Follow-up from Hedges:

*****

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/thank-you-for-your-support-following

[...]

The principal funder of The Real News, T.M. Scruggs, once demanded Bob Scheer delete from Scheerpost a column I wrote defending the writer Alice Walker from charges of antisemitism. When Bob refused, Scruggs said he would no longer support Scheerpost, of which he was a major donor. His animus towards me, also apparently driven by my critiques of the Democratic Party and support for third party candidates, did not go away once RT, where I hosted a show, was shut down, my six years of archives were disappeared from YouTube, and I arranged to move to The Real News.

Although Max Alvarez at The Real News insists that the reason for canceling the show was that it jeopardized his nonprofit status, I find it hard to believe that Scruggs’ hostility towards me did not play a significant factor in his decision. Scruggs, according to Alvarez, has made it clear that if The Real News does anything, in his eyes, that contributes to the election of Donald Trump, he will pull the funding. This is an inverted way of saying, support Joe Biden and the Democrats. That such a stance is anathema to journalism is obvious.

I did not endorse Dennis Kucinich in the last show I did on The Real News, but he is running for Congress in Ohio as an independent, and is critical of the two ruling parties. I did not violate guidelines for nonprofits. Nevertheless, the episode with Kucinich was removed from the site, and immediately afterwards my program was terminated.

The model of wealthy people and corporations owning and funding news organizations does not work. The wealthy patrons who own sites such as Salon or Truthdig, or control sites such as The Real News, or the corporations that own news outlets such as CNN and MSNBC, too often interfere in ways that cripple honest inquiry and reporting.

As A.J. Liebling said, “Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.”

*****

Max Blumenthal comments:

'After the highly suspect ouster of The Real News founder and longtime director Paul Jay, Chris Hedges' departure will deliver the nail in the coffin to a once-trailblazing alt-media organization. T.M. Scruggs, the lone sugardaddy of The Real News, has driven this outlet into the ground with his erratic personality and reflexively imperialist views.
The Real News will now follow hollowed-out or defunct online "progressive" outlets like AlterNet, Salon, Truthdig and many others into oblivion. These organizations rose to prominence during the GW Bush/post-9/11 era, marketing themselves as antiwar alternatives to the establishment, then gradually collapsed under the weight of liberal foundation donors, Obama worship, then Trump-era Russiagate hysteria, while their staff became infested with dysfunctional conformists driven by The Current Thing.
I have known Hedges for about two decades, and learned a lot from him throughout that time. I'm excited for his next act as a truly independent journalist.' - https://nitter.poast.org/MaxBlumenthal/status/1786277854155530640#m

jeers,
I