39 Comments
User's avatar
Richard Van Heeswyk's avatar

Great initiative to give this important documentary a platform

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Mumtaz ahmed's avatar

Zeteo team, you do wonderful job in this climate of hostility but i worry are you not afraid of Israels beastly methods of sabotaging

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Abdoul's avatar

Great and thanks Mehdi and the rest of Zeteo's staff for your courage and commitment to the truth and justice !

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Sam Bahour's avatar

Zeteo is saving humanity, it's that simple!

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Lisa's avatar

Show the world, not just paid subscribers.

Please.

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Aisha BO's avatar

They would love to do it, but they need funds from the subscriptions so they can keep going with producing/offering excellent and important content such as this documentary. Let's try to support Zeteo as much as we can by donating (even small amounts), subscribing and buying their merchandise if we can. Anything helps. Zeteo is a new company that really needs our support right now. If we all chip in little by little, we can help Zeteo change the world for the better.

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Team Zeteo's avatar

Thanks for your wise understanding and support

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Lisa's avatar

Failing to show people your work, makes them unable to see that you're worth supporting. If I hadn't been familiar with Mehdi's work, I would never have bought the first subscription, let alone renewed it.

I don't need to be told that their work is worth supporting. But people who don't already know that, need to see the work, before they know it's worth supporting.

I'm someone who routinely abandons publications that I'm not familiar with, if they are pay-walled. If my interest is repeatedly frustrated, my attention is best spent elsewhere. If those publications are worthy of my support, I'll literally never know.

As a supporter, obviously I want others to support them, too.

I am of the opinion that pay-walling achieves the opposite.

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Evelyne T's avatar

I agree, Lisa.

Subscribers are those who are already convinced, both of the value of Zeteo and (to a large extent) of the values that Zeteo's team represent.

Paywalls discourage people who are less informed, less committed ... and who could learn important lessons from "publications" on Zeteo - especially critical analyses & documentaries such as Reel Extremism, & this documentary about Gaza doctors.

As I've said elsewhere, I think Zeteo needs to explore some innovative mechanisms whereby alternatives to paywalls could enable funding critical work while reaching out to less informed & less committed.

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Lisa's avatar

Yes. Exactly. Thank you.

Drop Site is a good example of a publication that hides none of its work behind a paywall. When it asks people to support its work, it cites precisely that fact, because that is very motivating. It makes people like me, MORE likely to support them.

Spreading the truth as broadly as possible is a mission that is worthy of my support; not a foolish business model.

Spreading the truth as broadly as possible, is something I thought I was supporting, when I bought my first subscription (before Zeteo had even officially launched). I thought, THIS is what the world needs to hear. I was genuinely disappointed to find out I was in an exclusive club.

I don't want to be UNIQUELY burdened by the truth; I want EVERYONE to be burdened by the truth.

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Aisha BO's avatar

I believe that we are all here in the first place because Zeteo and Mehdi made sure to post enough free content online for us to get familiar with their work. I am most certainly here because I had watched a lot of videos with Mehdi and other Zeteo contributors on other platforms for free before finally coming here and subscribing. And on Zeteo's website itself you can find some content that is available to watch/read for free.

Some companies do pay-wall for no reason other than money-making and greed. I am sure this is not the case with Zeteo. As I already mentioned, Zeteo is a new company. If they offer most of their work for free they will not have enough funds to produce their work. They will simply go out of business. I am pretty sure that even acquiring the rights for this documentary was not cheap. Zeteo team itself produced two other documentaries that I watched (Who killed Shereen and Israel's Reel Extremism) which I am sure was pretty costly for a new company. They balance on a thin line between offering their content for free (and getting more exposure and more subscribers down the road) and needing to have enough income every month to be able to pay for all the expenses and stay afloat now. As somebody who helped to run a startup I know how sometimes a new company struggles to even pay for basic expenses because market is tough, competition is tough, equipment is not cheap, you have to pay your employees on time, etc, and at the beginning we need all the help we can get to survive.

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Lisa's avatar

Not "all" of us, no. Some of us are here because we admired Mehdi Hasan, and his work, LONG BEFORE he launched his own media company.

You're talking to me as if I don't understand that money is necessary. That's pointlessly insulting, and it shows that you don't understand, or can't really be bothered to read, what I've said.

I believe their approach to marketing, is a mistake.

I believe they're making a tactical error.

I believe there are more paid supporters to be garnered by flooding the zone with truth, while asking people to support that very worthy cause, than by stiff-arming people, who might otherwise fall in love with this news organization.

People don't necessarily want what you feed them; their own interest is what leads them. If they're there because they're interested in a specific subject, they're not particularly likely to care that other articles are available.

And I AM NOT SAYING that Zeteo are a bunch of greedy bastards; I clearly stated: "As a supporter, obviously I want others to support them, too. I am of the opinion that pay-walling achieves the opposite."

Maybe you don't need to feel quite so compelled to keep countering an opinion that you wilfully misunderstand, and insultingly misrepresent.

I happily paid for a subscription, before this company had even officially launched. I was excited to support the spread of quality, truthful journalism. (I was also excited to see Mehdi bounce back to a greater height than he'd been dropped from, but mostly it's the spread of quality information that motivated my support.) So I very happily paid for that first subscription.

My feelings were different when I paid for my second subscription, after realizing that Zeteo wasn't spreading knowledge as widely as it could be.

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Aisha BO's avatar

You are the one who is starting to use insulting tone in this thread. Dude, just chill out. @Evelyne T disagreed with my comment without using that angry tone of yours. I will keep paying for my subscription and you go ahead and unsubscribe if Zeteo continues to "not spread knowledge as widely as it could be".

And don't worry about being "UNIQUELY burdened by the truth". The whole world has been watching/looking at the truth in Gaza for the last 20 months in 4K.

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mary M keymer's avatar

I am so sick over this ..that I know I can't watch the documentary.. I hope the people who don't know what is happening see it. Someone do something ..

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Zaynab Ansari's avatar

Thank you Mehdi Hasan and Team Zeteo for having courage and principles, something entire lacking in mainstream media. The genocide-supporting BBC stooges for the Zionists have lost all credibility!

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Alice LoCicero's avatar

Bless you all for obtaining this film and releasing it. It takes enormous courage to face such evildoing, but if we do not face it, we cannot stop it or prevent it in the future. Many believed that society had learned this lesson from the holocaust, but it seems we have to learn it again.

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Fiona Macleod's avatar

That clip alone is harrowing. Thank you for making sure the world sees it. I’m not sure why the BBC could show the documentary on the Nova Festival but not this. Maybe I’m just not clued up on the politics or don’t fully understand the wider issues, but I can’t help feeling it’s an attempt by the BBC to control the narrative.

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Wizarat Rizvi's avatar

Thank you for sharing what we have known for the last 20-plus months. We also know that none of the MSM or the print media would tell us the facts. They have been pushing both sidesism and Israeli propaganda verbatim.

Thank you for having the courage and journalistic integrity to acquire and now show it to us.

Please keep safe, we all need teams like yours for years to come.

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Ralph Tomlinson's avatar

Thanks for speaking the truth to power, and for making this important film available. The U.S. is supporting war crimes!

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Rob H's avatar

Some US citizens are happy to dehumanize Palestinian Arabs as something other than human beings trying to determine their own destiny in a chaotic world. Racism runs at generationally-deep levels with some American families who somehow think they are not racist at all.

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Tia's avatar

Is your name it’s too!!

This is awful and should not be allowed by any country . Every country should be telling Israel to stop what they are doing and so should the United States..

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Asrar Hussain's avatar

This is why I subscribe, great work everyone in acquiring this

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Martin Mitsoff's avatar

Thank you Team Zeteo. To put it bluntly, mainstream media sucks.

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Mary Bayliss's avatar

Thank you for stepping up to ensure the world sees what is happening in Gaza.

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Nancy's avatar
1dEdited

I am in awe of the health care workers who have risked and often given their own lives to help Gazans. Although I have been deeply affected by the indifference of much of the world to the plight of the people of Palestine, it has been the stories of health care workers returning from Gaza that has most galvanized me to get involved in the pro-Palestinian movement. I cannot forget the pictures and descriptions of the victims— ever. I thank them and the Zeteo team for bringing this film to the public. I hope it will be shown everywhere. I never expected to be faced with the depth and breadth of evil that we have witnessed against the Palestinian people. It is overwhelming and devastating. It has changed who I am and how I see the world. I think we have to focus all our energy in the coming months on the politicians who have facilitated this. We need to do everything we can to get them out, regardless of party affiliation. We also need to stop supporting media that continues to subvert the truth in its coverage of Israel. New alliances need to be formed to combat this travesty.

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