Hey there,
It's no secret that Alex Jones was booted off of several social platforms recently.
De-platformed.
People in the progressive space seem to stand at different ends of this—some warning that this is a historical slippery slope that could quickly lead to progressive voices getting silenced, not just those in the conservative/conspiracy crowd. Give the censors an inch, and they'll take a mile.
Others, like Jordan, think that Alex Jones and Infowars absolutely cross the line because they incite violence, and therefore Facebook, YouTube, and others are well within their rights, and indeed their obligation, to de-platform him.
Most in this space seem to agree that the COORDINATION of de-platforming Alex Jones from these platforms is a major issue with some scary implications.
Wherever you fall in the debate, I want to let you know that regardless of Alex Jones' plight, WE are being silenced as progressive journalists.
Yes, the thing people have warned of is already here. And it could get worse.
I'd laugh if it wasn't so crazy—YouTube admitted to us the other day they suppress our content and views. They say it in such a nonchalant way as if they expect it to be okay and make sense to us.
It's not, and it doesn't.
It shouldn't make sense to you either.
As you know, we're launching STATUS COUP very soon—and we're in the process of a soft launch of the network as we speak :-) VERY EXCITING!
Status Coup is exactly the news you want. Real, progressive, investigative journalism done by giving the microphone back to the people with NO corporate cash.
I'll be honest—it's going to be an uphill climb with the suppression we see as a completely independent outlet! You see new platforms like Axios suddenly on MSNBC all the time and getting cited everywhere even though they came out of "nowhere." The reality is it's all about the money, honey. But we will never fall for their games.
People like us who do it the right way have a much more difficult time. People aren't getting our video notifications, no one sees our tweets, and Facebook is dead unless we pay to boost our stuff.
It's HARD.
This email isn't a pity party, though :-)
It's simply a puzzle to solve, and you're a HUGE part of solving it.
I've worked in digital media for over a decade, and I've never seen anything like this. But, I'm determined to figure it out and I will figure it out. The stories are too important—Flint, Chicago, Virginia...all the stories we've covered already are TOO important. People will see our content because people WANT to see our content.
People out there, like you, are desperate for the kind of news we offer.
With the power of crowdfunding and crowdboosting, we WILL succeed.
That's right—we want you to feel part of Status Coup. Share our videos, share our posts, retweet us, like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Tell your friends. Forward our emails (like this one!). Share our blog posts. Email us story ideas. Comment on our threads. Write back to us.
We care about you. We care about the truth. And we will stop at NOTHING to make sure Status Coup is a giant success. Because it matters so much—because the people need a voice.
Here's how you can help:
I've included some recent videos below that you can watch after my sign off. Jordan and Ty did some incredible reporting in Chicago. Jordan, Ty, and I also reported in Flint again recently, and what we saw was devastating.
~
Jenn
Co-Founder, Status Coup
P.S. I know funds are tight. Please share our stuff to get around the suppression. And if you can, toss a few bucks our way (or more if you can afford it) to help us pay for marketing, improved equipment, and in-field reporting:
>>> http://PayPal.me/StatusCoup
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