Uncovered: The Power of the Citizen Journalist
A welcomed new development has occurred in the field of journalism and in society in general: the rise of the citizen journalist. These are ordinary citizens (all young people) who, using the simple technology at hand, do what journalists — whether conservative or liberal or libertarian — should be doing, which is going out on the street and, either uncovering crime and malignant bureaucracies, or going to protests and persistently asking hard questions of the participants. The phenomenon has become an institutional-less institution.
This is the opposite of what most of the journalists in newspapers, television networks, and political websites, not to mention local news outlets, are doing. The staff in these established institutions have gotten into the habit of simply staying in their comfortable offices scouring for news by combing through the wires or internet for something that they might use.
An additional benefit is that citizen journalists upload their stories, op-eds, interviews and investigations directly onto the internet, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, etc. (Instagram in my opinion is the best because it does the least censorship), without hoping for a gatekeeping editor’s approval to run their stories. But, more importantly, since all of the regular news establishments tend to have the effect of preaching to the choir, unpleasant facts and stories are not spiked (which is always the case with liberal outlets), but will randomly crop up when surfing the net and people who live in a bubble will be exposed to facts.
James O’Keefe
The first, and best known, of these citizen journalists is James O’Keefe. He first became famous in America with his hilarious ACORN expose. Through Project Veritas, and with the use of undercover videos, he went on to engage in undercover recordings of infamous individuals, almost all of them leftists, and undeniably disgusting. There was Michael Beller, the PBS principal lawyer, who dreamed of putting Trump voters in re-education camps (not the only leftist to dream of doing so). People who worked in Facebook bragged about censoring conservatives. Charlie Chester, a CNN director, was recorded admitting that the network engaged in propaganda during Trump’s first presidency, that it can be used to mold people’s minds, and how to do it. The same occurred with Google (remember, all these institutions claimed to be impartial).
The encouraging results from Shirley’s expose has helped to bring attention to other citizen journalists who are uncovering local sponsored fraud.
Matthew Rosenberg, a correspondent with the New York Pravda (Times) laughed at his colleagues’ pretentious claims of being “traumatized” over January 6. There was the Bernie Sanders campaign organizer who thought the Soviet Union’s concentration camps were a good thing. There was also the recording of election fraud in Minneapolis among the Somali immigrants, which was linked to Ilhan Omar (the New York Pravda ran cover for the Somalis). O’Keefe also infiltrated the anti-ICE groups in Minnesota. And many other stories.
Needless to say, he became anathema to liberals. When Twitter was run by Communists in pre-Musk days, Project Veritas was first defunded then removed. Biden’s FBI ransacked the homes of O’Keefe and others working in Project Veritas. He sued and was sued by the New York Pravda and others, always winning (thanks partly due to having the financial backing to withstand the onslaught).
Andy Ngo and Nick Shirley
Andy Ngo was another citizen journalist who specialized in covering Antifa’s criminal activities and lack of repercussions from the Democrat establishment in the northwest. For this, he was put in the hospital by those Communists. As usual, the liberals blamed the victim.
Whereas it seemed like O’Keefe and Ngo were alone, we now see an army of citizen journalists. Nick Shirley recently skyrocketed to fame by exposing the gargantuan fraud being committed by the Somali Muslims in Minneapolis. Which, admittedly, was not difficult because they were operating in the open (Quality Learing Center), with the backing of the Democrats. The Somalis were also scamming millions from the public through a Feeding Our Future program. His videos are eye-opening. And infuriating.
Trials of the involved criminals have resulted in convictions, including an attempt by Somalis to bribe a juror. No Democrat officials have been arrested, despite the evidence.
Gov. Tim Walz implied that the citizen journalist’s efforts at uncovering fraud was due to “white supremacy.” We can now understand why the Democrat elites chose Walz to run as Vice-President; next to Walz, Kamala Harris sounded intelligent.
Shirley’s mother came to her son’s defense, stating, “Tim Walz knew this was going on, and instead of doing anything about it, he calls people who are trying to call it out, like my son Nick Shirley, a white supremacist. They’re not saying, ‘Thank you for showing this. Thank you for showing what’s going on.’ Instead, we’re called white supremacists because we’re trying to save our country.”
Shirley then followed up the issue of fraud by going to California, where he revealed daycare and hospice fraud by foreigners to the tune of $170 million (one of these supposed hospices was in a car wash). Estimates of the fraud could reach into the billions. Again, this was out in the open; the Democrats aided and abetted it; that is why the fraud was so easy to find; there was no need to hide it, the fraudsters had Democrats’ protection.
It is interesting that local newspapers started reporting the fraud after Shirley, and they credited him. They should be asking themselves why didn’t they uncover the obvious fraud long ago? Or even now.
As with O’Keefe, Shirley has been attacked. Governor Newsom ridiculed him, portraying him as a pedophile, instead of praising him, not too surprising considering he is a Democrat who traveled and partied while the rest of the state was in lockdown during covid. “He’s literally working to support the fraudsters,” said Shirley of Newsom. “Meanwhile, he could be working to expose the fraud.” Democratic Sen. John Fetterman criticized Newsom for the tasteless post. There have also been death threats by leftists, not so farfetched when we see other citizen journalists being physically attacked by groups of Antifa, the totalitarian paramilitary branch of the Democratic Party.
At any rate, to date, 280 hospice licenses have been revoked. And J. D. Vance was appointed by Trump to lead the war on fraud. Hopefully, convictions will follow. And deportations.
Incidentally, it should become obvious that Somalis had to have had help to carry out these intricate, yet obvious, fraud.
More Citizen Journalists Are Stepping Up
The encouraging results from Shirley’s expose has helped to bring attention to other citizen journalists who are uncovering local sponsored fraud and other things that Democrats wished would stay hidden.
There is Malia Marks in Democrat-controlled Seattle, who has uncovered fraudulent day care centers by foreigners who are raking in taxpayer money. One investigator, going by the moniker Muckraker, found election fraud in New York. The people posting Libs of Tik Tok found a wild eyed school librarian calling for the assassination of Trump. Karlyn Borysenko discovered that many Antifa terrorists hold day jobs, including teaching where they indoctrinate students into becoming Communists.
Savanah Hernandez in New York City revealed a black market being carried out by immigrants, resulting in arrests. Nick Sortor found an Antifa safe house in Portland, a city run by Democrats. Angela Rose and an assistant decided to investigate a winery supposedly owned by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, perhaps one reason she has become a multimillionaire.
Tyler Oliveira investigated Hassidic Jews who are milking the welfare system in New York; some of them have been arrested for welfare fraud. Cam Higby was able to intercept and broadcast an anti-ICE group’s efforts to obstruct law enforcement. He was previously attacked by a leftist.
James Klug does no undercover work, to my knowledge, but just as effective he goes where leftists congregate and asks them questions, which makes their brains have convulsions.
Overseas
In the UK, citizen journalist Tommy Robinson has been covering the crimes of the Pakistani rapists that the Labour government is importing and protecting as well as other crimes. For his efforts, he has been censored and thrown in prison by the government (along with many political prisoners).
In Russia, citizen journalists are being stamped out by Putin’s dictatorship. One such citizen journalist, Pavel Talankin, had to emigrate to show what was happening in schools.
We Need More Citizen Journalists
See how effective citizens can be when they get involved instead of waiting for the government to “do something!”? In today’s zeitgeist, their work is vital.
READ MORE from Armando Simón:
The Nobel Peace Prize Hits Rock Bottom
Reminder: Voter Fraud Needs Our Attention
Armando Simón is the author of Very Peculiar Stories and When Evolution Stops.