The Post Millennial

The Post Millennial is a conservative Canadian media outlet started in 2017. It publishes national and local news and has a large amount of opinion content. It grew rapidly since 2018, and has been criticized for releasing misinformation,[1] for employing an editor with ties to white supremacist-platforming and pro-Kremlin media outlets,[2] and for opaque funding and political connections.[3][4]

The Post Millennial
FormatDigital-only
Founder(s)
  • Matthew Azrieli
  • Ali Taghva
Founded2017
HeadquartersMontreal, Canada
Websitethepostmillennial.com

Content

The Post Millennial provides both national and regional news. It runs stories on politics and culture. Its opinion section is a significant portion of its content, and conservative figures such as Barbara Kay have written opinions for the outlet.[4]

Most news content provided by The Post Millennial is reused from other media outlets with no additional reporting.[4]

History

The Post Millennial was started in 2017 by Matthew Azrieli and Ali Taghva. The site's Facebook presence expanded rapidly between June 2018 and May 2019, with page interactions growing from 36,000 to 194,000 per month. In 2020, their Facebook engagement was in the millions, beating most Canadian media outlets. Meanwhile, a new office was sited in Montreal, and the organization planned for another expansion into Toronto in 2020. In May 2019, Jeff Ballingall, a former political campaigner for Ontario Premier Doug Ford, was hired as chief executive.[4]

The Post Millennial is backed by private investors, but their identities have not been made public. Other funding sources remain unclear, with proceeds from advertising or subscriptions undefined.[4]

Reception

Staffing choices

The Post Millennial has been questioned for its hiring of editor Cosmin Dzsurdzsa. Dzurdzsa started his career in 2015 at Russia Insider, a pro-Kremlin propaganda outlet. Dzurdzsa worked from December 2017 through 2018 at Free Bird Media, a blog which interviewed white supremacists including Richard Spencer and Kevin Johnston both before and while Dzurdzsa worked there. When asked by the National Observer, representatives of the media outlet made no comment on background checks or considerations of past employment in hiring.[2] Dzsurdzsa no longer works at The Post Millennial.

Disinformation

The Post Millennial has been used by Bellingcat to demonstrate the online spread of disinformation. During the 2019 Australia fires, the English conspiracy theorist Paul Joseph Watson released a false story alleging that the wildfires resulted in large part from arson.[1] The Post Millennial used Watson's story as a basis for their own reporting, alleging that "legal action" had been taken against 183 people during the bushfires. Though the outlet noted that other causes may have started the fires, they lead with content from Watson, including in their sourcing one of Watson's tweets.[1]

Undeclared ties

The Post Millennial has been described as an advocacy organization for the Conservative Party operating through opaque personal connections and undeclared social media ties.[3] Yaakov Pollak, a former provincial Conservative Party candidate, joined the media group in July 2019. Pollak ran a variety of Conservative Party-affiliated Facebook groups, including the Liberty Now and the Elect Conservatives groups. Pollak did not declare his connection to these pages, and until he was contacted by interested media groups, the majority of content on those pages was sourced from The Post Millennial.[3]

References
  1. Evans, Robert (3 April 2020). "How Coronavirus Disinformation Gets Past Social Media Moderators". Bellingcat. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  2. McIntosh, Emma (22 August 2019). "He used to work for a site that promoted racists — now he edits a Canadian news outlet". Canada's National Observer. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  3. Silverman, Craig; Lytvynenko, Jane; Boutilier, Alex; Oved, Marco (26 July 2019). "A Set Of Facebook Pages Promoting Conservatives And Attacking Trudeau Are Run By A Post Millennial Staffer". BuzzFeed News. Buzzfeed News. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  4. Yates, Jeff; Rogers, Kaleigh (13 August 2019). "Canadian news site The Post Millennial blurs line between journalism and conservative 'pamphleteering'". CBC News. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
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