One of the things that independent journalists quickly learn is: You’ve got to roll with the punches.
As Jim Acosta put it, you’re building the plane in mid-fight.
I’ve found that to be true. An independent journalist abandons a large support staff, steady paycheck, and all the comforts that come with large and sprawling institutional backing. You learn to be plucky, nimble and adventurous, and if you’re lucky, you draw from the lessons and guidance of your peers who moved into this space.
When launching All Rise News exactly one year ago, I was fortunate enough to have one of the world’s most preeminent legal experts as my Substack Live guest: Andrew Weissmann, a former FBI general counsel, ex-Mueller prosecutor and Justice Department stalwart whom I’m proud to count as a friend. (Not too long ago, we were also MSNBC colleagues routinely discussing Donald Trump’s criminal trial with the great Lawrence O’Donnell.) We marked the one-year anniversary with another live-stream — and a new lesson about the improvisation that is independent journalism.
Roughly halfway through the broadcast, Andrew lost his connection.
We had a lot to discuss: Kash Patel’s new lawsuit against The Atlantic; the magazine’s bombshell reporting about the FBI director’s drinking; former Capitol Police officer Shauni Kerkhoff’s defamation lawsuit over the propagators of a conspiracy theory falsely tying her to the attempted Jan. 6 pipe bombing; and the Trump Justice Department’s indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the storied civil rights group.
I’m glad that Andrew could join the conversation again — before the technical difficulties — and I hope that you will stick around for my reporting and comments after his feed dropped.
All Rise into the new year. Onward!
