From ‘Florida Man’ Profiles to the Home Box Office
Read till the end for some sound advice for 2023
Hey. I really admire how clean your glass shower door is. Seriously, there isn’t even a speck of calcium buildup on that thing. Do you squeegee after every use?
Welcome!
Thanks for clicking to read my inaugural newsletter. I’m not entirely sure what you can expect from me on a weekly or biweekly basis, but it is my resolution to write one of these at least twice a month. Please ignore any spelling or grammar errors — an editor is not in the budget atm.
Journatainment?
Journalism that also entertains is not new, but I think it is a welcomed concept in 2023 that more people should seek out. Seek out to escape the incessant dismal top-of-feed headlines purely meant to inform, the opining editorials intended to establish or perpetuate an argument, or the ceaseless IV drip of ‘junk food’ content delivered to us via social media. My go-to's for this type of content is typically highly produced radio and podcasts like Reply All, This American Life, Gastropod, and Nocturne, but more recently, to get my video fix, I’ve turned to the usually irreverent YouTube channel ‘Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan.’
Their brand is unique. They are entirely independent and funded solely by Google Adsense, coordinated merchandise drops, Patreon subscriptions, and a persistent sponsorship from the peer-to-peer money-sending platform Cash App. Their content is antithetical to what the algorithm promotes, and their production value is janky, although seemingly intentional, with their entire vibe being a sort of satirical take on the traditional local news channel. Complete with their own big blue graphics adorned news van with a non-functioning satellite transmitter affixed to the top and a now defunct oversized thrifted suit that Callaghan would run around in interviewing people while filming with a compositional style resembling conventional field correspondences — the parody runs deep.
Despite the style of their content resembling the iconography of establishment news, the content itself couldn’t be any different. Callaghan and his crew have made a name for themselves travelling across North America (and beyond), documenting the underbelly of America. They attend both un-newsworthy and newsworthy events and interview subjects in a style that lets them talk and Interact with each other without much prompt. They pull a page from the shock jock Howard Stern’s book by building a cast of characters to draw on for future videos and merchandise, and Sacha Baron Cohen’s style of embracing the absurdity around him by leaning in and playing along with the whacky things that are said. The results are often bizarre and sometimes grotesque. These guys have reported on and participated in some of the most ridiculous events across North America — like a pickup artist boot camp in Vegas and Daytona Bike Week. More recently, they attended Hemingway days, where they interviewed several competitors in Florida's annual Ernest Hemingway look-alike competition. Their most recent video, ‘Toronto Man,' reaches new heights where in a trailer promoting the video, a subject describes in great detail how men pay for her to poo on them.
Though some might consider their style unserious or irreverent, they use it to their advantage to undermine the division, fear, and disdain that many come to believe the traditional 24-hour news cycle and its participants perpetuate. Though they pull some inspiration from comedians, they also are drawing inspiration from other gonzo journalists before them, such as Hunter S. Thompson. Some of the videos they’ve put out have proved just how serious of journalists these guys actually are. Channel 5 is often boots-on-the-ground for any and all important news events. For example, Channel 5 thrust themselves into the pandemonium of 2020 by carefully and respectfully covering the protests surrounding the murder of George Floyd. They were also on the front lines of the January 2021 Capitol riots, in attendance reporting on several of the freedom convoy protests, and even crossed into a war zone to report on the ongoing war in Ukraine while other journalists chose to report from afar.
Channel 5 is simultaneously giving a big middle finger to establishment broadcast media by making a mockery of it and spearheading the future of independent journalism. This week the trailblazing gonzo journalist Callaghan premieres his first feature-length HBO documentary, ‘This Place Rules,' about the deepening political polarity of the USA. This documentary marks the first time Callaghan and his crew are breaking into the mainstream, jumping from YouTube content creators to professional HBO documentarians, finally lending a little bit of institutional legitimacy to their style.
I haven’t seen the documentary yet, but the mere existence of the documentary is a huge win for independent journalism. Hopefully, it sets a precedent for the industry's future — independently owned and operated with larger institutional partnerships. In my books, anything antithetical to the media conglomerates' concentration of ownership is progress. I’ve come to love the coverage from other independent video journalists, Johnny Harris and Cleo Abram, investigative journalists like CoffeeZilla, and internet reporter and newsletter writer Ryan Broderick of Garbage Day. So here is hoping there are some mainstream opportunities for more of the independent journalists too.
A lot of the time Channel 5’s content borders on the absurd, and it appears to be working out for them. It must keep subscriptions flowing in and its merchandise selling because it all seems to sell out hours after dropping. They have struck a delicate balance, and I hope the release of this doc means more serious and legitimate content to come and more of the same ‘journatainment’ I’ve come to love from these guys.
Things I Hope we Leave in 2022
Mobile Game Advertisements on Instagram That Don’t Feature Actual Gameplay
I cannot begin to describe how annoying it is to scroll past these ads on IG. They’re all crafted in the same way where it looks like it's a mindless game to twiddle around with your thumb to mow down some kind of hoarding enemy with an array of ascending powerful weapons. The video always illustrates satisfying after satisfying game decisions that you agree with right before the video shows the dumbest, most obviously wrong decision that could have been made. It is nearly aggravating you enough to download it and finish the job yourself but often times the mini clip featured has nothing to do with the game being advertised.
NFTs
Seriously, how many slurp juices will it take to make these things disappear forever? I haven’t heard much about these since April or May when they fell off the news cycle, but I have seen them mentioned on social media a few times, and I’d be much happier if I didn’t. I still think some exciting things could happen around copyright and digital ownership for artists, content creators, and unlikely viral stars. However, at the end of the day, it’s still just a bunch of shysters selling expensive JPEGs.
Twitter
This needs no further explanation other than I am tired of reading about Elon Musk and hate the cesspool that my feed has become. Why is it that every movie I like that is objectively a good movie gets shit on by Film Twitter anyway?
Deepfakes for Fun
Deepfake Tom Cruise needs to take a step back and realize what the technology he is promoting can do in nefarious hands. Grandma can’t tell the difference between legitimate Amazon copy and what some phisher across the world has drummed up with their rudimentary English language skills, so what’s going to happen when fake Bezos tells Grandma to pony up her credit card details?
Online Public Shaming
I’m done piling on to the disproportionate shaming happening because some poor sap was caught out of context at a low point or in a misunderstanding. Jon Ronson makes an excellent case for empathizing with the folks that have been publicly shamed in his book ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed.’
You’re Still Here? It’s Over — Go Home. Take These Links To Go.
Some sound advice: You should stop watching trailers in 2023