He's Not the Left's Joe Rogan -- But He May Be Even Better (Rolling Stone article on Aaron Parnas)

[highplainsdem]

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/aaron-parnas-tiktok-substack-news-1235370720/

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Schmir watches as Parnas films a TikTok about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement getting customer’s information from Expedia and Booking.com. Previously, the private data sent to the Airlines Reporting Corporation, an intermediary between the airlines and agents, wasn’t shared in this way. Parnas says, “And now your data is in the hands of ICE.”

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Less than an hour later, it’s been played over 125,000 times, liked 14,000 times, and accrued more than 500 comments. It’s just one of the thousands of clips Parnas has brought to his viewers over the past six months. His brand is talking — and sometimes, walking — looking straight into the camera and delivering the headlines of the day in bite-sized, 90-second bits.

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Parnas, 26, boasts 3.9 million TikTok followers and another 2 million across his other platforms. Though the left has long been calling for its own Joe Rogan as a way to connect with younger voters, he’s become a sort of 20-something Walter Cronkite — a trustworthy presence delivering the facts with the urgency needed in a nonstop news cycle. It may be the only way for the news to reach the elusive Gen Z and Gen Alpha audience.

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This January, he launched a Substack, the Parnas Perspective; it now boasts 447,000 subscribers, making it the site’s number one-ranked newsletter in the news category. (As the TikTok ban crept up in January, Substack ran a “Tiktok Liberation Prize” campaign for those who could drive traffic from TikTok to their site; they awarded Parnas $25,000. He is also working with them as a creative advisor.) He’s starting to get attention and awards — he was named the “Defender of Gen Z” by Jim Acosta, and has been interviewed by a titan of legacy media herself, Katie Couric on her podcast “Next Question.” Parnas has enough subscribers across all platforms that this has become his full-time gig.

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His father is Lev Parnas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Parnas

They both backed Trump originally, then switched sides.

Aaron also switched sides in part because a health scare when he didn't have insurance left him considering that Republicans didn't care if medical bills destroyed people's lives. And a teacher friend made him aware of disparities in education Democrats were trying to correct.

[SSJVegeta]

1. I hate social media personalities with a passion

But hey if he can reach some people, thats a very good thing.

[LexVegas]

2. Joe Rogan would say that he is more left than right. nt

[Jmb 4 Harris-Walz]

4. You may hate podcasts, but they are what is reaching those in America that the Democratic Party needs to

reach… our young citizens who make up a huge voting block. If this guy can reach this hard to reach demographic I say let him do his thing.

Parnas — it’d be poetic justice if the son of the guy (Lev) who initially was working to further Trump’s agenda until he realized his massive error, helps to bring him down!

[Bettie]

5. There are podcasts that aren't politcal

there are also podcasts with well-informed people.

What makes anyone here qualified to talk about politics? Nothing for the majority of us, but we still do it.

I listen to things I enjoy...Magnus Archives and Old Ghosts of Appalachia, Bob Cesca, Dungeons and Daddies, John Fugelsang, and a bunch of others. I like having something to listen to while I'm doing stuff.

The point is that just because you don't enjoy it doesn't make it all terrible.

And I'm someone who still believes that the first episode of Survivor was a part of what led us to where we are now with that horrible orange thing, because it encouraged people to become the worst versions of themselves and revel in it.