Note to Readers: New Features Exclusively For Substack Subscribers

As we approach our one-year anniversary on this platform for truly free and independent journalism, we continue to expand the reach and impact of our work.

We are very excited to unveil several new features available exclusively to our Substack subscribers here, ones we believe will further expand the reach and impact of the journalism we do here. Many of these additions are designed to advance what has become one of my primary causes: fortifying the journalism platforms that are genuinely committed to guaranteeing free speech and free discourse and to liberate writers and other content creators from the repressive control of Big Tech monopolies and their partners in the Democratic Party. Other new features we are adopting are intended to expand the audience and thus the impact of the journalism we are producing here on Substack.

As many readers will recall, in August I announced that, along with former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and others, I would begin producing video reports for the free-speech platform Rumble — prompting a predictable and revealing hit piece on that platform from The Washington Post. Since then, we have been publishing highly produced, in-depth journalism reports called “System Update" which, after merely eight weeks on the platform, are finding an increasingly large audience. Two weeks ago, a discussion I had about the advance knowledge and role of the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies in 1/6, with former Trump White House speechwriter Darren Beattie, generated over one million views, while virtually every other original video report we have produced exceeds 150,000 views Those numbers grow with each new week we are on Rumble and find new viewers. There is no doubt that we are reaching all-new news consumers with this platform and this format for reporting (which, in turn, is bringing new readers to Substack as well).

Starting immediately, full transcripts of all of the video reports that we produce at Rumble will be available exclusively for Substack subscribers. Many subscribers here made clear when we announced our intent to produce video reports that they prefer to consume news content by reading rather than watching it, and so we are now producing written transcripts in response to that expressed preference. We have created a new section of the Substack, entitled “System Update,” that contains both the Rumble videos and the accompanying transcripts. We began with two prior video reports — one examining the new evidence proving that the media lied prior to the 2020 election by adopting the CIA tale that the Hunter Biden laptop was "Russian disinformation,” and another on how the cowardly “present” vote by Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on whether to provide an additional $1 billion in funding for Israel's Iron Dome reveals not only her hypocrisy but the emptiness of Squad politics in general.

Our most recent video, which we just published just last night, assembles the large body of conclusive data documenting how rapidly authoritarianism is growing in the Democratic Party and among their self-proclaimed followers. You can watch that new video or read the full transcript here. Going forward, we will have, for subscribers only, a full written transcript within twenty-four hours of publication of each new "System Update” video report we produce at Rumble, and will send out an email to our subscriber list whenever we publish a new video and transcript. As I explore this video medium further, I am finding that, for some topics, the ability to present evidence in video form often strengthens the reporting in ways that the written word alone cannot do (just as, conversely, some reporting is far more conducive to a written article than a video).

Beginning next week, we will also start offering audio versions of all articles published here at Substack. Particularly for longer articles — such as the very lengthy reporting I published this week on the serious constitutional and civil liberties abuses from Congress' Select 1/6 Committee — many people prefer to consume news reports by listening to them in audio form rather than reading them. Any subscribers to our Substack page here will be able to access audio versions of all articles within a day or two after their publication.

We are also close to launching our weekly Q-and-A session between myself and Substack subscribers, which will enable us to discuss reporting and commentary done here, explore other topics that merit greater coverage, and address questions and critiques about our reporting, along with anything else on your mind. I have always strongly believed in the interactive model of journalism — it is far better when journalists engage in dialogue rather than monologue with readers, as it ensures greater accountability and also provides a valuable resource for journalists — and we intend to finalize our plans for how we will do this within the next couple of weeks.

Finally, in the spirit of supporting and strengthening truly-independent journalism platforms that are devoted to guaranteeing free thought and discourse — which includes Substack and Rumble — I will be announcing shortly a new platform with which I will be working that will enable more informal discussions of the news cycle, including podcast interviews. This new platform is steadfastly devoted to these free speech values, and so I am happy to do what I can to help promote it and enable others to use it. Part of the programming on this new platform will also include a subscribers-only hour, once a week or so, for interaction and discussion, which will be freely accessible for all Substack subscribers.

The end of this month will mark one year since I left The Intercept and decided to do my journalism in a purely independent and free way (the first article I published on Substack, explaining my reasons for leaving The Intercept, was on October 29, 2020). Thanks to all of you, the impact of my work here has been far greater than anything I could have imagined when I began. In the last year, it is become indisputably clear that there is a pervasive hunger for truly independent journalism, captive to no faction or party, and that this hunger is growing rapidly.

That has enabled me to hire more research assistants, fact-checkers, copy editors, graphic and video journalists — without which articles like the one I published this week would have been impossible given how labor-intensive it was. We have also been able to grow our “Outside Voices” freelance program. I am very excited, as we approach our second year here, about expanding not only this platform but the impact, reach, and ability to be heard with the journalism we do here. This new model of complete independence and freedom is one to which I am more devoted than ever.

As always, you can help the work we do by subscribing or obtaining a gift subscription for someone else. I am always happy for the opportunity to express my gratitude to the subscribers here who have enabled this platform to thrive as it has: