I’m Writing a Book on Vice Media and Police Came to My Door.
What started as getting comment for an exposé on the “Billionaire” CEO of Vice Media led to their legal team contacting the police who then paid a visit to my home.
What led me to visit Vice Canada’s headquarters was a concern over the wellbeing of the employees (below); some of whom I consider my friends.
In my research I had peeked behind the mask of the Shane Smith. If the reports are true, behind the jolly big-man persona is a pernicious liar with a trail of emotional, intellectual and sexual abuse.
Vice was looking to hire me after making a parody of their HBO News series. I used to make documentaries for a living and intuitively I knew Vice wasn’t to be taken seriously. At best it’s a stepping stone to a better job, at worst you get pulled into the literal den of nefarious activities. It surprised me to know they were being taken seriously. Winning awards. It didn’t make sense.
Basically, Vice News is conflict-porn. Calling it ‘sensationalism’ would be a compliment. What I have fact-checked turned out to be poorly sourced, completely fabricated or wholly inaccurate. Vice has few rules and no code of ethics. Vice cannot love.
As with any good investigation you have to follow the money. What I found was a Potemkin Village. A gigantic disparity between what Vice says (more views on vice.com than YouTube) and what reverse-engineering share statistics indicates (way fewer views on vice.com than on YouTube). If my numbers are accurate; the only explanation for their valuation is control fraud. The man in control: Shane Smith.
Vice is created in the image of its creator: paranoid and litigious. Employees e-mails are spied on, those who leave are afraid to speak on the record. Shane says they are the “Time Warner of the streets” and it’s no surprise they have the same loyalty/fear structure of organized crime.
Note: Time Warner ended talks of investing but Murdoch bought in. Fox News of the streets?
I visited Vice Canada four times over two days. I knew what I was doing was weird. I texted a number of people asking for advice. I was about to poke a bear.
The first meeting was confusing and strange. I had information Vice Canada needed to know but Vice New York couldn’t know yet. Part of journalism is harm-minimization. Nobody with influence was willing to hear it. This makes for an incredibly confusing dynamic. The CEO’s bio is semi-fictional, the site statistics aren’t grounded in reality. Vice claims to report on “the absurdity of the modern condition” but I think Vice is projecting its absurd mentality on the world.
Vice legal team’s accusations of harassment came in the form of a trespassing warning in which they threatened criminal actions against me should I contact Vice Canada again. However, every other media outlet I’ve visited (CBC, TorStar, Walrus, NBC, NYTimes & Gawker) have welcomed me, thanked me, and told me I’ve done good research. One saying it was too good.
Throughout my interactions with Vice Canada, their legal team has gone with the least charitable interpretation of events possible. A friendly coffee is harassment, asking a question at reception is trespassing, doing so again causes them to fear for their safety.
Toronto’s 14th division called me in for questioning. They wanted to put a face to the name, make sure I wasn’t a bomb threat. Seriously? I just finished grad school, I’m training to be an expert witness. I’m a bomb threat in the same way your dog is likely to develop cold fusion. Jokes aside, I had watched enough Law and Order to know I should probably lawyer up.
I never called back, I never visited 14th division and I was feeling a little surreal when the officer came to my door the following morning. “You never called me back,” he said very plainly. What he would have seen standing outside my apartment door was a gigantic map of the world, a bookshelf, oriental rug, coffee table books and some laundry strewn about. Not the Ted Kazinsky Vice’s legal imps might have suggested.
My urge to tell the officer everything was almost unbearable. I told him I was writing a book about a media con-man. We ended up chatting about investigative journalism, FOI requests and he even asked about a band I had documented a couple years earlier. He was a longtime fan of Death From Above 1979 “ever since their first album”. I think the cop tried to gain hipster cred.
So — I’m to believe — an officer can type a name into his phone but an ~$800/hr lawyer can’t? This seems more like a perversion of the law in favor of a client. In Ontario, dishonesty is grounds for suspension. But unlike Vice, I’m a pretty forgiving guy — willing to accept an apology.
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. He doesn’t like bullies and has fished in a swamp to write about Vice.
He also co-authored a book about two-legged cats. What a weirdo.
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.
