Shane Smith: ‘Billionaire’ and ‘Regular Guy’
A guide to Vice Media’s confidence man.
(Updated March 8th)
Shane Smith says Vice is a trusted brand but he also describes it as a cult. Part three investigates: what do we know about the CEO’s history and what does it mean for employees at Vice?
Reader note: For a complete journey down the rabbit hole start at Part 1.
Searching ‘Shane Smith Vice’ brings you to a BIO on Vice.com where the first link is a glowing corporate portrait titled How Shane Smith Built Vice Into a $2.5 Billion Empire (AdWeek 2014). The second link leads to a Q&A from the New York Times, titled Vice’s Shane Smith: ‘Have We Unleashed a Monster?’. Is the article positive? That depends if you agree with Shane and think the rules of journalism are “stupid”.
Crash course: Journalism is a self-regulated profession, and the common-thread rule is simple: Report truthfully.
So why does Shane think honesty stupid? Why does he call himself a Journalist?
Dig a little deeper and his words start to defy gravity. Instead they adhere to the laws of anti-gravity, the distortions of a brilliant salesman who has mastered the dark art of political doublespeak. Wired Magazine described his affect as the “unflappable confidence of a natural huckster”. Johnny Knoxville put it a little more bluntly at a private, $1500 per ticket roast:
“Shane Smith is to Journalism what Jared from Subway is to Free the Children” — Johnny Knoxville
Rags to Riches
Shane says he had a tough childhood, he grew up poor, dirt poor. He’s said that he fought every kid in the schoolyard and was always at war. He left home at 13 — convinced, by his father, that the world isn’t fair but brutal. By 14, he worked at a bar and sold cocaine. At some point later on, he became a robber. Shane was always worried about dying because, by age 18, most the dozen members of his quasi-gang had died.
Still, he received a BA in History, English and Political Science and Masters in Political Economy both with honors. He’s said that after graduation he once again resorted to being a criminal where he fine-tuned the business acumen he’d learned as a drug dealer; in his early twenties he traveled Europe, buying and selling money illegally (self labeled “arbitrage”). While in Bosnia, he managed to do some reporting for Reuters, one of the most trustworthy sources of news. In founding Vice he did a lot of coke and was fueled by spite. While intoxicated on his ninth appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast Shane Smith declared his billionaire status. At Vice he votes 95% of the board and is the largest single shareholder.
Rags to Riches?
When asked about the Shane mythology, Gavin McInnes, co-founder of Vice and friend since age 12, tells a different story. According to McInnes, Shane lied about selling coke and being in a gang. While Shane told Charlie Rose, Spike Jonze, The Guardian and Joe Rogan that he left home at age 13, McInnes informed me that Smith simply went from living with his mother to living with his father.
Now, trusting Gavin wholesale might be a one-way ticket over the coo-coo’s nest but, just as his bio indicates, he is more than just a rude lunatic who keeps getting beat up. I fact-checked the gang affiliation by comparing it to the historical crime data and it leads me to side with the lunatic. For Shane to have known a dozen dead gang members in Canada’s capital, he would have had to associate with every gang member that died over the course several years. I also can’t find anyone who can verify Shane’s story— people fall silent.
What fictional home did he run away from? His last name makes for a challenging family tree but his brother is a “Senior Consultant specializing in Virtualization with Top Secret Security Clearance”, his father was a lead programmer and his mother worked in legal. Upper-middle class Canadians from a sleepy government town.
‘Bullshitter Shane’ on ‘Making Shit Up For Content’
In the 2002 book Vice Guide to Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll (2002) Shane described how when Vice needed a story he would “just make something up.” Take a story he heard and inject himself first-person.
Engineering an Ego
People love to write about Vice but few people do their homework. Gavin McInnes, ‘Inventor of Hipsters’, and 13-year public face of Vice, explained in his book that Shane wasn’t there for the beginning. Shane was hired a year after he and Suroosh began the company. “[Shane] was a great salesman, and he did it beautifully until taking over the magazine’s editorial content…”
“I always sensed Shane resented my being the star of the show and wanted to be there himself one day.” — Gavin McInnes in How to Piss in Public
Why would Shane treat his past like a choose-you-own-adventure book? I think it’s for sympathy and attention. Someone in pursuit of money is only interesting if they’ve escaped the helplessness of true poverty. These fictions might be in response to the textured past of McInnes and fellow co-founder Suroosh Alvi. McInnes fought skinheads, and Suroosh kicked a nasty drug addiction.
Today, Suroosh is the sober one. The quieter, stylish, “golden-goose ear” and “super nice boss” of Vice. “Employees who have issues with alcohol or drugs are sometimes helped personally by Suroosh”. Despite being complicit in Shane’s misinformation, Suroosh is probably the only Vice founder worth listening to. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that he’s a major reason Vice hasn’t self-destructed.
“I’ll tell you what — I grew up poor. I grew up dirt poor … I’m just a regular dude from butt-fuck nowhere.” — Shane Smith to Joe Rogan 2013.
Shane’s status in the media is not unusual. He attended Lisgar Collegiate (1983–87 from ages 13–17) — Lisgar is currently and historically one of the highest ranking public schools in Canada and the best ranked school in Ottawa. Media alumni including Peter Jennings (ABC Reporter 1964–2005), Adrienne Clarkson (CBC, Governor General of Canada 1999–2005), and Shelagh Rogers (CBC 1980-). Shane’s later academic record is confusing. The New York Times, CNBC, and his own LinkedIn profile say he graduated from Political Economy at Carleton (a Masters program) but the chronology does not make sense with his travels through europe and his BA in PoliSci.
Did Shane write for Reuters while in Bosnia? I spoke with Reuters’ chief spokesman and was told there is no definitive answer regarding Shane’s employment. “I have checked… I’ve spoken to the full-time archivist, and he has no records that could confirm or deny…” I asked the spokesman if ‘no records’ are typical and, for example, if his own records of employment would be on file “I know there was a record from me because I appear in the credit of a book…”. Lisa Gabrielle, former Vice writer who documented Vice in 1999, said “Shane had been traveling in Greece and Hungary” not reporting in Bosnia.
While most journalists “speak truth to power”. Shane distorts truth to obtain power. It’s a political strategy of control…
“…to undermine people’s perception of the world so they never know what is really happening […] a bewildering, constantly changing piece of theatre […] no-one could be sure what was real or fake […] It’s a strategy of power that keeps the opposition constantly confused. A ceaseless shapeshifter that is unstoppable because it’s undefinable.”— Adam Curtis on the “constant vaudeville of contradictory stories” in politics.
Cool Wages
Shane said Vice’s average employee wage was 71k then a rep at Vice corrected that to 70k. Both sources paint a pretty picture but according to data from glassdoor.com, Gawker and off-record sources: producers earn an average (sum total divided by the sample size) of 45k (11), editors 31k (3) and software engineers 115k (4).
An anonymous review of Vice Media via: glassdoor. Aldous Huxley, for reference, is an author that wrote about a dystopian dictatorship that perverted human values. Discouraging all forms of long-term thinking in support of short-term pay-offs.
Morale isn’t great either. Vice’s employee rankings at Glassdoor.ca rate at 50%. In comparison, all the companies that Shane has openly disparaged are rated around 70–75%. CNN, Fox News, NBC all have salaries closer to industry averages: producers 75k, editors 50k, and software engineers 90k. (A hint to why Vice’s software engineers are so well paid read the Vice Media Kit analysis)
Shane knows he is stiffing the employees. When recalling a meeting with Google CEO Larry Page, Shane said that in silicon valley people come out of college with good financial knowledge: “In media, we don’t really have that…I don’t know if giving people [lots of money] does anything to make them work harder or to *makes a fist [a common symbol of unionization]* I think having a mission and having a cult, that people believe in, does.”
Cult of Personality
Is Shane joking about his role at Vice? “It’s essentially a cult…the only thing in this world crazier and more freaky than Vice right now is the U.S. government” “I vote 95% of the board…I’m essentially the Stalin of Vice so I can say ‘this is going to happen’.”
According to segments obtained from the VICE EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK: “Vice expects its employees’ complete and undivided loyalty to its interests.” Vice staff are not allowed to speak to media and they must warn senior management of any media interest. Vice can also search and seize their employee’s laptops without notice or consent (Q: Is this common?). Basically, be creative but get permission from your evil dad or you’re fired.
“The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about…” — Fight Club (1999)
Not all media corporations have the same formalized cowardice of Vice. Reuters has a set of Trust Principles meant to prevent conflicts of interest in the way of every journalist. Or read Valve’s HANDBOOK FOR NEW EMPLOYEES which describes a place where incredibly talented individuals are empowered. Where loyalty is earned not dictated.
Concepts like trust, honesty and integrity might not ‘punch you in the face’ but they separate the journalist from the storytelling drunk. In reality, as facts turn out to be fiction, a reliable journalist will kill a story. Would you scrap the work or spread short-term-profitable lies?
At Vice, talking to media might get you fired but publishing an untrue story won’t.
Huddled Masses
When Shane was asked about his employment practices he replied:
“…most [employees] have been with us. They’ve never had another job.”
Committing to training students is risky. I would applaud his efforts if the statement wasn’t marred in servitude.
“Once people have done commercials… or TV, they kinda get ruined…”
“…it’s really important that we have people who are non-corrupted…”
Shane is essentially saying that if you ask for standard industry treatment, you’re ‘ruined’ or ‘corrupted’. Why would someone make advertorial content when they could make advertisements for triple the pay? My guess is if you think you’re doing journalism — a noble profession — you may be inclined to work for less.
Note: In 2005, the University of Missouri cut all ties with Vice Media for misleading hiring practices. I guess not all Deans love it.
“No one ever joins a “cult.” People join interesting groups that promise to fulfill their pressing needs. They become “cults” when they are seen as deceptive, defective, dangerous, or as opposing basic values of their society.” — Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D. What messages are behind today’s cults?
Log Rolling
Is the rise of Vice luck, genius or something else?
“For those of us who work in the media; life is a drumbeat of goodbye speeches with sheet cakes and cheap sparkling wine. That carnage has left behind an island of misfit toys.” — The late, David Carr, columnist of The Media Equation in Page One: Inside the NY Times Documentary
“From 2003 to 2012, the American Society of News Editors documented a loss of 16,200 full-time newspaper newsroom jobs”. As viewers migrated online; paper ad sales dropped. Older CEOs were slow to react to the landscape of social media.
Vice’s enigmatic popularity in ‘New Media’ wasn’t from special powers. It happened because newspapers were slow to adapt to market demands. Vice didn’t grow the market, the market grew itself.
A continuous source of students and decline of newspapers was good news for Vice. Gavin, in 2003, describes it more bluntly: “[journalism students] were forced to intern for us because they couldn’t get paying jobs in the mainstream press.”
The fact that Shane considers himself a media visionary blows my mind. From what I can tell, Vice’s futurist outlook was largely due to the investment and vision of 3D animation guru Richard Szalwinski and the creative direction of Spike Jonze. In 1998, Szalwinski invested a few hundred thousand into Vice (Which Shane usually says is a million) and forced them aggressively into online.
But the dot com bubble burst and Vice somehow bought back their shares. Despite having lost money in his media endeavors; Szalinski still had ~10 percent ownership of Discreet Logic which, a few years later, he sold to Autodesk for $520 million. Meaning the real visionary didn’t go bust he still had at least ~$50 million in 2002.
Respect Isn’t a Vice
Gavin: We build people up from nothing.
Suroosh: And make them in our own image.
Gavin: They have no other life. We give them everything.
…
Shane: …The best guys we have working for us started out at the absolute bottom. Cleaning toilets and shoveling shit.
In a 2002 interview the three original founders tried desperately to sound rock and roll but ended up sounding genuinely racist, anti-social, misogynistic and manipulative. The original title: Vice Rising: Why Corporate Media Is Sniffing the Butt of the Magazine World has since changed (Sometime between Oct 2008 and June 2009) to VICE RISING: Corporate Media Woos Magazine World’s Punks. I contacted the article’s author who was unaware of the changed title and the removal of his byline (this might be the ‘Stalinist revisionism’ Gavin was talking about). The author/interviewer recalled the event after 13 years “They didn’t like not having control of the edit or the layout, and ended up in dispute with my art director, who intentionally made the cover insulting. He had the zines/punk background as them.”
There Are No ‘Directors’ at Vice.
If you’re lucky enough to be credited in what you make.
In my ten years in the industry I’ve never heard of a documentary not having a director; I’ve shot over 20 documentaries and I’ve seen friends and colleagues make at least another 200. Heck, It’s common to give an editor a ‘directed by’ credit when the story is substantially formed in the editing room. Giving credit and getting credit is the keystone to career development in film. It makes sense that an employer that skillful at maintaining obedience through precarious workers would avoid crediting people.
In an analysis of the 20 most popular videos on Vice’s YouTube (accounting for 200 Million views):
- Nine (45%) had no credits.
- Only four (20%) had partial credits in the YouTube description.
- Only one (5%) had full credits in both video and TY description.
It’s not just about making the video shorter.
Other Link. Just trimmed short. LSD Palace.
You might not find the filmmakers in the description but you will find nine ways to Follow Vice.
I spoke with some current and past employees credited in these films. Those who have replied are glad I’m asking the right questions, wish more people asked them and expressed that Vice was seen as the ‘Director’ which always seemed odd and was non-negotiable.
There are — of course — exceptions to the rule…
ʇsᴉlɐuɹnoſ ɐ sᴉ ɥʇᴉɯS ǝuɐɥS
To borrow heavily on rhetoric of Hunter S. Thompson; some people might think that the word “spineless” is bad for objectivity — which is true, but they miss the point. It is the built-in blind spots of polite society, its rules and dogma, that allow people to slither into the role of a Journalist—able to slip through the cracks.
Shane Smith is not a journalist. He did not rise from poverty. Shane is a spineless, fear-mongering plutocrat.
I don’t have an axe to grind with any employees, only Shane and upper management. If you work for Vice and feel mildly self-destructive DM me on twitter.
If you are the lawyer put in charge of cleaning up Shane’s mess: consider charging more. He can afford it…sorta.
(Update Dec 15th: Some Vice Canada staff are unionizing)
(Update Feb 9th: Vice UK move to unionize)
You have reached the end of Part 3. Go back and read Part 1: Everyone is Laughing at VICE, Part 2: Fact Checking Vice: A Fiction or Part 3: Shane Smith: ‘Billionaire’ and ‘Regular Guy’.
NEXT — Part 4: Branding VICE
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 Vice Historian.
If you think this article contains misinformation please feel free to leave a reply or contact me directly. Unlike Vice I’m happy to issue a correction.
You can also find discussions on this article on Reddit: /Journalism (67 comments), /Skeptic (16 comments), /JoeRogan (59 comments), /JoeRogan2 (7 comments), /QuitYourBullshit (5 comments) or /TrueReddit (41 comments).
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.
