TheMalcontent
patreon
100,000 | 10,000 | 1,000 | 100 |10
🕑 Added 2022-03-16 17:06:53 +0000 UTCTen months ago we made a challenge to our audience.
100 Patreon
1,000 Subscribers on YouTube
10,000 Followers on Facebook
100,000 Followers on TikTok
A lot has changed in those ten months. We covered a lot of COVID. We exposed hundreds of millions in potential fraud from COVID testing labs in Chicago. Our work helped open a criminal investigation into one.
We got our first cease and desist letter and our first contact by a crisis PR firm after a story we ran.
We helped get felony assault charges against an 11-year old autistic child dropped by exposing the errors in the police reports and how prosecutors were ignoring Washington state law.
We predicted the surge of COVID cases this winter on October 20, although we believed that "Delta Plus" would be culprit, we had no idea that Omicron was already lurking.
We fought a lot of disinformation. We got hate mail, threats, phone calls, and have focused a lot more energy than we wanted on behind the scenes issues with TikTok.
Some team members who were with us ten months ago have moved on, including a few who burned out. Covering the problems of the world isn't easy. We've cried, we've worked ourselves to exhaustion, and some of us continue to process PTSD and trauma from covering protests and civil unrest.
When it came to monetization - paying the bills - we've struggled with the ethics of making money off of human misery. Even as journalists who we trust and respect have guided us that it is OK - you can't exist if you can't pay the bills - we've really struggled with saying, "hey, how would you like to pay us."
We don't accept advertisers because we don't want to be beholden to any brand. Brands sometimes don't like the truth, and if a brand is paying to keep your lights on, you may be forced to bend the truth, or ignore it outright to keep the lights on. We'd rather let this spark go out, than be forced to make those decisions.
We also have been against pay walling content. Take a look at who paywalls content today, or completely blocks the content if you don't allow ads. Across the political spectrum from the left to the right, very few legitimate outlets provide the news for free.
So we were faced with the same moral dilemma. How do we monetize this without going against our values. We concluded that for COVID, providing the "receipts" and research couldn't be monetized. It was available in journals, the MSM, and elsewhere for free. Our value was aggregating the content.
For the global situation that expands beyond Ukraine, we realized that we could, if you forgive the cliche, have our cake and eat it too. We can provide fact based news, show receipts, but there are a lot more moves on the global chessboard people aren't seeing. By aggregating that content, and connecting it to our research to validate facts over fiction, we moved forward.
One other thing in the last 10 months, we also started caring a lot less about Facebook, that we now see as a dying platform.
But, through it all, we always defended the truth. The truth matters. Even if the truth is ugly, even if the truth doesn't align with our personal values and views.
For 2-1/2 years we've been locally focused, and had a local audience. But we always believed if we could lift our voice louder, more would want just one thing - the truth.
Give me the facts, let me decide what to do with them.
This has been made harder because we live in a society where journalists and their audiences can't identify facts versus opinion.
This morning we reached (well we've actually broken) all four goals.
100,000 TikTok followers (well 166K)
10,000 Facebook followers (well 10.9K)
1,000 YouTube subscribers
100 Patreons
It took ten months.
Imagine were we'll be in another ten months.
Thank you for your trust. Thank you for your faith. Thank you for just wanting the facts.
Comments
New Patreon supporter here. Your comment about funding gladdens me as a new subscriber, it is a stance that I hoped & expected. Ethically, (IMO) being funded independently by individuals is the best/only option. As you say being funded by corporate sponsors would be inappropriate. Your trustworthiness is immediately compromised if there is even the appearance that you could be beholden to a sponsor. Journalism ethics isn’t my area, but medical ethics is in my wheelhouse. I see this as comparable to drug company sponsorship of anything. As soon as I accepted and freebie from a drugs rep my trustworthiness is in question about whether I’m giving the most appropriate care or whether I’ve been even unconsciously influenced. It’s also ethically consistent for Patreons or other subscription model to fund your work. You are providing a service. Huge amounts of emotional and mental labour is being done and it’s right to be remunerated for time, equipment, other resources etc. You are not denying access to your work to anyone; subscribing is a choice that we can freely make; there’s no coercion or obligation. Also no discrimination towards those not privileged enough to be able to pay like a paywall. Those of us who are in a position to pay do so for our own reasons whether it be for the bonus content, ensuring you stay free & independent to those who can’t pay, or something else, not because it’s the only way to access your work. Journalists have to be paid or we have no journalism. Gratitude doesn’t pay the bills! TL;DR I agree with your stance on funding. Thank you for explaining and for your work
William Karr
I’m glad I’m a small part of the journey. Keep up the amazing work. A BIG reason I became a Patreon support was the simple statement: “The Truth Matters.” Integrity is all important, and I believe many journalists today have lost a bit of focus on that. Keep on being you and focusing on the truth… and I’ll ride this train to the end.
WooHooo
