WORK IN PROGRESS (Updated Dec 23rd)
While training to become a forensic consultant and expert witness; I was given some very simple advice, “tell the truth, and you have nothing to worry about”. Vice Media, the subject of my new book, has lots to worry about.
Vice Media is currently valued between 4–4.5 billion. More than the NY Times (2.2B), more than Buzzfeed (1.5B). But when I mention Vice to people outside the media, I get a lot of blank stares.
BUZZFEED (Blue) vs VICE (Red) via:SocialBladeVice is an enigma — a Satanic inspired Rubik’s Cube. Researching the book has been an exercise in collecting contradiction after contradiction.
Shane says Vice is a trusted brand. What a load of crap.Vice is talked about in media circles — mostly — because they say they have a lot of money. People also talk because their reputation of paying shit and being a little scary. Understandably, the industry is tough and nobody wants to bite the hand that feeds. Even if that hand has violated you.
Vice forces their brand into documentary festivals and documentary magazines. But their work is marred in plagiarism, deception and plenty of sensationalism. A fact-checking nightmare.
People working independently in documentary and journalism despise Vice. Even people working for Vice dislike Vice. What the f**k is going on?
A media kit is a PDF targeted at advertisers. Individually, Vice looks dodgy but in a meta-analysis of 2007 to 2015 PDFs, I noticed some funny stuff:
Update Dec 23rd:One industry insider described a VICE Chief Revenue Officer as a “coke head”, “human garbage”, a HR / sexual harassment nightmare and “the definition of a corporate scumbag”. When asked how the CRO remained employed at their previous job they said they were good at sales.
THE PERFECT DEMOGRAPHICS: Look carefully and take a wild guess at when Shane took control of Vice.Update Dec 13th:An ex employee has confirmed that Vice Magazine’s media kit circulation numbers, in their country, were multiplied by ten. Anyone else?
Update Dec 19th:Vice Magazine has taken an unscheduled, two month hiatus in publishing (January and February 2016). via:AdAge.
Vice claims an audience of 200 million but ComScore rates it at 41 million. I think that self-reported gap is a result of BS, botting and clickfraud to help amp the baseline.
Generally, professionals tend to think that ~50% of clicks are stolen from advertisers. The worst offender studied showed as much as 98% nonhuman traffic. Personally, I know a couple people in the industry who do this type of thing and both are varying degrees of asshole. Shane fits the profile.
I would like to give Vice the benefit of the doubt but I can’t imagine these words out of Shane’s mouth: Alright team, I know our website says “den of nefarious activities” on it, and I’m a self-described megalomaniac, but please don’t hire botters to make me rich — something I’ve obsessed over my entire life and the main reason people are near me. Seriously guys don’t.
I can see, before reading all this, how giving money to Vice would seem like a good idea. They CLAIM to have exactly what advertisers want: 200 million millenial dummies. Problem is; they don’t exist.
Vice’s numbers appear perfect because Shane is a con man and Vice is a black hole.
Depending on your perspective on: corporations, the usefulness of advertising, and your frequency of suicidal ideation; dumping money into this shitpile might actually be a good thing. But maybe the money could go to better use.
One journalist said to me “If you don’t have a wall between editorial and advertising; you have nothing”. It makes sense because multiplestudies link misinformation to lowered intelligence. Watching Vice, or any media without ethics, is a commitment to being dumber. Worse, a company that seeks novelty without a code will always stray into Antisocial-land.
Garbage in, garbage out. Put simply, a company without ethics is a company that cannot love.
The bigger question: Why should a ‘content company’ that operates without conscience — not in the public’s interest or even the viewer’s interest — be allowed Journalist’s privilege?
Most people think Shane is joking when he says outrageous things. But most the time he isn’t joking. Shane has, on more than one occasion, defined Vice as a cult. The bait for this cult — put simply — is a promise of fun, no rules and self-defeating concepts like everyone else is boring. The reality is that anonymous employee ratings have Vice pegged as the worst media company out there. Employees don’t speak out because of the draconiandocuments they sign going in — and leaving.
“Vice IS vice” — Rocco C., former editor of Vice Media Inc.
I’ve heard that nervous breakdowns are common. Vice, practically by definition, breaches the employee’s human rights to a freedom of conscience. Often enough, Vice is against ethics. I’ve heard that Shane mocked an employee for advocating the basics of journalism and there is reason to believe he pushed out another. It’s no surprise thatanti-competitivesales practices are the norm.
Maybe this is the future of news — or maybe — in Shane’s own words he wants to “…fuck news in its naughty ass”.
Why admit to this? People usually don’t look into their employer because of power and aggression dynamics. Counter-intuitively, it’s an avant-garde strategy of power that keeps people (especially employees) constantly confused.
Shane, like most ruthless hucksters, can read his target on the spot. Shane has every indication of a sociopathic trait called duper’s delight. To put things simply: being evil gives Shane a kick.
In light conversation, Shane is charming — a pretty well documented trait. Tough questions are dodged — again a pretty well documented trait of politicians. So, unless you’ve done your homework, you probably want to put a email filter on any announcement that this company dictates.
Vice, at its worst, is an insane plausible deniability machine. At best, it’s derivative, anti-competitive and held together by mutually-assured-destruction. All this adds up to a short-term strategy of impunity — and probably why Vice lawyers sent police to my door when I mentioned concerns of fraud at reception. (Story below)
Side note 1:How deep do the shennanigans go? I have a hunch the reported buyout numbers are just some plutocratic publicity stunt. How else can something, with fewer views than Gangnam Style, be worth 4.5 billion? This theory scrapes the bedrock of my skepticism. In my defense: Shane, while drunk, did proclaim the most psychotic thing I’ve ever heard “it doesn’t matter if it’s true, it matters if you believe it”. He also jokes aboutspending time with the illuminati — if that means anything anchored to reality — just means he hangs with wealthy connivers who look down on humanity. Nothing special.
Maybe when VOICE changed its name to VICE they kept the “O” and threw it behind the circulation numbers. Poetry of a lunatic: where all your employees are put in danger because of the truth — and you make the indie/zine world more difficult.
Side note 2:I have nothing bad to say about Suroosh Alvi. Good taste in music, probably shell-shocked from the homonculus rat in his brain called Shane. Someone, please give him a book deal.
Side note 3:If Shane writes a book named anything other thanHow to Make Enemies and Hypnotize People: I’m not buying it.
Vox Media, Buzzfeed, Good Magazine or even a magazine by the former Vice Magazine editor called Apology Magazine. Yes, the title is in reference to Vice.
Find trending creators of patreon.com via Pledge Society.
Try contacting other news channels on YouTube. There are 35 channels rated better than Vice and they won’t rape your eyes and eardrums with misinformation and subversive advertorials.
Or reinvest in “old guard” newspapers with a code of ethics. Ones that care about their audience.
