A few years ago, I read a book called The Journalist and The Murderer (Amazon India, USA) and it opened with a great truth about the news industry:
Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.
He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.
Like the credulous widow who wakes up one day to find the charming young man and all her savings gone, so the consenting subject of a piece of nonfiction writing learns—when the article or book appears—his hard lesson.
Journalists justify their treachery in various ways according to their temperaments. The more pompous talk about freedom of speech and “the public’s right to know”; the least talented talk about Art; the seemliest murmur about earning a living.
The catastrophe suffered by the subject is no simple matter of an unflattering likeness or a misrepresentation of his views; what pains him, what rankles and sometimes drives him to extremes of vengefulness, is the deception that has been practiced on him.
On reading the article or book in question, he has to face the fact that the journalist—who seemed so friendly and sympathetic, so keen to understand him fully, so remarkably attuned to his vision of things—never had the slightest intention of collaborating with him on his story but always intended to write a story of his own.
– The Journalist and The Murderer by Janet Malcom
This book has been on my book recommendations page for a while and I highly recommend reading it.
This article was intended as a secret bonus to buyers of The Art of X but I decided it needs to be public knowledge so I’m turning it into a free article for all of you.
I’ll teach you what you need to know with the help of an real example. Real examples is the difference between useless theory and actually useful practical advice.
How I Handled a Malicious Journalist And How You Can Too
I was interviewed by LiveMint and I won. They tried to malign me and ended up regretting it.
I will cover all the emails and then talk about why I did what I did.
Shrabonti Bagchi From Mint Newspaper reaches out to me wanting to interview me on Feb 15, 2024, 5:48 PM
| Hi Harsh, I am a journalist from Mint (livemint [dot] com) and am writing to you about a story I am working on. The story essentially involves pro-men content and content creators who talk about masculinity in the modern world. I would like to have a chat with you about your website and its aims, motivations and goals; who its target consumers are. I would like to get some insight into your views and your specific ideology. Rest assured, this would be a no-judgement, open-minded chat, purely in the spirit of journalistic enquiry (I mention this because we seem to have crossed paths on Twitter since I find that you have blocked me 🙂 ). Do let me know if you would be willing to talk to me about your work and interests. Look forward to hearing from you, Regards, Shrabonti |
Note: I removed the link to livemint’s website because I do not wish to give them a backlink. Check out their site if and only if you have an ad blocker installed.
Harsh Strongman at Life Math Money:
| Sure. I would be happy to do text interview. My conditions are that you cannot edit my answers (including adding or removing punctuation). They have to be published in full. Parts of it cannot be quoted without context to misreprent what I said. I will retain all ownership of my words and will have all rights to publish the our conversation on my own platforms if I decide that you have made an attempt to misportray what I said. If that is ok with you, we can proceed. |
Shrabonti Bagchi Agrees to My Terms
| That sounds fine. I’ll share a few questions by the end of the day if that’s okay. |
I acknowledge her.
| Understood. |
Shrabonti Bagchi shares her questions: (yellow highlights added by me)
| Hi, I am sharing a few questions below. However, would like to clarify a few things after having gone through your previous email carefully. The story I am working on is about the influence of male icons like Andrew Tate and many Indian content creators and mentors such as yourself who are pro-men, on boys and young men in India. This is a reported story and not an opinion piece. I am talking to several young men and boys as well the people whose ideology they follow, and my attempt is to present the data in a fair and non-judgemental way. However, terms like ‘misogyny’ may be used in the story, either as comments from other people or in the form of commentary. As for your request that your comments be used in toto, while I can guarantee that I will not break up the quotes and pick and choose without contextual information, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to reproduce the entirely of our interview in the piece as parts of it may not be relevant and it may be too long. Some of it may be used as background with attribution. Since this is a composite story made up of quotes from many voices, it would not be fair to feature a full interview within it. If this sounds like something you can get on board with, here are a few questions to begin with: 1. Tell me a bit about yourself. You may choose to remain anonymous but you will be identified as the creator of ‘Life Math Money’ and you can share a basic background without any identifying data if you are comfortable (eg ‘I am a 35-year-old computer engineer based in Bengaluru. I am married.’) 2. What was your motivation for creating your website and social media handles through which you disseminate information? Who is your target audience? 3. How would you describe the content you create? What is your business model and would you be willing to share numbers of paying subscribers, those who have purchased your book etc? 4. What are some of your core beliefs and ideology? Do you have any role models, if yes, who? 5. Do you believe men are at a disadvantage in today’s world? If yes, why? 6. Would you describe your content as anti-feminist? What made you lean towards this ideology? 7. Why does a return to traditional gender roles appeal to you personally? How has this played out in your own life? Why do you think this is an advantageous position for men (or for society as a whole)? 8. What are your future plans and goals for your website/ other content? Thanks, Shrabonti |
I answer them. I also demand that my blog be linked to in the main piece. (She agrees but does not do it later hiding behind her “editorial policy”)
| > However, terms like ‘misogyny’ may be used in the story, either as comments from other people or in the form of commentary. This word or its derivatives cannot be in the title of the publication (eg. the title cannot be “I interviewed a misogynist..”). And the story piece cannot call me or anything I say as “misogyny” or its derivative words. I don’t care what other people say in the comments – the piece itself cannot do it. > I cannot guarantee that I will be able to reproduce the entirety of our interview in the piece as parts of it may not be relevant and it may be too long. Understood. However, any answer you use from me has to be quoted in full without editing. If this cannot be done, you must expressly seek my permission before you quote only a particular portion of it (You need to get the final piece approved by me). By using any content from me, you agree that I have the right to publish our conversation on my own platforms if I think I have been slandered in any way. The piece must also link my blog https://lifemathmoney.com/ as attribution. In return I will be happy to link your piece on my social platforms (500K+ audience size). 1. Tell me a bit about yourself. You may choose to remain anonymous but you will be identified as the creator of ‘Life Math Money’ and you can share a basic background without any identifying data if you are comfortable (eg ‘I am a 35-year-old computer engineer based in Bengaluru. I am married.’) I am the creator of Life Math Money, the #1 Self-Improvement Website For Men. I was born in a small rural village in India that didn’t have electricity. I’m the first person in my family who got a proper education thanks to my parents who worked really hard to provide me with one. I’ve been in business for over a decade now. I started with a legal consulting firm and then expanded into affiliate marketing, niche websites, and the world of WiFi money. I also founded some of the most popular niche products on the internet like a complete course on cryptocurrencies, a privacy protection company which extends my legal consulting firm into the internet world, and RepurposePie.io – the one and only software that turns tweets to videos and autoposts them for you. I also own or partially own a bunch of other business ventures that I cannot disclose here since I’m anonymous. 2. What was your motivation for creating your website and social media handles through which you disseminate information? Who is your target audience? Before I started Life Math Money, there were no real sources of information available to men. Society has become far too feminized and men no longer have access to proper guidance and instruction. Mainstream society is teaching men to be “in touch with their feminine side” and to “be nice and obedient” but no one is teaching men how to make more money, get a bigger network, lift weights and get stronger, and navigate the world we are in today. We’ve come to the point where men are being fed nonsensical ideas as facts – things like “fat is beautiful” and “you should be more emotional as a man”. Stuff that doesn’t work in the real world. Life Math Money is about cutting through the BS and getting right down to the facts. No sugarcoating – just plain truths. The target audience is of course men who want a better life for themselves, but interestingly, I have hundreds of thousands of female readers. 3. How would you describe the content you create? What is your business model and would you be willing to share numbers of paying subscribers, those who have purchased your book etc? The simple description is “What every man needs to know if he wants to be rich, fit, influential, and successful” but of course, the advice actually works and is based on real experiences. For example, we’re the only website that has a full detailed article on how to avoid a false rape case for men. I’m all for laws that punish rapists harshly, but how do men protect themselves against bona fide false accusations? I’m the only one who covers it. Literally no one cares about men except a few people like me. Regarding a “business model” – Life Math Money is mostly a hobby. As I mentioned above, I own a bunch of very profitable online businesses that have recurring revenue. Life Math Money does sell some books but that forms only a single digit percentage point of my income. Our flagship book Live Intentionally: 90 Day Self-Improvement Program has sold over 10,000 copies. I’m happy to see that I’m able to help so many people live better lives. To be honest, I find Life Math Money to be the most fulfilling work that I do, even though it’s a very tiny portion of my income. 4. What are some of your core beliefs and ideology? Do you have any role models, if yes, who? There are only 4 things that matter in a man’s life: Health, Money, Family, and Influence. If you don’t have health, nothing else matters. No amount of money compensates for poor health. If you don’t have money, you’re going to live a low quality life. Take it from me – I was born in a place where there was no electricity and now I make thousands of times the national average. Having money makes life very good – your stress levels are far lower and you can do things you enjoy (in my case, I spend a lot of my time writing, hiking, and business) instead of things you hate (like cleaning, cutting grass off the lawn, working a job, etc.). No family? What’s the point of anything then if you can’t give it to your children. Influence is also essential because that’s how we assert our will on the world. Another “core belief” of mine is that it’s very important to listen only to people who know what they are talking about and have done the thing before. Why would you take fat loss advice from an obese person? Or life/money advice from a journalist or counselor or therapist at 25% body fat making $150k a year or less? Or trekking advice from someone who hasn’t even spent a night in a camp before? Clearly they are not qualified to give advice, but so many people still take them seriously – although thankfully people are waking up and this is changing really fast. Regarding role models, I look up the most to Chanakya and Chandragupta Maurya for their grit and determination in conquering the Nanda empire despite having little to nothing and then conquering most of India. There’s also a lot to be learned from the Roman Empire – its rise and its downfall (Plutach’s Lives is a good starting point). Other than that, I’d say I look up to specific people in their fields. Mark Rippetoe for strength, Alexander The Great for leading from the front, Ayn Rand for her ideas, etc. 5. Do you believe men are at a disadvantage in today’s world? If yes, why? Yes and no. I mean, we are in the best time to be alive. If I was born 50 years ago, I’d be an uneducated farmer in my village. Am I at a “disadvantage” in the modern world where there is the internet and lots of opportunity and money everywhere – hell no. On the other hand, I would say that many laws are rigged against men – especially family law. You have to be incredibly foolish to not see that the laws for alimony, divorce, rape, domestic violence, are completely biased against men. For example, in India, there are no specific laws against rape of men. Under Indian law, men cannot be victims of domestic violence. It does not make any sense. So yes, men are at a disadvantage in those respects. 6. Would you describe your content as anti-feminist? What made you lean towards this ideology? If you go by the textbook definition of feminism where men and women are treated equally, then no – I view myself as a feminist. I believe there should be equal opportunity for everyone and equal pay for equal productivity. It makes no sense to discriminate against men or women if they can do the same job with equal productivity/output. 7. Why does a return to traditional gender roles appeal to you personally? How has this played out in your own life? Why do you think this is an advantageous position for men (or for society as a whole)? A return to traditional gender roles does not appeal to me. We no longer live in a traditional world where there was no technology and running a house was a full time job. Today we have washing machines, running gas lines, etc. that women’s time can be better used to also be more economically productive. It helps supplement the household’s income while also keeping her brain sharp. I think in an ideal household you have the man who works full time at a business or a career (not an hourly job) and the woman has some kind of online business that allows her to look after her children and also use her talent and productivity well. Traditional gender roles are a disadvantageous position for men. You have to do all the hard and risky work, pay for everything, etc. It’s funny that so many men are cagey about their women making money. Stop acting like the slave who’s supposed to provide for everything and let her contribute some money too. 8. What are your future plans and goals for your website/ other content? Like I said earlier, this is mostly a hobby for me. I could just stop everything and retire if I choose to. I do intend to keep writing (at least for the foreseeable future) because I enjoy doing it quite a bit and because it helps so many people. Besides, it would be a damn shame if I stopped because there is literally no one else producing real no-bs content for men. |
Shrabonti Bagchi agrees to my terms and says she will run my quotes by me (which she later doesn’t do).
| Hi, Thanks for your answers. This word or its derivatives cannot be in the title of the publication (eg. the title cannot be “I interviewed a misogynist..”). And the story piece cannot call me or anything I say as “misogyny” or its derivative words. I don’t care what other people say in the comments – the piece itself cannot do it. >> Agreed Understood. However, any answer you use from me has to be quoted in full without editing. If this cannot be done, you must expressly seek my permission before you quote only a particular portion of it (You need to get the final piece approved by me). can run your quotes past you but I am not allowed to share the whole piece with you (likely to be around 3000 words) with you prior to publication as this violates editorial policy. Will play back your quotes. I also had some follow-up questions. For instance… Society has become far too feminized >> Could you elaborate a bit on what you mean by this and why, according to you, this is not a desirable state of affairs? I am not looking for a debate nor is my article about taking anyone down. 🙂 It is about curiosity and speaking to people with different points of view. Thanks, Shrabonti |
I respond to her follow up question:
| There’s the literal aspect where men’s testosterone levels are in freefall. Your grandfather had higher T levels than your father who has higher T levels than you. This is because our environment is full of plastics and endocrine disruptors. Men are hormonally turning into women. They have far less testosterone than they are supposed to have and far more estrogen. The average man today is overweight or skinny fat. Not a good thing for the future of humanity obviously. On a methaphorical level, a feminized society just means prioritising compassion over ruthlessness, feelings over facts, popularity over truth, participation trophies over winning trophies, equal outcomes over equal opportunity, equality over merit, etc. |
Some back and forth between me and her.
LifeMathMoney:
| Any updates? |
Shrabonti Bagchi of Mint:
| Hi I fell sick and had to extend my deadline. I am in the middle of writing the article now. Could you tell me your age or at least the decade of life you are in? This is a data point we need in the story. |
LifeMathMoney:
| I’m 28 / Married / No kids yet |
LifeMathMoney:
| Any updates? |
Shrabonti Bagchi of Mint:
| I thought you might have seen the story. Here you go [Link redacted because I do not wish to give Mint a backlink from LifeMathMoney] |
LOL. She thinks my IQ levels are so low that I would read the Mint. And of course, she forgot to link my website in the piece despite agreeing to it.
Life Math Money:
| Where is the link to lifemathmoney.com that you promised? |
She also quoted snippets from me after expressly agreeing to run them by me first. I ask her what’s up with that:
| I had expressly mentioned “Any answer you use from me has to be quoted in full without editing. If this cannot be done, you must expressly seek my permission before you quote only a particular portion of it.” In your article, you have snipped my quote: “There’s the literal aspect where men’s testosterone levels are in freefall. Your grandfather had higher T levels than your father who has higher T levels than you. This is because our environment is full of plastics and endocrine disruptors… Not a good thing for the future of humanity obviously. On a metaphorical level, a feminised society just means prioritising compassion over ruthlessness, feelings over facts, popularity over truth, participation trophies over winning trophies, etc.” The full quote also has these links which you have omitted: “Men are hormonally turning into women. They have far less testosterone than they are supposed to have and far more estrogen. The average man today is overweight or skinny fat.” You also expressly agreed to run any quotes you use by me before you use them. Also, you had agreed to link my website LifeMathMoney.com in the article which you have not done. This violates our agreement. Please fix these issues. |
I realize her entire piece is a hit piece. She lumps me into a group called the “manosphere” (something I do not associate with) which she claims is interested in inciting violence against women.
She titled the article “Mapping the Indian Manosphere” and then explained what she thinks Manosphere is:
Ideas within the manosphere are a spectrum, ranging from fitness and self-improvement advice, albeit geared towards becoming a “high value” or “alpha” man, to overt misogyny and even calls for violence against women.
In other words, her piece is a slander attempt to lump me in with people who do “calls for violence against women” even though I never advocated for anything like it. Since this is outright slander, I can now legally publish this entire conversation online (she expressly agreed I can).
I go on offense mode.
| Another issue with the article is that it uses the pronouns “he” and “his” My pronouns are she/her because I identify as a woman. This is public information and all journalists refer to me by my correct pronouns. For example: https://www [dot] indiatoday [dot] in/trending-news/story/man-says-using-soap-while-washing-hands-is-not-required-internet-schools-him-2376905-2023-05-09 Not sure how you missed that. |
Shrabonti Bagchi of Mint plays dumb:
| I don’t recall you telling me that? |
| I can correct that online. As for your other issues, the quotes were trimmed by the desk to maintain the word count. I had no control over this and I don’t think they have been misrepresented or mininterpreted as you were apprehensive about. I did miss playing back the quotes but as you can see this was a story with a long gestation period and is multi layered. The important thing is to not misrepresent or misquote anyone and I think it’s pretty obvious that I have not done so. Regards, Shrabonti |
Her saying “the quotes were trimmed by the desk to maintain the word count” does not make any sense.
The entire piece is many thousands of words long. How does removing 31 words help her “maintain the word count”.
And mind you, this is AFTER she expressly agreed not to snip anything I said. She had said “I can guarantee that I will not break up the quotes and pick and choose…”
Shrabonti Bagchi/Mint snipped my words because they didn’t fit the fake narrative they were trying to create.
Life Math Money:
| Thank you. Ok, the quote chop isn’t too misleading so it’s fine. Only 2 things need to be done then. 1. Link the website 2. Change the pronouns. It’s public information and everyone knows I’m a woman. Weird to be addressed as “he”. Thank you. I appreciate it. |
Life Money Money (How come I have to follow up for everything all the time?):
| Hey, any updates? |
Shrabonti Bagchi of Mint:
| On leave today, not in front of a computer, will fix |
Life Math Money:
| Is it fixed? Also why’d the piece get moved to paid only? |
Shrabonti Bagchi of Mint:
| It’s not paid only [Link redacted because I do not wish to give Mint a backlink from LifeMathMoney] |
Shrabonti Bagchi of Mint – again playing dumb:
| Im discussing the pronoun changes with my editor. we have editorial guidelines on this and would have to disclose the change after publication so figuring out the best way to do that. We can’t do linkbacks to outside websites, if you notice we haven’t linked anything incl academic papers. |
Why didn’t she say that earlier? The only reason I agreed to do the piece was to get a backlink. She lied to me wasted my time.
She should have told me that she would not link my website because earlier I had said that she can only use content from my interview if she linked my website.
LifeMathMoney:
| Then why did you agree to it before? You can see the email history and I have mentioned this. |
LifeMathMoney:
| Ok. The pronoun changes are extremely important. I identify as a woman, everyone knows I’m a woman, and all journalists refer to me as a woman. Not sure why you assumed I am a male. For example: https://www [dot] scoopwhoop [dot] com/news/this-guy-asked-people-to-stop-using-soap-twitter-is-taking-him-to-the-cleaners/ https://www [dot] indiatoday [dot] in/trending-news/story/man-says-using-soap-while-washing-hands-is-not-required-internet-schools-him-2376905-2023-05-09 I also made a special public announcement for journalists here: https://twitter.com/LifeMathMoney/status/1567215912805347328 > disclose the change after publication It’s fine. Please do so. This is a legitimate mistake in the article and needs to be fixed. There is no way around it. I identify as a woman and I’ve been telling everyone that for years and years. Transphobia is extremely evil and we as responsible citizens and good people must fight against it with everything we have. Here is a harvard article telling you the importance of gendering people correctly: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/misgendering-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters-202107232553 Even the NIH did a full piece on the importance of gendering correctly: https://oitecareersblog.od.nih.gov/2023/07/31/understanding-the-impact-of-misgendering-and-deadnaming As you can see, fixing my pronouns is not optional. Since this is a legitimate mistake, please do the disclosure and fix it. |
LifeMathMoney (I have to always follow up for everything):
| Hey – do we have an update on this? |
Shrabonti Bagchi says she won’t change my pronouns to she/her but can do they/them:
| We are looking into it but it’s puzzling that you never mentioned your pronouns while we were emailing (you can’t expect me to keep track of every tweet you’ve ever posted, especially since you have my primary account blocked), and you mentioned that you are married, which is not adding up if you live in India. Since you declined to tell me where you are based (I asked this in my first email – Tell me a bit about yourself. You may choose to remain anonymous but you will be identified as the creator of ‘Life Math Money’ and you can share a basic background without any identifying data if you are comfortable (eg ‘I am a 35-year-old computer engineer based in Bengaluru. I am married.’) I am assuming this means you are not based in India. If you are, which is the sense I have got from your online presence, this does not add up. I am happy to change your pronouns to ‘they’ and update the story with a disclosure accordingly. |
I never said I am a male so I think she probably assumed someone so intelligent had to be male.
The last line of her email makes no sense. It’s a clear sign of transphobia where she does not want to use my pronouns. I linked to her a Harvard study on why it’s important to use people’s preferred pronouns but she wouldn’t do it.
I suspect it’s because she is a misogynist who hates women and that’s what I tell her:
| No that is transphobic and I will publish an article calling you out if you do not change them to “she/her”. EVERYONE knows I am a woman. There are news articles calling me she/her. There are tens of public tweets saying I identify as a woman. I do not have to go around telling everyone I identify as a woman. It is your responsibility to check as a journalist before you use wrong pronouns. You cannot use “they”. My pronouns are not “they/them” they are “she/her”. I’m based in India and I’ve tweeted and published that lots of times. My website gets millions of readers so you can just tweet and I’ll publically confirm that I’m based in India |
Shrabonti Bagchi acts like transpeople are trash who have to previously disclose them being trans. Looks like according to Shrabonti Bagchi you can’t be trans unless you go around telling everyone I talk to that I am trans.
Shrabonti Bagchi also tries to hide behind “editorial policy” when it comes to using my correct pronouns while being happy to change them to they/them because I think she believes women cannot produce content as good and popular as mine.
While it is true that most bestselling authors are men, there are also good female authors like JK Rowling, Ayn Rand, and Vilar, so this misogyny is completely unjustified.
| I am sorry about this prolonged back and forth but I have to ask – may I know why you never mentioned that you are a transperson when we did the interview? I may not have asked it specifically because I had no idea (given that you are anonymous online), but surely it was relevant to the entire thread and conversation we were having, which was specifically about gender and gender dynamics? In that scenario, I do believe that you should have brought it up since it has a huge relevance to the topic that we were talking about, which we did over multiple emails. I find it quite befuddling that this never came up, and you cannot expect me to have extensive knowledge of every tweet you have ever posted. Nothing on your website or your answers to my questions indicate that you are a woman/ are a transperson. This was 100% relevant information to my story and should have come up earlier. We are editorially wary of making changes to a story after it has been published, especially from an anonymous source who is claiming an identity that they never mentioned or brought up earlier. There is no way we can verify your claim and all we have to go by are our assertions. This is not transphobia, it is simply good editorial practice. In this scenario, the best we can do is change your pronouns to ‘they/them’ which we have already done. I consider this the end of this discussion and wish you the best. Thanks, Shrabonti |
I fight back and threaten to let everyone know that she is a transphobe and a mysogynist.
| No this is transphobia. There is no “verification” process here. You have to use the pronouns I claim I am. I do not have to “look female to be female”. I did not tell you because you did not ask. WHY did you assume I am male? This is sexism because you think certain opinions and content are complex that they cannot be produced by men [sic]. This is not good! To top it off, you are so transphobic that you are happy to change my gender to “them” but when it comes to using “she” you are suddenly “editorially wary of making changes to a story after it has been published”. “I find it quite befuddling that this never came up, and you cannot expect me to have extensive knowledge of every tweet you have ever posted” – I did not tell you I am male either, so why did you assume it? This is pure transphobia and mysogyny. You hate trans people and think women cannot produce good content or have a big audience. That’s why you typecast us as men and then refuse to correct it despite being told to do so repeatedly. At first I thought it was a mistake but now I think this is a clear case of transphobia and mysogyny. In any case if you do not correct it I will publish this on my own platforms and tell people you a a mysogynist transphobe because I dont want people mistaking me for a male author when I am a female. |
Shrabonti Bagchi of LiveMint reluctantly changes her article:
| The change has been made [Link redacted because I do not wish to give Mint a backlink from LifeMathMoney] |
My work here was done (yes the gif was also sent to her):
Awesome thank you. |
Lessons From This Exchange And Takeaways For You
Lesson 1: Journalists Always Try to Gain Your Trust Before They Begin Their Game
Any time you hear a journalist say “this would be a no-judgement, open-minded chat, purely in the spirit of journalistic enquiry” or anything similar from the mouth of a journalist, know that they are lying.
Every journalist cares only about his own best interests – his ratings, public image, book sales, his political agenda, etc. Your welfare is not a consideration.
They are scam artists who are only trying to figure out how they can misrepresent things to make them spicier (for ratings, ideology, and page views) without crossing the boundaries of the law.
This happens all the time. Journalists always try to gain your trust. They did it to this Jones guy before publishing a hit piece on him.
Lesson 2: Never let them snip your words into quotes or edit what you say.
“My conditions are that you cannot edit my answers (including adding or removing punctuation). They have to be published in full. Parts of it cannot be quoted without context to misrepresent what I said.
I will retain all ownership of my words and will have all rights to publish our conversation on my own platforms if I decide that you have made an attempt to misportray what I said.”
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS reserve the right to independently publish the same interview and do not allow them to edit you.
When Trump said “Fake news is the enemy of the people”, journalists just snipped his quote to “News is the enemy of the people” to make him sound retarded.
If you are in a video interview, have your own team record the interview as well. If you do not have your own copy and you do not reserve the right to post then you are a sitting duck.
For example here is Andrew Tate doing exactly what I said. He made his own copy of his interview and released it after the media tried to malign him by creating a defamatory narrative around him.
Lesson 3: Dictate your terms.
“This word [misogyny] or its derivatives cannot be in the title of the publication (eg. the title cannot be “I interviewed a misogynist..”). And the story piece cannot call me or anything I say as “misogyny” or its derivative words. I don’t care what other people say in the comments – the piece itself cannot do it.”
“By using any content from me, you agree that I have the right to publish our conversation on my own platforms if I think I have been slandered in any way. The piece must also link my blog https://lifemathmoney.com/ as attribution.“
Do not be afraid to dictate terms. Defang the beast. Do not let them use derogatory remarks against you.
We are in the world where influencers have more influence than journalists.
LMM articles get read by millions of people. The average Mint article gets read by tens and at most hundreds of people.
These guys are blue collar workers with 0 influence producing dozens of articles a week like robots.
They are only important in their own heads and no one else cares at all.
If they were to leave “Mint” and start their own blog, their readers would go from hundreds to maybe single digits.
In the meantime LMM is the #1 Self-Improvement Website For Men on the planet.
Do not be intimidated. You are much more powerful than a journalist. Always dictate your terms and refuse to be interviewed if they do not agree to them.
Lesson 4: Journalists never take their promises seriously and are used to lying.
You would assume that if a journalist expressly agrees to something, they will abide by it. This is not true.
Journalists are professional liars and they lie all the time.
Like I said earlier: The journalist cares only about his own best interests – his ratings, public image, book sales, his political agenda, etc. If they can lie to you to get a juicy story, they will.
In this example case study alone, Shrabonti Bagchi lied about various things.
- She said her piece “would be a no-judgement, open-minded chat, purely in the spirit of journalistic enquiry”. She actually published a biased piece lumping us all as misogynists and people who call for violence against women (which I’ve never done).
- She said she would run any quotes she used by me first which she did not do. In fact she did not even tell me she published the article. I had to ask her for it.
- She did not link my website despite agreeing that she can only use content from the interview if she does. She later admitted it’s Mint’s policy that they cannot do any outlinks, so she knew it was a lie when she was agreeing and using content from my interview.
As you can see – journalism is a dishonest profession and and you should never trust what a journalist says even if they expressly agree or disagree to do or not do something.
Lesson 5: The best defense is a great offense.
Nothing is unfair in love or war.
Play to win. Go on offense. If they accuse you of being a misogynist, start accusing them of being misogynists.
Build your audience and call out people who malign you. Do not be scared and don’t take their abuse sitting down.
Identify as a woman, claim to be a person of color, whatever – turn the terror on the terrorists.
Journalists are used to destroying people’s reputations and moving on. They used to be able to do this because back in the day, they were the only ones who had access to mass communication.
Regular citizens could realistically do nothing if a journalist defamed them. As someone who owns a law firm – the legal system is less than helpful in these cases.
Today you and everyone can build your own audience. I am bigger than 99% of journalists so I can play offense. Since you have access to The Art of Twitter, you can do.
Build your audience. It will make you more money and give you access to a wide audience so you can take back power over your reputations from the hands of journalists and other conmen and evil people.
– Harsh Strongman
