The press is not what it was, and this is not necessarily a bad thing. Especially if you are Mahdi Hassan.
Hassan, 45 years old, is not strange for increasing dissatisfaction with the state of news and confusion about how to consume our news. He got up in the ranks of the broadcast giants, including the BBC, Al -Jazeera and MsnbcI wrote about topics ranging from Trump’s tariff to Gaza to outlets like The Guardian and The Huffington Post.
But regardless of where he was in the camera or publishing it, the British son born to Indian immigrants put this kind of difficult questions that gained a reputation as a fierce discussion and an indelible supporter in the highly influential press, often.
“When we talk about media organizations, they are often asked, are they left or are they right?” Hassan says. “But I do not think this dynamic is useful. For me, it seems like they maintain their heads or do they maintain their heads?”
Hassan’s lack of desire to soften the edges on hot topics can be the reason for his work in more outlets than most people who face two years in the media. His departure from MSNBC in January 2024, for example, came after his offers The network was canceled For commercial reasons. ”They offered to keep him as a shareholder, but he refused.
Instead, his independent platform, based in Washington, DC Olive. Now, on the first anniversary of his institution, Hassan talks about what it takes to create an outlet somewhere between the prevailing news and “Burn It Download”.
This conversation was edited for length and clarity.
“When we talk about media organizations, they are often asked, have they left or are they right?” Says Mahdi Hassan. “But I don’t think dynamism is useful.”
(Tom Keter Photography)
What is it required to get and operate olive?
Me and the four people who prepared it. Ramadan was. I was fasting. I will say that I never want to do a startup again with four people during Ramadan [laughs]. We are still a small and smart process, but it is not crazy because four people are trying to do everything. We have a political correspondent, Brem Thikker, who broke the story of the campus deportation. We brought us to Jamal Bowman and Korei Bush, members of Congress, to make a YouTube offer for us called “Bowman and Bush”. [Former Washington Post columnist] Taylor Lorenz has become just a shareholder for us. We have Daniel Levy, the former Israeli peace negotiator. We will announce more in the coming days as the anniversary approaches. So we are growing on that front.
The name olive comes from the ancient Greek word for “research” or “pursuit”. Why not only connect to Mehdi Hasan?
It was never Mahdi Hassan Network. Obviously, I am his face. I am the founder. I do the leading offers. But it was always about being more than me. This is the goal. If I do not achieve anything else, I have provided a platform for people who are really interesting to say if so, whether that is. [Egyptian political satirist] Bassem Youssef on podcast; John Harwood [formerly of CNN]Who writes us amazing political pieces; Pakistani novelist Fatima Bhutto; Amy Klein Owen Jones or Greta Thonberg. They say things as shareholders that you will not see elsewhere.
I moved to the United States in 2015and She hosted a weekly show on Al Jazeera English. But just five years later, your special show, “The Mehdi Hasan Show” fell on Peacock. Shortly later, you were moved in the MSNBC assortment. This is a quick path.
When you moved here, people told me, “Oh, you will end up in CNN, MSNBC because you are doing great interviews.” I was like, “Nobody will employ me. I am a brown, Muslim, and weary immigrant. I am happy on the island.” It was never the prevailing for me, but Phil Griffin and MSNBC took the opportunity for me in 2020 and rented me to offer a show. I didn’t think I would last longer than six months, but I lasted for 3 and a half years.
Since the country has become more attractive, there was criticism that the press is now more than the gathering of news. What is your opinion?
You do not have to determine the activity as changing things and journalism as not changing things. The biggest changes in our society came from the press. Investigative press, at its best, change things. It holds people responsible. People are forced to change the structures and reform institutions. So I think the best press is the effect of journalism that drives change. Otherwise, what is the point? Horse racing press-who is, who works well in polls-this was not my interest. Sometimes I do it because he has his role, but this never drives me. I don’t think it should be what drives our industry as well. I want to make a change. For this reason I do what I do. Otherwise, I will be an accountant.
Where does Olives stand in the busy field for new startups?
One thing I was very clear when I released an olive is that I was walking in this rope between being hostile to the institution and creation, between the prevailing and non -series. Many people did not like it. What happens to many left -wing media is that they marginalize or marginalize themselves. They look at a margin. But there is no use in doing excellent journalism or excellent articles or assigning wonderful documentaries if no one sees them.
Mahdi Hassan says that “he would walk in this rope between being hostile to the institution and establishing” with Zaitio.
(Tom Keter Photography)
Did you plan to become a journalist?
I went to Oxford University. I have done personal protection equipment [Politics, Philosophy and Economics]. Most of the graduation row moved to be administration consultants and investment bankers. I went to a 13,000 -year -old job, to disappoint Asian Walabi. But working on TV seemed important.
As children of immigrants, our parents came from places where the media stumbled or where there is no free printing press. You are now in the United States, and the media is facing unprecedented challenges from the Trump administration.
It is a risky time. People still tell me, “Trump is good to work, right? You will get a lot of subscribers because he talks about crazy things and makes politics interesting.” Yes, in theory, in the huge generation of news stories, it’s good to work. But with regard to the large picture of the free press – no, it is not. I am concerned about the future of my organization in a country going very quickly. I am concerned about Zaitio as a small startup, as it may argue with major media companies such as ABC and CBS and some in La Times – their owners rolling for Trump. And you have the people of Maga who let journalists. For a while I had prominent people in the Maga movement saying that the deportation of Mahdi Hassan, and in the current climate, this is not the type of thing you take lightly. Journalists have been intimidated, threatened and harassed.
Now, after I said that, we have to put it in the context. I am still in the United States, I am still protected in the first amendment. I am not in Gaza, where more than 200 journalists were killed. It is the worst conflict for journalists in history. Civil War, World War II, World War II – none of them are close. Yes, it is a dangerous time for journalists in America, but in the context, we are still 10,000 times in a better place than journalists in Gaza, for example.
This month coincides with one year since the official launch. how’s it going?
I am a very careful person. I did not work before. I have no entrepreneurial line of risk. When I launched this, I was very careful about what we can achieve. However, surprisingly, the support I got after I left MSNBC and announced Zteo and blew me away. We have criticized all the premature standards, standards and goals for us, and by the time we reached the summer, we had advanced ourselves. So we are in a very good place.
Can you name some criteria?
After a year, most startups are not broken. But this year we made a small profit, which we did not plan. We are in 400,000 subscribers, and it is not the place where I thought we would be. We are No. 6 on Subsack, behind Bari Weiss, Heather Cox [Richardson] And partisan people. We have 715,000 followers on YouTube now and grow more than 1000 a day. We have more than 40,000 subscribers pay, which helps to pay bills. We have more than 1,000 founding members paying $ 500 annually to support us.
“After a year, most startups are not broken. But this year we have made a small profit, we did not plan,” says Mahdi Hassan.
(Tom Keter Photography)
Are the media cover the companies enough America in which we live today?
My position is not that the media is dead for companies or that all major media outlets are bad. It will be ridiculous. I worked in these organizations. There are great journalists doing a great job there. My position is that the prevailing media is a lot of mistake, and there are many gaps that must be filled, and this is what Olive does. This does not mean that I want to burn everything. We will not be able to exist as a small media company if we cannot rely on the great investigation outlets from some people in Politico or the New York Times. This does not mean that I love everything that these ports do.
For a while, press standards in old news rooms covering the theories of Maga plot, lies and fake news were made incredibly difficult. It was like using an old tone to describe a new language.
Even in the opinion of the opinion, Trump’s description caused a discussion in the news rooms for a decade. More and more people say the word r. But for a while, he said something racist, racist, and racist. ” It is like, just say racism. They are less letters. Let’s not insult our viewers and readers. Let’s not respect them. Everyone knows what is happening.
They know that “misconduct” is just a soft word “lying”.
My position is very simple: If you say something false more than once after you stick, this is a lie. This is Trump 100 times.
You are known to be unusually explicit, and your opponents are suspended on discussion issues of disagreement. Even I directed your great strength to a book, “Win every argument“
There was always this shading around me wherever you are. He made people uncomfortable in many places. I will not call an outlet, but I will say this, there were times when I worked an interview with a viral and people like, “Oh, my God, the microphone drop! The person was destroyed” to use YouTube. This is what people know. Then I will mention this to a friend or family member, and they will say, but do they even want it? This is like, “Oh, I didn’t think about it. A good question.”
Who brings us back to MSNBC …
When MSNBC abolished my programs, I knew I don’t just want to go to another network or another paper. I have worked in many places in my career: BBC, Sky News, Al Jazeera, NBC. I write a monthly column for The Guardian, but I didn’t want to go to work in The Guardian. I have already done things to object and the new statesman. I wanted to do something special, so I thought if not now, when? This idea that you needed to speak freely, crystallizing very quickly, especially in the climate in which we are with Gaza, Trump’s return, fascism. As long as you have been working by anyone else again, I think the ship has sailed.
