm only interested in the journalism.

Your journalism is outstanding, and so is your commitment to honesty. What singles you out as a news source is how open you are with the struggles you have sometimes balancing the truth with the need to be timely, transparent without doing harm, and when it isn’t so obvious what the truth is. I wasn’t aware of the talk about you, but I wouldn’t have listened anyway. Whatever is being said about you has to argue with the 18 months of proof points I have from following and subscribing to you. What worries me most about this is knowing you’re not making money off this. I’m going to look at adjusting my Patreon payments and I hope others do too. The service you provide is too valuable. The truth matters, which is why your journalism does too.

All that should matter here is reporting truthfully and factually about the genocidal war against Ukraine as Oskar says. This drama is particularly unedifying given the very real suffering Ukrainians are experiencing. I don’t follow Twitter. I don’t know what’s being referred to. I understand the need to defend yourself if your professional integrity is called into question. (If it was.) I think most of the commenters here want to move on.

Well, here is my thoughts on this and you are probably not going to like it, but you are a big boy and you can take some criticism. 1. Airing it out here, were non of the aforementioned people have a chance to reply to your claims seems wrong to me. 2. You were the one that went personal to begin with on Patreon with a lot of claims on what was said and not said on meetings and in private conversations between you and Linnea, with out her being able to answer you. Or showing the contents of those meetings and conversation in any form other than your word against hers. 3. I know that you aren't the best communicator. From actually trying to communicate with you. It's probably not your fault, but there is alot of claims of honesty and open communication, where we are only seeing your version of things in monologues on a platform you completely control. (As in who writes posts here) When there is smoke there is usually fire. And it's strange to me that there is a lot of "...these people are wrong and here is why" and pretty much no "I'm sorry i might have done, said or reacted something wrong" Other than the short disclaimer in the end saying "don't go after them" In Iceland there is a saying "When the fools start multiplying around you it's time to look at your own reflection" 4. You have our full support when it comes to the coverage of the war in Ukraine. I have offered my work for completely free because I believe in the resource and want to contribute. And that is what this ultimately comes down to right? The genocidal war in Ukraine? (I'm btw writing this from a hotel room in Dnipro after spending days on the front with the Jager brigade, risking my life to do just that, find out what the truth is) 5. You are surrounded by people that support Malcontent, the op-int community and quite a lot of people who are willing to do the work for free for the good of the report! That includes me, your team of analysts, but it also included Rob, Yewlia and Linnea. And don't ignore the couple thousand people who give their money to this Patreon because we are amazed by your hard work and want to see it succeed! 6. Yes, I a 100% agree to the point of we should move on, at least move away from discussing a personal dispute that you have with your staff (Technically volunteer because she was working for free as you mentioned on multiple occasions) on this platform. This is a very very very very very important resource for people here in Ukraine and we should start focusing on the actual lives and the war instead I'd this Santa Barbara drama here. You are emotionally and physically exhausted, and so is literally everyone else covering this war. It's horribly tiering, I mean even the Oryx blog is quitting because they are burned the fuck out. I think it is right, move on and move to the subject at hand, THE WAR. Put all of this drama off this platform and solve this somewhere else, clean the house so we can focus on the war. Thank you for the clarification about the finances, and I see that you needed to do that, but in my opinion any more of this bonanza here devalues the credibility of the reporting so just swallow your pride and move on! Ignore and override like they say in the army, and go back to the basics. Covering the war in Ukraine! My offer of free reporting for Malcontent still is valid, I wish to remain a part of the team if you feel so inclined. Live long and prosper.

AR

There is so much awful in the world. Be good to each other. Moving on, and keep up the fantastic work.

Moving on

Not sure what's going on, but you and your team have worked harder than any other I know to bring the facts as unbiasedly as possible. Even if they were ugly. I will always appreciate you all for it, and support you and your decision in this whatever it may be. We've never met and likely never will (though the globe is much much small than people think), however you have my upmost respect no matter our individual or political opinions. If there is anything you need feel free to reach our, even if it's just to vent, between this and life issues, it's a lot for any one person. Thank you for being the news I can actually look forward to.

Yup

No idea what this is about. If your going to refute claims, you really should link them to allow greater understanding. Honestly, this read as really unprofessional. Whatever accusations have been made against you I have no knowledge of and therefor can make no judgement against. But reading the above has lessened my opinion in malcontent news. At the end of the day I am paying X amount for a service. I am receiving that service so I really don't care that much as long as it continues to be value for money. If that's stops I will stop subscribing.

Be glad, you didn't miss anything that shouldn't have been lobbed out in the first place.

It should have ended over a week ago

Honest perspective from a long time supporter? A respected tenured journalist being blindsided by others ‘trying to break into the field’. So sorry. Content creators fade. Journalism does not.

WthinWthout

I have no idea what this is about. I've been following the Oceangate story, that POV trench video, and coming to terms that I'm genuinely interested in how my city's combined sewer system works. Could someone ELI5 what the "drama" is now? Is someone mad because David or someone on the team has two seperate businesses? I don't even know what an LLC is. I do know that it's super easy to compartmentalize things and not be a cheating cheatsy cheater. It's like being late on rent but knowing you can't just steal from the cash register at work, no matter how big the money in your hand is during a transaction. Again, I've been mentally out of the office (not having access to my meds for a few days didn't help) so.. 🎶what did i miss?🎶

Aaron Mischler

I feel like a terrible person for asking this but is there an endpoint to this? I haven’t the foggiest what’s even being responded to here. 🤷‍♂️ I just… yeah. I cannot figure out why this is good for anyone, and the 0.5 seconds that I spent googling this left me with the conclusion that while everybody professes not to want to talk about whatever happened, everyone still talks about it. I recognize how naïve I might be, channeling Rodney King here, but is it not possible for everyone to just walk away from each other and do their own thing? Professional disputes do happen between well-meaning people, that’s how I’ve tried to view whatever… this… is. I’m sorry if I’m evidencing a lack of understanding - as I said, cursory googling only showed me a bunch of people who said that they’d rather not talk about it, lol.

Sorry you felt the need to post this. The discord server gave me a taste and it was a bit gamey. :-( Appreciate your devotion to the news without the drama.

I find you to be extremely accurate and forthcoming. Perhaps excessively so at times. I would question the motives of anyone trying to silence you, especially given the nature of your content.