MeidasTouch Letter to Reporters After COLBERT COUP MeidasTouch Network and Ben Meiselas Jul 19 By Ben Meiselas To all reporters with dignity and fearlessness: The latest actions by CBS should show you once and for all that corporate news in America is no different than regime media in Russia or North Korea. In fact, the first thing Putin did when he consolidated power was to go after the comedians who made jokes about him. When I recently interviewed legendary musician Ben Folds, he made a great point: that authoritarians like Trump claim they don’t care about the arts, yet the first thing they always do is dismantle it. This is a major moment for you. It won’t be easy for you to leave corporate news. But you must leave. You can no longer delude yourself with thoughts that you can avoid being complicit in aiding and abetting authoritarianism and that you can do it your way. You can’t. You are being used to prop up a dictatorship in America that is using concentration camps, disappearing people, and starving millions of people abroad to death by incinerating emergency food aid. The moment you get slightly out of line, you will be fired and your dignity will be stripped. You will wake up and not know what hit you. So you must leave now. You must take control of the situation. I know it may seem scary. It may seem financially perilous. I get it. Trust me. Our networks started from nothing. But when you speak the truth and speak with passion and focus on bringing people together, anything is possible. I want all you reporters to know that the MeidasTouch Network is growing. Even if we ultimately can’t hire you and bring you on board, we love to promote the work of other people’s Substacks. I’ve dedicated hundreds of hours to promote the Substacks and work of like-minded reporters. Independent media is the way of the future. You must make the move now and trust yourself and your moral compass. If they can get rid of Stephen Colbert, literally one of the most successful hosts in TV history, anyone and everyone is expendable in service of the fascist regime. Build with us. Work with us. Let’s change the media landscape together as MeidasTouch is doing now. Let’s look back at these difficult days when people said what we are doing is impossible, but know that we persevered because we never gave up and never gave in. I know you have a lot to think about now after this letter. I promise you can do it. And you should know we have the Meidas Mighty here fighting. That’s our community at the MeidasTouch Network. Heck, they built this network. They power this network day in and day out by subscribing. They are my boss, my friends, my family, my motivation, my heroes. I work for them. That’s what it means to be the biggest independent media network in America and the world with more views than any news network. You are run by your community, not right-wing oligarchs. And those who are not subscribed to this Substack yet, please join today. We need you in the fight. We’ve got some great momentum. I want us to be able to attract all the top talent out there and expand the way we have been. We need your help for that by subscribing, of course, and we will keep delivering results. We will keep meeting the moment day in and day out—fighting for our freedoms back. Fighting for our country and for a better world. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.