The Free Press is Dead, Billionaires Murdered it, Can Substack Save Us?
The general public is fed up with corporately owned media, and it's a real opportunity for working class writers
Hello Friends,
Recently developments have only fortified my sense that the modern media simply does not serve the interest of the people. Reporters don’t ask the questions we want answered, the news doesn’t cover the stories we want to hear about, the radio plays the same five terrible songs over and over, and publishers don’t publish books with themes that would help to elevate humanity.
All we get is misinformation, propaganda, hatred, and lies.
There’s evidence that working class people are sick of it. More and more, they’re turning to platforms like Substack so they can read stories that were created by actual HUMAN BEINGS with relatable problems and realistic solutions.
We’re tired of having rich people who inherited a billion dollars tell us to “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” while they laugh behind their hands and call us “suckers” and “losers” behind closed doors.
Substack is one of the places you can go to be treated with a bit of respect. Cancel all your corporate subscriptions and find some writers who speak to your soul to sponsor.
The free press is dead
The problem is that a handful of billionaires have bought up all the various forms of media and combined them into huge propaganda conglomerates. This is why a random morning show will do a segment on a new studio release, and have to disclose “that film was produced by our affiliate.”
You aren’t watching content, you’re watching advertisements presented as content. They only tell you about it after the fact.
There’s no ethics in journalism anymore.
More and more, the mainstream media is becoming completely unrelatable. It’s designed to serve people who wake up in the morning and the biggest challenge they face that day is having to decide which of their 20 brand new luxury cars they’re going to drive.
“Once my personal chef makes me breakfast, shall I go to the spa, or maybe take the jet to Paris? Oh, why are these choices so hard? I’ll have to blog about it…”
People who work for a living are considered “sub-human”
Just once I’d like to see a reporter ask a presidential candidate for their best tips on changing a car battery, or how to find savings at the grocery store, or what to do when a baby has a fever. There are a million actually useful things that a competent person needs to know before we should entrust them to run the government.
HUMAN PROBLEMS!!
“Sir, have you ever been hungry? Have you ever been homeless? Have you ever been unable to pay a medical bill?”
“No, I’m a glutton and I’ve lived in a mansion all my life and I’ve never had a job, working is for suckers and losers! I don’t care about those people! In my free time, I murder animals and visit the private islands of my other billionaire friends.”
The reason reporters don’t ask any hard hitting questions is because they’re all part of the same community. None of them know the frustration of trying to push a shopping cart with a wonky wheel while holding a baby under your arm only to find out later that your car won’t start. They have other people do that.
They try to hide it but they can’t. It slips out in the things they choose to cover and the far more important stories they deliberately ignore (corruption, exploitation, lawlessness, treason, insurrection, right-wing violence, hatred).
But we don’t have to take it anymore
This is why I named a section of my newsletter “Empowering Progressive Writers.” I first got started on Substack because I wanted to keep writing tutorials about how to succeed on Medium.
The thing is, there are a lot of charlatans out there making six figures with their “manifestation” content. They act like it’s all a “mindset” and all you have to do is be “positive,” but that’s not the case.
I’ve been fortunate to develop a following on Medium of close to 50k people. I feel enormous gratitude that so many people have entrusted me with their time. The one thing I can tell you with absolute assurance is that I didn’t make it on my own. I’ve had a lot of help along the way.
People like
, , , , , , , , , , , , and MANY MANY more have helped me along the way.Speaking of Michelle, check out her wonderful book that exposes the reality of what it’s like to live in poverty in the US. She doesn’t presume to cover it all, but these are the type of stories I want to hear. These are the type of stories that I’ll try to get Boosted on Medium.
The plight of the working class is not represented in the American media and that’s a disgrace!
Together we can flip the script
The remarkable thing about working on a platform model that’s outside the mainstream media is that you get to meet really intelligent, likeminded people who will challenge your worldview and teach you things. Once you leave the mainstream behind, it’s like shifting from neutral to drive.
Smart people challenge you to rethink your flawed, unconscious beliefs. It’s a miracle. The friends I’ve made, particularly ones that expose the reality of Black history in the US, have taught me more than I could have learned in a doctorate program. Our current media deliberately suppresses these narratives to the detriment of all.
I do what I can to make sure more eyes get on valuable content like that.
I like to be able to provide actionable advice for people out there who have important stories to tell and real world advice from the WORKING CLASS.
I’m finding a lot of wonderful people on Substack with great stories to tell. With my status as a Boost nominator, I can help get a few more eyeballs on those stories. Sometimes I’ll work with a writer on a story and it will be accepted for a Boost, sometimes not, but I hope through the process the writer takes away something that will serve them in the future.
Substack helps to fill in the gaps
Medium has been my main source of income for the last few years, but lately Substack is providing me with a huge amount of peace of mind. For one thing, Medium only pays out once a month. It’s a relief to see notifications from Substack that a few payments are happening in the lean times.
Recently, I had a story that was declined for a Boost. It was a good story and I have no idea why it was rejected. That causes a certain amount of existential angst. Fortunately, the same day that I was DECLINED, I also received notifications that I got 2 new Substack subscribers.
Thank you for that. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Instantly my attitude shifted from despondent to elated. The best thing to do, is to sit down and write some more.
Writers are in constant need of pep talks, and Substack is providing me with the funding I need so I can keep doing this.
Send me your pitches
If you have a story that might help a working class person escape from a dark place, please send it. If you’re retired with a lifetime of experience to share, trust me when I tell you that the world wants to hear it.
We’re tired of being called “suckers and losers.” We’re tired of people piling on and not offering any help. We’re tired of baseless criticism and being told we never lived up to expectations.
What we want to hear are the voices of kind grandparents who wish to share with us a lifetime of wisdom. I’m not quite a grandparent yet, but I’ve been around a half century, and the advice I give is meant to EMPOWER rather than EXPLOIT and you don’t get that too often in the modern world.
Again, it’s not easy. Don’t trust anyone who tells you that it is. But I’m happy to answer your questions, and if you stick it out, I think things will get better.
My CoSchedule referral link
Here’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).
Thank you for your courage. I am a retired, life-long educator with teaching experience ranging from kindergarten children with disabilities to university students seeking to enter classrooms. The message I want to share is centered on loving one another. Our hope depends on living compassionately.
Mass media has veered away from fact and toward the traditional American corporate model: profit, profit, profit. Obviously, to continue to operate, they do need to be profitable, but fact should not be a casualty. Fact should be their raison d'etre. Am I hopelessly naive? Is factual reporting not feasible in this shallow, distracted, illusory world?