“New year, new plans.”
That’s how I announced I was leaving MSNBC, live on air, last month. “With an election coming, a war still ongoing, and too many Trump trials honestly to even keep track of – and with this show going away – I’ve decided it’s time for me to look for a new challenge,” I told my cable-news audience. The screen went to black, the lights dimmed, and I took the deepest of deep breaths.
Yesterday, I unveiled some of my “new plans” and laid out part of the “new challenge.” Did you watch the trailer video?
The outpouring of support since then has been so reaffirming of our mission and what we want to achieve together. Thank you!
I’m so excited about the launch of this new media company of mine, Zeteo. The name goes back to Socrates and Plato and comes from the ancient Greek word for ‘seeking out,’ for striving and discovering, for ‘getting to the bottom of things.’
In this dystopian age of ‘alternative facts,’ ‘fake news,’ and constant ‘gaslighting,’ seeking out the truth and sharing it with others is more important than ever before. And so it is the primary goal of this new media venture of mine.
Changing The Narrative
To be clear: racism has been mainstreamed and normalized across the West. Donald Trump is about to usher in a new era of fascism in the United States. And the highest court in the world has said it is “plausible” that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza.
Nevertheless, most news organizations won’t touch the R-word, the F-word, or the G-word. They hide behind euphemisms and ‘both sides’ coverage. Far too many journalists hold back from speaking the truth because they don’t want to offend conservatives, or ‘sound biased,’ or risk losing their connections to the people in power. We have reached a point where I can’t help but be reminded of this line, often misattributed to George Orwell: “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
I hope that Zeteo will be revolutionary in that sense, a vanguard of a new media movement. One which prioritizes speaking truth to power over securing access to power.
Don’t get me wrong. I have spent more than two decades working at some of the biggest media organizations in the West - the BBC, Sky News, and NBC, among them - and I will forever be grateful for the opportunities, and the platforms that they gave me. There are hundreds of outstanding journalists still employed at those corporations.
But the corporate media itself is in crisis. The business models are failing, audiences are declining, and public trust is in freefall. Countless crimes and abuses are being committed in plain sight, both at home and abroad, while countless news outlets distract us with fluff, gossip, and nonsense.
Zeteo will be a new online platform for the kind of tough interviews and deep-dive monologues that I have become known for in recent years, but it will also be a home to new podcasts, newsletters, and social videos. We won’t hide our opinions - or our biases. But we will always tell you the truth.
And our business model is simple: you pay a little to get and support a lot. Six bucks a month for a paid subscription, via Substack, if you sign up for an annual plan. That’s less than the cost of a Caffè Mocha from Starbucks (if you’re still drinking there?).
Why Subscribe?
So there are three main reasons (I always have three reasons) why you should become a paid subscriber to Zeteo.
First, because many of you carp, complain, moan, and groan about the ‘MSM’. But are you willing to actually help build an alternative to the mainstream media from the ground up? Because now’s your chance. This is an opportunity for you to help us hold the people in power to account, whether it is the Prime Minister of Israel, the President of the United States, or the former (next?) President of the United States.
Second, you should pay for a subscription because you want to support me (right?). Since January 7th, so many of you have approached me in shopping malls, restaurants, airports, even at comedy shows, to tell me how much you have appreciated my interviews over the years and asked how you can support me going forward. Well, this is it. Zeteo is here. It’s official! If you want to amplify my voice and my journalism, please do hit the subscribe button. You’ll also get exclusive access to interviews, community chats, commenting features, and more.
Third, a paid subscription will help pay for the Avengers-style team of contributors that I’m putting together. Zeteo isn’t a one-man band and it definitely isn’t the ‘Mehdi Hasan Network’ - although you will be seeing and reading my content, front and center. When it comes to this new subscriber-backed media venture, I’d like to think I am as much Nick Fury as I am Tony Stark (I love Marvel, okay?) because I’ve secured regular contributions - from video essays to op-eds to podcasts - from some of the biggest and best names in progressive media, academia, Hollywood, and beyond.
We will be rolling out my new video and audio shows in April, both on Substack and on YouTube, plus Spotify and the rest, as well as all the names on our roster of American and international contributors. Over the next few weeks, as we prepare for the big launch, all of the content you get from Zeteo - newsletters, clips, etc. - will be free.
But not forever. Because, to put it bluntly, freedom isn’t free. If we keep saying we want a free press, and an alternative to corporate media, then we have to be willing to put our money where our mouths are.
Look Out The Window
I am now the founder and CEO of Zeteo, but I remain a journalist above all else. The guarantee of good journalism and high editorial standards is at the core of everything we will offer to our viewers, listeners, and readers.
Zeteo will not back away from the R, F, or G words. We will not ‘both sides’ issues like climate change, vaccine science, or election denial. And we will not allow the truth to be sacrificed at the altar of lazy neutrality or faux impartiality.
There is an old adage that has been either ignored or forgotten by far too many in our news media. “If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out of the f**king window and find out which is true.”
Zeteo is all about looking out of that window. Over and over again. To seek out the facts, to tell the truth, to ask the tough questions. We are clear-eyed about our role and our mission: to be journalists and not stenographers; truth-tellers and not gaslighters.
So… are you with us?
-Mehdi
Subscribed annually. Was going to go for the $395 option allowing zoom time with Mehdi, until I remembered what he does to his interviewees! And he will win every argument.
Already subscribed. Let the good times roll!