[ExI] why do we still need mainstream news media?

[John Clark]

On Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 9:27 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:



> *> A 23 yr old amateur found what the mainstream news media would never
> talk about.*
>
> *Note this video was has 121 million views in four days:*
>
>
>
> *https://x.com/i/status/2004642794862961123*
> <https://x.com/i/status/2004642794862961123>
>

*This might be a good video or it might not be, I don't know because I have
not watched it and I will tell you why; it's 42 minutes long and before I
invested that much time in it I figured I should know something about Nick
Shirley, the guy that made it. I quickly learned that 4 years ago he made
the following video: *


* I Tricked TikTokers Into Auditioning For a Justin Bieber Music Video
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM_msgGxLo4>*

*Shirley commented "all of them thought it was so real I almost feel bad".
For the next 2 years he went  on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints in Chile, an organization that is pretty silly even by
religious standards. Then he returned to the US and became a hard-core MAGA
guy. *

*I also learned that Shirley had not discovered anything new that the
despised "mainstream news" hadn't already reported on. As far back as
January 2025 both ABC and CBS had already reported on fraud in Minnesota by
many of Somali descent, including one entitled “Luxury cars and private
villas: See how Minnesota fraudsters spent millions intended for hungry
kids”.*

*Mainstream news has a reputation for usually, but not always, being
correct, however Nick Shirley does not, so I figured I could find better
uses of 42 minutes than watching that video. *

*John K Clark*
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