a lot of interesting things happening in
journalism right now traditional
journalism
is collapsing in some ways a lot of
people being laid off
where do you go to write stories
honestly
there are very few places left where you
can do that sub stack may be the biggest
so the only place on the internet where
journalists can publish whatever they
want
freely independent writers create their
own content and this is key they're
supported by their subscribers
now this arrangement makes the corporate
media and some people on twitter very
angry
they hate dissent and they hate the idea
of being able to speak without a filter
so they're calling for subsac
to be banned and its writers to be
censored having an opinion
that jeff bezos or cnn haven't vetted
is wrong michael tracy is one of the big
draws on sub stack
he's an independent journalist he's
being targeted for giving his opinions
he's basically kind of on the left by
the way
but they're going after him he joins us
tonight michael tracy thanks so much for
coming on and i should say
never touted anything but i think you're
one of the smartest voices on twitter
they're not that they're
you know a lot of competition but you
definitely are um so tell us what
they're trying to do to sub stack
well sub stack is a venue that rewards
independent thought
and so clearly it infuriates journalists
on that ground because they're
chronically capable of incapable of it
i mean the online media industry is
filled with the most tedious
mediocrities who could never develop
an audience on their own terms for
anything because they don't contribute
anything unique into
the universe so when a new platform
comes along
that incentivizes people with
i don't know independent views heterodox
thinking what have you
to come and cultivate an audience for
themselves and not be controlled by this
these kind of conformist impositions of
the institutional media
they lash out and they try to destroy
the platform itself
because it's intolerable to them to not
be able to control
others in the industry and to dictate
what what kind of influence
that we or others on the platform can
exert it's kind of pathetic but then
again
it's the name of the game for a lot of
people in this industry which is
cratering
for good reason because people don't
trust the media they don't
yes respect the media and why should
they given all they've gotten wrong
so you've kind of approached this with a
traditional point of view
from reading you a lot i've noticed
you've decided to be honest no matter
what like you don't care you're going to
say what you think
period obviously they hate you for that
but they can't say that out loud on what
grounds are they trying to shut you and
sub sub down
they've developed this whole new
vocabulary about what supposedly
constitutes
an offense that requires purging or
expulsion
so for example they've invented this
notion of
online violence meaning if you critic
criticize a journalist in apparently
harsh enough terms
so long as that journalist construes
what you've done as violence upon them
that provides a basis for them to demand
that you be
removed from the internet um they
have expanded the concept of harassment
to
go well beyond i don't know tracking
somebody down into their home and
throwing rocks at their window or
something a traditional you know
understanding of harassment to just you
know repeated sometimes even very mild
critiques of professional journalists
that they regard as harassment
so all these kind of fused together into
this mismatch
that they're trying to pressure sepsak
with to say oh
you're harboring perpetrators of
violence and harassment and
transphobia is a new one and all these
other
horribly damning indictments and
hopefully substack is able to resist
those demands to fundamentally upend its
model and i have some
hope that they will given
some of the principles that the founders
have espoused but then again there have
been other social media companies in the
past other online media companies
who espouse similar values but once the
elite media in particular
has you as a target they have a way of
kind of engendering an avalanche
that falls upon you and eventually you
capitulate but hopefully
again this is an exception we'll have to
see man we are rooting for you
and and taibi and greenwald and a lot of
other smart heterodox thinkers and you
got to think in the end
smart brave people all wan all wind up
in one place it's just
not clear what that place is michael
tracy thank you hope to see you again
soon
thanks tucker