Everyone is Laughing at VICE
How Vice could become a source of real news —even journalism — but probably won’t.
(Updated Dec 13, 2015)
For the uninitiated, Vice began as a druggie little newspaper and is now a fast growing ‘content company’. It was co-founded by three punk Canadians: Shane Smith, Suroosh Alvi and some other guy they don’t mention much.
In early February of this year, some friends and I spent a weekend lampooning Vice. The video’s release had interesting consequences. Today, The Onion launches a new series, EDGE. The message is clear: Vice is a formula.
Vice isn’t journalism. Don’t get me wrong. There are great journalists working for Vice. It’s just that Vice isn’t journalism.
My identity isn’t as a journalist. I’ve shot, cut and supervised documentaries — but I don’t call myself a journalist. In some cases, a funder didn’t like the finished product and bent the narrative to remove criticism. At this point, my work became a commercial — certainly not journalism.
Vice’s success banks on the viewer not knowing or caring about the difference between quasi-journalism and regular journalism. Shane Smith, the CEO and co-founder of Vice, has a news channel and yet struggles with a personal definition of news and journalism.
Shane Smith’s mostly sober quotes on Journalism
Shane’s views on news and journalism vary by circumstance. When challenged by an established journalist he admits: 1. A philosophical stance that objectivity is impossible 2. Personally, he can’t be objective 3. Is just a regular guy.
Unchallenged:
…I’ll go on for the next two hours about [journalism]…— Shane Smith at Tech Crunch (2014)
Unchallenged and hammered:
Fuck CNN up the ass, fuck all mainstream news, Fuck Fox news up the ass. But I’ll at least try, I’m not going to say ‘fuck CNN’ and not try to be better than them.— Shane Smith JRE599 (2015)
Sober and accepting an award at CUNY J School:
I think if you asked 500 people at Vice [what journalism means to them] you would get 500 different answers…you don’t need to go to journalism school — although it’s better if you do — but you have to feel passionate about these things and you have to want to fix things. — Shane Smith Night Awards (2014)
Journalism school’s secret weapon: a code of ethics.
A man got to have a code. — Omar Little
The following companies have a code of ethics (links to each): New York Times, Reuters, Washington Post, NPR, PBS Frontline, BBC, CBC Radio, ProPublica, Al Jazeera America, Associated Press, The Guardian,
“Seek Truth and Report It” — SPJ’s Code
These codes act as benchmarks; they draw the line between journalism and ‘content’, putting words on a page or images on a screen.
Now, I’m not saying Vice contributors are liars. However, factual inaccuracies — often brought about by constrained budgets and deadlines — are often dismissed, and this can be very misleading.
Vice and the following media outlets did not have a code that I could find: CNN, Fox News, News Corp, Forbes, NewYorker Magazine, The Economist*, Time Magazine, CBS …
(*See thoughtful response in the comments)
In the same way that a nation’s laws don’t guarantee perfect behavior, a code doesn’t guarantee good work. But having no accountability to anything has consequences:
“If Vice is a news source: you’re fucked” — Shane Smith Banff (May, 2013)
Vice News on HBO was launched five months later (December 2013)
No Code = News Sensationalism
Of course, there’s a bit of hypocrisy here; Medium doesn’t have a code of ethics — so everything I write should be read with some skepticism. However, I’ll link to original sources and make corrections wherever possible. Comments will be read, amendments will be made. I do not wish to spread misinformation.
Four months before The Onion launched EDGE, I played a hipster host in a Vice parody. The video received 40k views, a good response. It soon made the rounds at Vice and they got in touch.
In our video, Vice News is in a fictional 22nd season in which they’ve finally run out of new, shocking stories. We conflate facts and opinions, take interviews out of context and generally break every ethical standard in journalism. The tone is earnest and some commenters thought our parody was real. Their reactions are a testament to a professional-looking product’s power to mislead.
My collaborators and I aren’t the only ones who’ve poked fun at Vice. A Reddit user who asked to be called Samad commented on our video to voice his concerns with the Vice Guide to Karachi (2012), in which a Vice correspondent “hides from terrorists”. Samad and his friends, knowing these areas to be quite safe, documented a night of food tourism. A far cry from the exotic dangers developed by Vice.
Samad’s post: Decided to spend a day eating “foreign food” in Karachi (tons of yum pics) begins with “Most people associate Karachi [with] a giant mud hut riddled with bearded taliban”.
I asked him to elaborate on his motive:
…I’m a bit butt hurt by their depiction of pakistan, and not because i’m a patriot, far from it I assure you. It’s just that, being from pakistan is an identity attached to me, and vice has helped harm that further. Every little bit of something like this makes my life harder, when i travel [sic]…
Bonus. I remember watching the episode, and realizing that saroosh alvi claims to be from pakistan (or his parents), but his urdu skills are worse than donald trump’s spanish [sic]…
Vice employees: I love you all and would happily hang out (Toronto, Canada). Vice management: I’ve got a bone to pick.
End of Part 1.
NEXT — Part 2: Fact Checking Vice: A Fiction
Correction Sept. 12th 2015: The Aug. 3rd version introduced Vice as “the fastest growing ‘content company’”. It wasn’t. The author regrets not fact-checking Shane Smith.
Correction Nov. 30th 2015: I had originally stated that I respected Vice Media and would be open to a live or in-person debate on media ethics. That respect dwindled after police came to my home.
Correction Dec. 13th 2015: I have clarified my stance on being a journalist. I do journalism in the sense that I claim to seek truth and communicate with people in good faith — but I prefer to identify as a freethinker and writer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DANIEL VOSHART has shot over 100 films including an hour of music video, five hours of documentary and six hours of fiction. M.Arch graduate, VR Researcher and Gonzo-daredevil-blogger.
ABOUT NOT VICE
not vice is a Medium publication. The fruit of the labour for a crowdfunded book— The Unofficial Guide to Vice Media. Everything in the book will be released on this site.
Note on bias: — In 2011, I filmed the re-grouping of Death From Above 1979, a dance-punk band that was signed with Vice Records. — In 2012, Vice producers put out their feelers for a quote on a 5 day project. I responded with a standard corporate video rate but nothing came of it. — I’ve never owned a Vice Mag.
