Founded in 2014 by Nick Bernabe because “because he saw a need for more independence and diversity in the news media”, The Anti Media (TAM) quickly drew several anti-establishment stars such as Carey Wedler and Derrick Broze to its cause. Carey summarized the site’s founding ethos this way:
Drawn to activism after discovering the Ron Paul revolution, we (TAM) came of age in the post-9/11 era and we felt we had good reason to push back against the ever-encroaching political system that has heavily indebted us and increasingly infringed upon on our rights whilst expanding its reach and power….Our goal: Awaken people from their passive subservience to big government and corporatism.
On their Patreon page here, TAM called it like it is:
We’re guessing they don’t like the fact that we (TAM) highlight and expose corruption wherever we see it, be it in the government or from corporations. They don’t like us challenging the empire and the military-industrial complex. They are uncomfortable with us calling out the drug war, Big Pharma, police brutality, the prison-industrial complex, and the system at large.
In 2016, TAM was reaching tens of millions per week. They were systematically de-platformed following the 2016 election, thus limiting their ability to challenge government and corporate corruption and oppression – and ultimately killing TAM’s business. Carey details it here:
I woke up to a notice from a major social media platform: “Your page has been unpublished.”
That afternoon, another major platform emailed: “Your account has been suspended.”
Two hits in a day. The Anti-Media, the independent news outlet where I was editor-in-chief and worked with a handful of committed activists and journalists, was gone. Our website remained, but our audience was wiped out.
Facebook removed hundreds of pages that day in October of 2018, claiming they were fighting inauthentic activity and spam. Far less publicized and sparsely known to this day is that the platform formerly known as Twitter banned some of the same accounts, including the Anti-Media and my personal Twitter account, that same day. It appeared to be a coordinated campaign.
Present-day “anti-media” sentiments are often associated with right-leaning objections to the corporate media’s coverage of Donald Trump. Our reporting was less partisan.
We didn’t subscribe to left-right, Republican-Democrat narratives. Instead, we focused on issues many people agree are problematic: the military-industrial complex, mass surveillance, corporate hegemony achieved through backroom deals with power-hungry politicians and bureaucrats, and the growing police state and its accompanying intrusions. We supported no politicians and routinely called them out no matter their party or popularity. We challenged their authority altogether and highlighted disruptive, non-government solutions to the problems “authority” so often creates. And we reached lots of people. Millions every week.
Obviously, we were a threat to democracy.
We designed, printed, and fulfilled TAM’s merchandise after the founding team moved on, and explained their ethos this way:
The Anti-Media has bought the farm: another casualty of deplatforming. Their founders had the gall to push back against the ever-encroaching political system, and the ever-encroaching political system responded in kind.
Shed a tear for investigative journalism. It might still reveal interesting things about lead in school lunches or Brad Pitt’s second vacation home, but it will no longer be reliably broadcast on channels controlled by the elites (i.e. all channels).
Why are we singing a dirge for The Anti-Media? It’s not just because the world is a poorer place without their reporting on the drug war, Big Pharma, police brutality, the prison-industrial complex, and the whole broken system at large. It’s also because 2nd Amendment Shirtss’ own values and worldview so closely mirror their own. We despise the state’s thinly veiled control over mainstream narratives, the government corruption which runs so rampant that it precludes political outsiders from ever knowing just what the hell’s going on – let alone run for office – and the constant, constant appeals to forfeit liberty and prosperity in exchange for protection against nonexistent threats.
No wonder The Anti-Media got killed. They dared to shine light on the actual threats to our country, and those threats did what they do best. We now live in a world where the CEO of NPR can openly declare that public funding will not be dedicated to journalism that could make the dominant political party look bad.
We’re following in The Anti-Media’s footsteps. Not quite as brazenly, mind you. We’re sure our libertarian, conservative, pro-2A and crypto merch isn’t exactly the elites’ favorite, but hopefully they have bigger fish to fry than burning our humble little site to the ground. But we’re still taking a risk – and so too will you, if you’re bold enough to declare your support for a free press in public.