What is Populist.TV?
Journalism's future home.
A New Model For Journalism
Populist.TV is a model for the future of journalism based on a vision of the future of politics.
A quick guide to this page
How To Improve Journalism
Below you’ll find:
- A diagnosis of the problems with journalism
- A vision of the future of journalism
- How we’re planning on developing this website and community
- What you can do to join us
The internet revealed institutional dishonesty.
The Future, Right Now
Right now is a unique time in the history of civilization.
The Information Age is changing the world by exposing the lies of big, established institutions at a rapidly increasing rate.
People no longer trust government, corporations, or the media.
Traditional media has failed.
...But Not So Fast!
The mainstream media has been the PR arm of corporations and governments for decades.
But the MSM has lost credibility and audience with the advent of the new media revolution, and the ability to research for oneself, both of which were brought on by the Information Age.
New media questioned traditional media and the establishment...
New Media Maven
Much of the pushback against the mainstream media came due to the influence of Lee’s friend and mentor, Andrew Breitbart.
He was the single most important person in digital news media.
He worked with Matt Drudge at @DRUDGE_REPORT , came up with the idea for Huffington Post, and founded Breitbart.com.
...but had the establishment's problems.
New Media Mania
After Andrew’s death nearly six years ago, new media grew… but largely failed to live up to its promise to actually present the truth.
This was due in large part to the fact that the establishment – specifically the political parties and media funders – are still mired in a partisan mentality.
This First Wave New Media world has created some large audiences… but those audiences are increasingly divided.
And while those numbers are big, and this wave gave a much needed alternative to establishment narratives, it hasn’t produced consistently accurate journalism.
Too many narratives, not enough truth.
Fake News
Instead, almost everyone ended up pushing #FakeNews.
Old media and new media have pushed fake news.
Left media and right media have pushed fake news.
Almost everyone’s wrong…
…but they get clicks and a fanbase.
More and more people want the truth.
Fair News
But this won’t last.
The same Information Revolution that shows people the mainstream media isn’t giving them accurate news will also show people that so much of this “new” media is feeding them lies, as well. The hucksters’ days of fame are numbered.
These #FakeNews hucksters can get clicks and fame and success by pandering to the people’s partisan biases… but it won’t last.
The Information Revolution is evolving too rapidly.
People are figuring things out. They’re getting tired of the volleys of lies. They want something new.
Traditional media lumps facts and opinions together.
"News Stories"
Right now, news sites put out sets of stories.
These stories are generally part of the media agenda still set by the establishment old media, with “takes” that fall along partisan lines.
And each story tends to be a biased mix of narrative, facts, opinion and misinformation.
We separate facts from opinions.
What's the alternative?
Instead we’re going to present you the information you want, and we’re going to do this in a fundamentally new way: by breaking down stories into components and separating the facts from the opinions.
We’re building this deep into the core of this website.
Specifically, we have seven different types of posts: Facts, Explanations, News, Views, Issues, Solutions, and Episodes.
Let’s explain…
We give you the facts on stories.
Facts
The Facts are ultra-short articles clarifying a single fact in dispute in a news story.
An example might be: “Was Sergei Magnitsky a lawyer?” or “Did Roy Moore accuser Leigh Corfman have a phone in her room?”
These are simple, straightforward fact checks which you can quickly verify.
We clarify the bigger issues.
Explanations
The Explanations are articles & videos which give readers a clear view of important issues and topics.
Examples include our answers to questions like ‘What is Elitism?’ or ‘What is the Civil Society 2.0 program of the US State Department?’
The Explainers give the big picture behind the headlines.
We show you how the news gets covered.
News
The News posts are headlines and stories of the day.
This is stuff that has to be covered, and we’re going to work to put it into the context of the bigger issues.
We’ll continue to use our Left Take/Right Take format, along with other comparisons, to show how the traditional political sides are reporting various stories.
We give you our take.
Views
The Views posts are for opinions and analyses.
This could include things like reviews of books and movies, takes on the issue of the day, ideas for solving problems and more.
It’s part of how we’ll deconstruct traditional news coverage.
We put it all together.
Issues
The Issues posts are where we put it all together on major issues.
We bring together facts, explainers, news and views on topics in one place to give you a detailed overview.
We want to help you do your own research while keeping a sense of perspective.
We help you figure out how to help the world.
Solutions
The Solutions posts do something few media sites do: show you how to take action to actually do something about the topics in the news.
We bring you well-made shows on important issues.
Shows
The Shows or Episodes posts are where we bring you the latest programming we’re producing, whether movies, series, or podcasts.
These include the radio show Fault Lines, the podcast Making the News, the Soros series, and many more.
We're a small group with a big vision.
Family Business
Right now we’re just a family business.
We have a small cohort of journalists, researchers, and reporters learning with us at Citizen Journalism School, and we’re going to be bringing as many of them as we can into our project here.
Our team may be small now but we have big ideas and pathbreaking plans.
We want to build a movement.
How to join us
If you want to get involved, send Shane an email or sign up for Citizen Journalism School to build up your chops.
If you just want to follow along, sign up for the Populist Morning Report below.