Who is Nick Shirley, the 23-year-old MAGA journalist whose Minnesota fraud story went viral?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

One week ago, 23-year-old Nick Shirley was relatively unknown in the public sphere. But in recent days, he has gained hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of views, amplified by Elon Musk, Vice President JD Vance and FBI Director Kash Patel.

The MAGA leaders promoted Shirley’s video of himself and a Minnesota activist investigating federally funded facilities in the state that allegedly posed as daycares without any children present. It’s part of what many on the right say is widespread government assistance fraud perpetuated by the Somali community there.

Shirley’s experience could only happen in today’s media and political environment – where seemingly anyone can go viral, helped along by social media gatekeepers like Musk. His Minnesota investigation video has garnered over 116 million views on X and 1.6 million views on YouTube - a number that most traditional newsrooms would trumpet as a major success.

Shirley and others like him present themselves as the future of journalism. They often claim the lack of traditional editing, fact checks and guardrails makes them more trustworthy. Meanwhile, the audience for mainstream media has been falling for years, and public trust in traditional journalists is at historic lows, amplified by political figures who make denigrating journalists part of their brand.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/nick-shirley-23-old-maga-050158833.html

Another MAGA incel?

[Tommy Carcetti]

1. Watch him get absolutely demolished here on his "reporting" in Ukraine.

Link to tweet

This guy is a fucking amateur, and I don't mean that in good way.

[UpInArms]

2. Social media has played a significant role in the destruction of news reporting

When fakebook posts and twitler shit goes viral and people stop reading newspapers for information and advertisers leave for clicks on the inner tubes …

There is no way for a legitimate news organization to be financially independent and stable

[LuvLoogie]

4. The underlying problem is that the mainstream viewer

is considered a consumer. This is not a new phenomenon brought on by social media. These same issues were raised in the movies Network and Broadcast News decades ago.

Social media is not new. It is electronic and fast and Dems have been caught flat-footed. And the reason guys like this "reporter" gained so much traction is because the nation has been softened up to accept outright racism as a political tool.

The traditional media has played the largest role in this current plague through its both-siderism and the normalizing of trumpism,which is an exploitation of the white supremacy at the core of U. S. politics since it inception.

You lament the Facebooks and the TikToks as driving this deterioration, but America has long been on this path. There is plenty of good information to be had, but people don't seek it out, and too many are choosing to believe and promote lies because they are heavily invested acquiring the advertised product of the American Dream, and fuck you if you aren't white enough or Christian enough, or patriotic enough.

Don't blame social media, blame American consumerism. Everything is commoditized. And coddled bigotries is the main drug of choice.

[senseandsensibility]

3. CNN did a puff piece on him

praising his "reporting" as authentic and what people were looking for. I think they sense another Charlie Kirk they can build up before the midterms.

[obamanut2012]

6. Bye

[obamanut2012]

8. Go to hell, fascist, and fucking cone on.mirt

[NickB79]

11. The state investigated all the facilities today and yesterday

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/investigations/fraud/state-commissioner-responds-to-viral-youtuber-video-about-somali-daycare-fraud-in-minneapolis/89-584197c2-d750-4261-a2d1-cf4c9a88a2fb

Commissioner Brown says inspectors went out Monday to double-check that children, in fact, are present at the daycares highlighted in Shirley's video. The federal Department of Homeland Security was also checking those businesses in Minneapolis.

She says a state inspector visited each of the daycares featured in Shirley's video within the last six months and that there were children present.

[Skittles]

12. you could be talking about Trump.2

fucking TRAITORS

[Johonny]

13. Facilities should sue him and everyone that carried the story

Suing the fuck out of these people is the solution.

[kwolf68]

15. I'll play

SHOW ME your data.

I want evidence. If Minnesota is stealing billions, then I am against that.

[Emile]

17. Damn LG, back again.