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THREAD: My latest file is a look at how a guy who worked for a blog that promoted racists became an editor at a national news outlet called The Post Millennial. Let's dive in. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/08/22/news/he-used-work-site-promoted-racists-now-he-edits-canadian-news-outlet … #cdnpoli #elxn2019
So, right now, Cosmin Dzsurdzsa manages The Post Millennial's B.C. content and writes columns. According to TPM, he got his start as a "researcher on the Oxford Dictionary." Oxford clarified to me that he didn't work for them, it was an unaffiliated research project on the text.
Moving along! Dzsurdzsa spent some time in student media. Then, he started writing for Russia Insider, which is a pro-Kremlin site. Here's @thedailybeast on some of what Russia Insider was up to last year (To be clear, Dzsurdzsa worked there only in 2015)https://www.thedailybeast.com/too-racist-for-russian-propaganda …
Most of the stuff he wrote for Russia Insider was fairly innocuous, but the one piece that stood out to me was this one, where he advocated for Canada to drop trade sanctions against Russia. These sanctions were introduced over Russia's aggression towards Ukraine.pic.twitter.com/3hNJXiUlzp
Fast forward to December 2017 -- Dzsurdzsa has just been hired by Free Bird Media. @antihateca tells me they've kept an eye on the blog for years, but never published much on it because FBM isn't very popular. They give a friendly platform to racists.
Before Dzsurdzsa was hired, FBM gave James Sears a friendly interview. Sears was found guilty earlier this year of hate crimes for publishing Your Ward News, a paper that advocated to legalize rape and denied the Holocaust, among other things. Here he is!https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sentencing-your-ward-news-1.5211827 …
While Dzsurdzsa was there -- he was a correspondent and creative director, according to an archived bio on the website -- FBM did the same for Faith Goldy, Richard Spencer and Kevin Johnston. Here's a bit from the story on what those people are about. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/08/22/news/he-used-work-site-promoted-racists-now-he-edits-canadian-news-outlet …pic.twitter.com/D6FrQWE0DR
I won't link to those interviews for obvious reasons. A snippet: in one, Richard Spencer explains his (racist) beliefs. The host, Dzsurdza's coworker, replies: "I understand exactly what you mean." To quote @evanbalgord: FBM "had neo-Nazis on all the time, and Cosmin was there."pic.twitter.com/cGAVixAhrt
Fast forward a bit more. About 10 months ago, Dzsurdza's work starts appearing in The Post Millennial. His appearances in FBM have tapered off. How'd that happen? TPM wouldn't answer my questions about how they decided to hire him, or whether they did a background check.
This information wasn't hard to find. I'd love to tell you that this was a long, in-depth investigation, but it really wasn't. Tbh, I just googled it & verified what I found. @pressprogress detailed most of this a year ago while Dzsurdzsa was still at FBM.
So why does this matter? The Post Millennial is a new outlet, but it's got reach. It's one of the most-shared outlets in Canada, even though it doesn't crack the top 20 in terms of self-reported readership, found a report by the Digital Democracy project:https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/08/07/news/canadians-media-consumption-habits-lead-misinformation-study-finds …
Also, The Post Millennial is closely tied with Canada Proud, a political third party with huge reach. CanProud's founder is Jeff Ballingall, who is chief marketing officer at TPM. And the Proud pages share TPM's stories a lot. CanProud said it had nothing to say for this story.
The Post Millennial influences online discourse. And its content is shaped by Dzsurdzsa, which is why his past affiliations matter. Editors define what newsrooms cover, what they don't and how they do it.https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/08/22/news/he-used-work-site-promoted-racists-now-he-edits-canadian-news-outlet …
We asked The Post Millennial to clarify its stance on his work history. They didn't directly answer that, but said TPM “celebrates the success of Canada's diversity.” It also emphasized the multicultural roots of its co-founders. Dzsurdzsa didn't respond when we asked to talk.
Though the reporting on this story was relatively simple, I was able to do it at all because @NatObserver has invested in the Election Integrity Reporting Project. If you appreciate this coverage and you're able, please consider supporting:https://www.nationalobserver.com/subscribe
As always, there's way more to this than a thread can capture, so please read the full thing. And you're totally free to make fun of my hilariously poor graphic design abilities. I'm a reporter, folks, not an artist!https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/08/22/news/he-used-work-site-promoted-racists-now-he-edits-canadian-news-outlet …
I'd also like to note that this story built on great reporting by CBC's @KaleighRogers and @Jeff__yates, which you should definitely read: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/the-post-millennial-journalism-conservative-advocacy-1.5191593 …
If you're curious about the Prouds and how they work, I didn't really get into in my story, but this one from @CANADALAND is a good entry point. It's about Ontario Proud, which was ON-provincial election focused. (Canada Proud is a federal offshoot)https://www.canadalandshow.com/ontario-proud-mostly-funded-by-developers/ …
Have anything I should look into? Let's talk. Here are some options: - email: emma@nationalobserver.com - DMs open - ask for Signal/WhatsApp - PGP: http://keybase.io/emmamci
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