Transcription
Um, and I also think, you know, I think to Zach's point, no, I don't think Jenk is a good businessman. I think he is both a boss in a lot of ways and a bad businessman and he wants to be over and across everything, constantly talking. Um, and and to be fair, I mean, it's probably better than him trying to run for office again. Yeah. What a what a humiliation.
The Vanguard will be there. Oh, 100%. And to kind of branch out on that, one of the things he tried to use you as an example of was how good of a boss he was, of how good an employer was. I remember you criticized him a little bit and he went on this imp. Don't you ever imply that people who worked at TYT aren't happy with him. We have tons of uh very enthusiastic people and they love TYT. We did a video about oh, you know, so and so's desk has comic book stuff cuz they like comic books. We care here.
And a question I had prepped for you was is Jenk likes to advertise that, you know, you shouldn't criticize the Young Turks because they are employers of 75 hardworking people. And I wondered how many of those people he's considering outwardly are his employees when he's paying them like a contractor. In your experience, were there 75 employees at the Young Turks plus contractors? Is it really that large of a staff? I don't think it's I I I would imagine it's something Yeah, between 50 and 70 full-time. That makes sense to me. Um there's people in Philly. There are people working on Rebel HQ, but I would also imagine I don't think those are It's a good question.
I you know, and this is the other thing about TYT. Obviously, I'm I don't I'm not like an actual I'm not like a whistleblower or anything. I don't know. I don't know enough about um you know how the company is run because I've simply been a contractor and increasingly would not go into studio. Uh I don't want to you know fight LA traffic at 3 p.m. on a Friday. But um I do know that is it is an incredibly opaque organization. So nobody knows um how the other side of the company is being run. Nobody has any privy is privy to anything. I mean, and that's sort of how Jenk likes it. And um I think that's probably what Anna had problems with, but just, you know, without naming names, I know that others also have problems with that. It's like, I don't know, it's whatever they tell me. Sure, why not? Um and so I I also think there's I know when I was hired, when I started getting paid for my appearances, um I was told by the head of programming, don't tell anybody that you're getting paid.
Um, see, that's shady, right? That's bad boss behavior. That's like that that's totally on the side of the corporation. And this might be news to you, but one of the not like news to you, but just like it's something we followed for a long time as far as the financing of TYT. And I don't know how much of this was ever something that came across your plate. But in 2017, obviously, they took the financing round from 3L Capital, which was led by Jeffrey Kzenberg, and they got $20 million, right? Jeffrey Katzenberg, big antihomeless advocate in Los Angeles, right? A guy that spends a lot of time with the Gavin Newsome approach to homelessness. There was another gentleman, Joseph Sandberg, contributed millions of dollars and is still listed on the Young Church website. That guy was recently arrested for fraud, but the Young Church did no coverage of it. He's also deeply involved in the Gavin Newsome style anti-homeless clean up the streets of Los Angeles kind of coverage. In October of 2022, Jenuger obviously publicly endorsed billionaire real estate tycoon Rick Caruso over Karen Bass. And in May of 2024, they renamed the People Studio, which had been fundraised with $400,000 in small dollar donations to take an unannounced, unclarified, you know, non-public sum from Poly Market Studios. Um, and that's owned by Peter Teal and is obviously illegal to use in America.
I'm wondering if you think because Jake has the pressure on him from all of these outside financeers that that might have something to do with the tonal change that we've seen in TYT over the last decade. I mean, yeah, that is also a massive question and I really don't want to speak like out of pocket about any of that because I honestly don't know. I just know how it's come down on people. Um, and I I do I do think that the change in coverage, change in tone from someone like Anna, um, has definitely impacted the number of people who want who have joined up who who support it. I mean, it's not anecdotal when you see a, oh, I canceled my TYT subscription. No, no, no. It's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people saying they canceled their TYT description. And I was kind of running cover for them. I mean, you know, a little bit, especially with friends, you know, who are like, uh, you know, this is terrible. Especi stuff stuff with Anna. I wasn't running cover for her, but it was like I definitely bristle at the at least I very much did because I felt a part of it at the lumping of all TYT together. TYT is transphobes, TYT is this or that. And it's like no there are good people but like the main mouthpieces are just kind of caricatures of the internet and have lost their minds slowly. So like you know that that I always you know was wanting to push back on.
In terms of the money it's it is a good question. Again I think what matters is just like how people have felt about it. I mean I do know that they made a massive hiring push you know when they got that infusion of money. Um but at the same time, you know, canceled a bunch of shows that were in in existence already. That may or may not have been the right move. They focus less on pop culture and more on politics. I don't know. Right.
Um around 2018, as I talked about, I was hired for like a six-month basis, which was funny because then tracking that 2018 like um spring early summer, they did mass layoffs. So, it was seemed it seems like now maybe my hiring was a like, nah, we got a gap here because we fired a bunch of people. Um, I worked there for two weeks and they were like, "Uh, just kidding. No, sorry. We're not doing it. We're we're pivoting. We're pivoting and we can't honor your contract." I had a six-month contract. Two weeks into it, they canled it. And again, my reps were like, "You got to sue. Like, this is really bad." And I was like, "I don't want to. It's 2018. It's the height of the Bernie movement. Like, I I like them. I'm moving to Los Angeles for other reasons, you know, like I'd like to keep a good relationship. I know I have a strongly worded email to Steo and to Jenk like this is insanely unprofessional. What are you guys doing? Um, so that's how it, you know, I think that's how the mismanagement affected me.
Um, but who that's a horrible thing to do to somebody just for people who are outside of the business. Like that sucks. Like that's really really bad. and and and you know potentially you could have been in a worse situation where you do decide to move to Los Angeles, uproot yourselves and then you know so for a company that touts itself as progressive for a company that touts itself as somebody who's going to you know really treat people well uh that's just honor your contracts is pretty simple but yeah I I think the money is a big TBD and I don't think I don't think it matters like I I mean it it like saying poly market is absolutely it's right there it's in your face like what are you what are you going to do and like they really don't have a good line. I think that they should just embrace it. Be like, "Yeah, you know what? Honestly, we're doing this to keep the lights on D and hey, you could help us by joining up. And if the people aren't joining, then maybe they don't like what they're seeing."
And so, what's interesting is I'm also a more costly contributor to them. Uh I think my rate is higher than most people, right? And so it's economically beneficial to also let me go as well. They were never going to. Again, they could have tacitly just never had me on the main show. I go on John's show once a week. That's fine. They financially could handle that. But it feels like almost implicitly it's like Anna, let's be real, Anna's and then increasingly Jen's like terrible coverage. like you could draw maybe not a direct but an indirect line into like the letting go of someone like me and be like sorry times are tight you know you know and again I am not here to say they should have kept me on um I did to my patrons say that he acted like a [ __ ] on Jillian Michael's show and he has acted like a [ __ ] um he has every right to not want to ask me back again the firing language is a little bit insane because I'm like I've never been an employee But okay.
Um and then obviously the like banning of other shows. I've got a great relationship with John or at least I thought I did. And I had a great relationship, you know, with um with Doc Dr. Richie. Um you know, so while we're talking about she was like 19 20 some odd years old when she starts sitting next to Jen on the TYT. And when you look at it and you go to their old videos, right? Like their most watched videos in the history of the Young Turks. It's like this is how chicken nuggets are made. Like this woman's face was destroyed after she was baldled by a chimpanzeee. There's a video that got like 10 million views of Jen and Anna watching two Asian women make out and they're like make out porn and it's like very 2006. Like I went back and watched all of this stuff and to me it just seems like that's what they deep down want to be making. But they saw a lane for themselves and it was progressive media and like people are always like Zack and Gavin why do you cover this? It's cuz when you when we log off this is what the [ __ ] Gavin and I talk about. We will go downstairs. My girlfriend is a real reporter. We'll talk about the news. We will talk about what the [ __ ] is happening in the world and then we will [ __ ] about the coverage that it got or the lack of coverage that it got. That's what we're obsessed with. That's what we're thinking about all the time, right? What I think they're thinking about all the time is not the progressive mission. You know what I mean? And I feel like the only way you could do a daily news show like that is if it's an obsession of yours, if it consumes you, you know what I mean? And clearly doesn't.
Well, exactly. And something has to ground you, right? Like something has to like be your main motivator for why you want to do this. And for me, it's like the broader project of like to for lack of sounding corny, collective liberation. I mean truly fighting these fascists and getting rid of them and winning, winning, winning, winning. I don't want to meet them halfway. I don't give a [ __ ] I'm going to beat them. I'm going to beat the propagandists. That's what I want to do. If they don't haul me away and take down everything I have, you know what I mean? Which could very well happen. So, that's the other question. I I Not on our watch. I mean, well, okay. We'll we'll we'll uh we'll we'll create some sort of underground situation. I mean, I do think the only angle I can think for like why they might be doing this is maybe it'll a little bit save their asses. You know, there's a big target on a big network's back that maybe speaks out about Palestine or whatnot. So, it's like, hey, get in good with the administration. Who knows? I that could be an angle.
But in terms of what I hope the future or what I would have hoped the future would be, you know, Mandel Robinson said something on my show. He said this that seems so pie in the sky. But I really think it is it it would be wonderful, you know, to free Jen and Anna of TYT and to take over the channel because it does have a massive massive sub subscriber base and yeah, people tune in for, you know, some standard news. They want that news. They definitely want it from like a perspective. Um, which is why I think some of the ways that Anna handles uh issues like the LA wildfires is um wildly unprofessional, skewed, biased, and lazy. Um, but I think that I I wish right like I wish it could just be into different hands. And I say that without like and it'll be my hands. No, no. I just wish that like and and it's what they call founders disease, right? It's like people who found a company or an organization stay there and stay there and stay there.
Um, and I also think, you know, I think to Zach's point, no, I don't think Jen is a good businessman. I think he is both a shitty boss in a lot of ways and a bad businessman, and he wants to be over and across everything, constantly talking. Um, and and to be fair, I mean, it's probably better than him trying to run for office again. Yeah. What a what a humiliation that was. And that's what's also funny is when Jinx like, you know, like you want to criticize me, but what have you built? What have you built? It's like, bro, what the [ __ ] have you built? You've miserably failed in every single one of these ventures. Even regardless of business, he's not a good activist either. None of his quote unquote activist packs, ventures, whatever you want to call, none of them have succeeded. None of them have gone anywhere. They've all just sucked up money from, you know, good faith progressive viewers and thrown it in the trash essentially.
But either way, and I think that's the other thing is, sorry, last last if you guys like the it's like the other thing is the world has changed and the media landscape has changed. I mean, you know, TYT is basically like starter pack politics when you discover what YouTube is. You know what I'm saying? Like that's it's like the free game that comes along with your iPhone. Like that's how entrenched TYT is um with all of this. like um and so but since then you've had so many you know news shows blow up right Kyle's show the majority report all people they hate you know like um although Jinx says he likes Kyle even though Kyle has definitely critiqued them um you know and it's on our show no less yeah and yeah and there's also like more alternative media right you know it is like you know whether whether I mean the intercept has changed, but you like the Intercept or like now the plethora the um what is it the American Prospect? There's a lot of Yeah. Also like you know Substack like there's just so many more media outlets so it's much more competitive so it's hard for them right and again I do think that I mean I do think that for example Anna is not happy and I think she needs a lot more money to be happy because I think ultimately she wants to just be interior decorating like I kind of have that on good faith that like she said that like 10 years ago or like maybe like seven or eight years ago she is with the stuff she's like this is just misery I can't deal with it it's bad for for my mental health. I'd rather just be an interior designer and stuff like you can do that. Like you're in a much better position than most people are in life to just kind of manifest your real or your desired reality into existence. Like just [ __ ] do it. Why are you letting anyone tell you no?
That's kind of how I feel with John Iola too where it's like I understand that the the Damage Report brand and that channel, you've built it up. You have all these subscribers and stuff, but like you said, he could he doesn't need Jen and Anna. He doesn't owe all of his success and all of his talent to them. No, he could do just as well on his own, if not better, you know, if he kind of disconnected his reputation from theirs at this point in my opinion. But yeah, you know, everyone's got to do.
The last thing last I I keep on saying that because I we feel like there's not enough time, but there is. Um, we have all the time in the world. No, I have my show at 1:00. Everybody should tune in. But it's like, you know, nobody wants to see this happen to a a big so-called progressive media network, least of all me. That's sort of why I'm like Manddale Robinson is right. You know, it it would be great if you know the infrastructure um could continue, right? And maybe maybe there isn't money. Maybe you got to scale it back. Who knows? Maybe it's good if John would go on his own because they don't have the money to upkeep him, you know? I mean, it's a very small team that puts that show together. But you know what I'm saying? Like but I feel like there's a lot of people who are like, "Well, the left always hates each other and you know, you always want to see everything be torn down." No, man. We didn't start this fight. You know, we didn't we don't want to see like these hosts didn't we didn't leave them. They left us, man. They left their own audience. They really did. They did it a service to their own audience. They've been online too long. Their brains are too broken by the internet. They have been, you know, uh uh and and I think also that is fundamental to how they approach stories is very internet clickba based.
Jenk is a contrarian by nature, right? And when you are in a progressive movement, when you believe in, you know, bending that arc of justice, uh, as MLK Jr. said, when you believe in really like changing this country, you have to be a collectivist. You have to work with other people. Like, and I don't mean I truly don't mean that, right? Because there are way more of us. Obviously the problem the the mandate Jenk Jen basically buys into the mandate thing. Oh, they want they want the popular vote. 49% buddy. You know what I'm saying? Like 33% of registered voters 30 blown out in congressional districts now in red districts. Like whatever mandate they had is literally already disappearing as the backlash sets in. Absolutely. So it's like to keep on, you know, like you you've there's no more ground underneath. You're just skittering in air right now. There's nothing to back that up. And really what we lost to was people staying home because rightly as they're you know I do think they are right in saying the Democratic party sucks but you always have to be like really really cautious when people and you know this with door focus too much on how bad corporate democrats are without being like okay but authoritarian fascists perfect example Christine is in is said don't come to our country right reminded me of Kla Harris saying don't come to to our country. I hated both of those phrases. Difference is Christine straight up standing in front of prisoners with their heads shaved like innocent Venezuelans behind her told to shut up and you know you know look sad for the camera. Foreign country in a foreign [ __ ] country. Like that's the difference. Yeah.
Uh anyway um I I love y'all. When you guys rant it gives me life. Um, I appreciate you covering all of this. I think, you know, someone's got to do the hate watching. And you know what? I appreciate you shouting me out even though I haven't come on until this point.
[Music]
Look out the door. If you hear an ambulance, the vanguard will be there, [Applause] sir. The vang vanguard will be there, sir. The vanguard will will will be there, sir. The Vanguard. The Vanguard will be there. The Vanguard will be there. Be there.