Ford Fischer is an independent journalist and filmmaker. He is the editor-in-chief of News2Share, a company which has White House press credentials. It is a platform for raw video journalism related to political activism.

Early career

Fischer started reporting on politics when he went to

Masconomet Regional High School Masconomet Regional High School is co-located with Masconomet Regional Middle School in Boxford, Massachusetts, United States and also serves the towns of Topsfield and Middleton. Masconomet Regional Middle School serves grades 7 and 8 while t ...

. He filmed local politics in the town of

Boxford, Massachusetts Boxford is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town's population was 8,203 in 2020. The original town center of Boxford, along with East Boxford and other areas in the eastern part of the ...

for Boxford Cable TV. He received a degree in film and media arts from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

. Fischer was an intern with ''Reason'' magazine in the summer of 2014.

''News2Share''

Fischer co-founded News2Share with Trey Yingst in 2014 when they were both students of

. Fischer's journalism involves recording political events such as those related to rallies and protests, later uploading raw unedited footage to online platforms where its shared and licensed to larger media organisations. Fischer reported on the violence at the

Unite the Right rally The Unite the Right rally was a White supremacy#United States, white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, whi ...

in Charlottesville, Virginia. His footage was featured in

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...

's ''

BlacKkKlansman ''BlacKkKlansman'' is a 2018 American biographical film, biographical Crime film, crime comedy-drama film directed by Spike Lee and written by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Lee, loosely based on the 2014 memoir ''Black K ...

'' and

ProPublica ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit investigative journalism organization based in New York City. ProPublica's investigations are conducted by its staff of full-time reporters, and the resulting stories are distributed to ne ...

's Documenting Hate.. In 2019, Fischer's channel News2Share was demonetized and could no longer receive ad revenue from YouTube. As part of a crackdown by on Holocaust denialism, YouTube removed two videos of raw footage by Fischer. One showing a Holocaust denier getting shouted down by Israeli and Palestinian protesters and another of Mike Peinovich Enoch, a neo-Nazi giving a speech. Views present in the footage were not advocated for by Fischer. YouTube's move made Fischer lose much of his income, money used by him to employ freelance journalists or to pay for his travel costs. After seven months, Fischer was able to get his channel remonetized by YouTube. In September 2020, Fischer had his account taken off from Facebook. Not long after, Facebook addressed the matter and apologized for the action. After the November 2020 US Presidential election, Fischer was suspended from posting on the platform.

Storming of the United States Capitol

Fischer recorded a rally held by President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, just prior to the

2021 storming of the United States Capitol On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup,Multiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * * two months after his defea ...

. His video included Trump's speech and the crowd reaction to it. He uploaded raw footage of the rally to YouTube, which was monetized by them on January 8, and then licensed by the BBC for its documentary about the rally and subsequent attack on the Capitol. In late January, the footage was removed by YouTube. YouTube alleged the footage was spreading election misinformation because it gave no counter-viewpoints or context. Fischer protested YouTube's actions on Twitter and pointed out that other networks still had livestreams of Trump's rally on their platforms. He said the situation made him angry, and that he was perplexed by the fact that YouTube did not distinguish between footage documenting an historical event and people purposefully spreading misinformation regarding the 2020 US election. YouTube responded by demonetizing Fischer's channel on grounds that it contained "harmful content". In early February, Fox News published an article about YouTube's "crackdown on independent media;" Fischer's channel was remonetized not long after. YouTube acknowledged their action constituted "over-enforcement" of their rules, but stated that Fischer's rally footage was "policy violative." Fischer stated that he hoped YouTube would revisit and make changes in its policies and its enforcement of them. After his reporting of the US Capitol riots, Twitter shadow banned Fischer, an action which limits the ability of his account to appear in Twitter's search results, and which shows warnings about "potentially sensitive content" on his tweets. Journalist

Matt Taibbi Matthew Colin Taibbi (; born March 2, 1970) is an American author, journalist and podcaster. A former contributing editor for ''Rolling Stone'', he is the author of several books and publisher of ''Racket News'' (formerly ''TK News''). He has re ...

posted an article criticizing Twitter and Youtube's "crackdown on independent media." The article referenced Fischer. Fischer has stated that he considers it important that his Trump rally footage remain available to the public because it documents events relative to Donald Trump's second impeachment trial over his role in the events of January 6.

Jay Ulfelder Jay Ulfelder is an American political scientist who is best known for his work on political forecasting, specifically on anticipating various forms of political instability around the world. From 2001 to 2010, he served as research director of the ...

, a

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

academic, emailed YouTube to say that footage of the rally is "crucial archival material for future scholars looking to get a better sense of what happened."

References

External links

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News2Share
��official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Ford American male journalists Filmmakers from Massachusetts American University alumni Living people Masconomet Regional High School alumni Year of birth missing (living people)