A Me Update
Hi all,
I’ve been laid off from TYT (no, I didn’t mouth off to the boss, my position was eliminated) and am now hoping to connect with an outlet that aspires to create topical programming that’s informative and enlightening, engaging but inspiring, buzzworthy but uplifting.
I don’t believe topical TV/video programming must be either polarizing or boring. I like to think my career has shown that’s possible. I created and ran Up w/ Chris Hayes, which was lauded by conservatives. I was a key figure in making Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann a must-watch program even for conservatives. I even produced a weekly news program with Dan Rather, with virtually no marketing, that sometimes topped a million views, tackling issues of concern to people of every political stripe.
So, I’m hoping to find an outlet that shares my confidence that we can succeed – yes, even in 2024 – with programming that appeals to a wide audience, generates buzz and critical acclaim, and moves the needle with what we say and how we say it. This is a selfish desire, but also a patriotic one; we need better TV news. It’s important. And it’s doable.
We now interrupt this pitch for some testimonials…
“Jonathan is a first-rate, world-class professional: a widely-experienced journalist who can do it all, do it well, and has the record to prove it.” — Dan Rather
“Amazing EP.” — Chris Hayes
“I cannot understand how I have missed making such an incredibly talented writer one of my first reads of the day.” — Heather Cox Richardson
“You did brilliant work here and I’ll always be proud of it and always point to it as something we got done that’s one of the things I’m most proud of.” — Cenk Uygur
“Fuck.” — Anderson Cooper (when I told him I was leaving 360)
“You’re a scumbag…Go somewhere and find yourself a nice jail cell, because that’s where you’re going to end up.” — Mike Lindell
We now resume our regularly scheduled self-promotion, already in progress…
If you’re interested in discussing how enlightening, unifying, non-controversial, critically acclaimed, commercially successful TV news is very very doable (yes even today), you can reach me at jonathantlarsen [at] gmail. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. (With the caveat that I’m hard to stop once I get started talking about this stuff!)
I also want to discuss my work at TYT. I started my career as a print reporter, an experience I’ve always felt gave me an all-too-rare perspective on producing TV news. While I did create a successful new YouTube channel for TYT, and even got to produce the all-time legend Dan Rather in a weekly series, the core of my work for TYT was overseeing our original reporting, including my own return to the form.
It’s true that TYT is much more unabashedly progressive than even MSNBC, but even at TYT, my approach has never been partisan. The stories I broke about Pete Buttigieg certainly didn’t fit into any partisan box.
And my revelations about the National Prayer Breakfast led even Bill Kristol to call for change. (More on the breakfast below.)
When I revealed how a Wall Street loophole has helped to drive inflation, I explained how both parties shared the blame. The truth is, only a tiny handful of issues have to be addressed in partisan terms.
Even in my daily newsletter for TYT, I heard from self-professed conservative readers who told me they appreciated my approach, my belief that labeling one’s opponents “evil” is a poor explanatory mechanism for anything, and a death sentence for unity and progress.
I want to brag a bit (more) and say that our newsletter had a phenomenal open rate. (I’m not sure I’m allowed to disclose it publicly, but don’t hesitate to ask!) I sent one edition to Substack master Heather Cox Richardson, who graciously responded, “This piece is terrific.”
Most importantly, we had such a steady outpouring of appreciation from our readers, that I am going to continue doing a newsletter. In fact, I’m reviving the newsletter I first did way back before Substack was even a thing.
It’s called The Fucking News and back when I started it, author and all-around bad-ass Naomi Klein told the world, “I recommend signing up for these guys.”
I hope that’s still the case, because I’d like you to sign up, too, and to tell other folks about it:
If you choose a paid subscription, that will help me gauge how much interest there is and also eat food. Enough support will ensure that The Fucking News is sustainable for whatever’s left of the future. My intention, however, is always to provide the core journalism — the journo-aggregation and my original reporting — for free, which is also more doable the more paid subscriptions we have. What original reporting, you ask?
Well, fer instance, as of last year, the National Prayer Breakfast is no longer being run by the secretive, controversial Fellowship Foundation, better known as The Family. After starting it way back in 1973, The Family finally split off the event, attended by presidents and world leaders, after my reporting led top members of Congress to drop the event.
Or did the breakfast split off from The Family? As I’ve also revealed, The Family appear to be trying to pull a fast one on Congress. And I made national news just last month revealing that the 2023 co-chair went to Uganda’s prayer breakfast and told that nation to “stand firm” against global opposition to its “Kill the Gays” law. I’ve got more original reporting coming, on the breakfast and other stuff. Your paid subscriptions will help make that happen.
I should note that the journalistic successes we had at TYT were due to the support of TYT’s audience, and my boss, Cenk Uygur, giving us broad autonomy to pursue meaningful stories and not get whiplashed by the daily churn of distracto-tainment “news.” None of it would have been possible without the amazing journalists I was lucky enough to hire, including Candice Cole, Matt Sheffield, Ti-Hua Chang, Zoltan Lucas, and Ken Klippenstein.
Okay, that’s it! The band is playing me off. The big takeaways are:
Please get in touch if you’re in the industry, especially if you’re a TV news executive who still believes it’s possible to do well by doing good.
Please subscribe (preferably with money) to The Fucking News.
Please know how grateful I am for all the kind expressions of support for my journalism and for TYT’s Progress Report newsletter, and to you specifically for reading all the way to the bottom of this post.
We’re all in this together!
— Jonathan