Vice Media recently canceled Vice News Tonight after a long critically successful run, and radio host Charlie Kirk is sad to see the downfall of the newscast that he thought was one of the most innovative and honest broadcasts available.
During his podcast Monday, Kirk took questions from listeners, and one asked about the fall of Vice Media, as it approached bankruptcy while reports surface it could be purchased. Kirk said the outlet was a large portion of “internet culture” in the early 2010s, but like other groups including BuzzFeed News, has fallen on hard times.
“We’re seeing media change as we know it. I think one of the most interesting parts of the Vice News story is that Vice used to be a legitimately interesting news organization. I first became aware of Vice from some of their incredibly effective and boundary-pushing gritty YouTube videos that were pseudo documentaries,” said Kirk.
“In fact, one of the most powerful pieces of film I have ever seen on North Korea was produced by Vice News. They embedded a camera and went into North Korea. Vice News went down to South America and exposed the drug cartels. It’s pretty amazing. They wouldn’t do that now. Vice News started as very gritty, boundary-pushing, and honest…Vice did documentaries about African cannibal warlords. It was the strangest, honest, stories that you could imagine.”
The Turning Point USA founder then claimed that after a valuation of $4-$5 billion, Vice Media lost sight of what made it popular.
“Vice News raised all this money, and then Vice decided to become boring,” argued Kirk. “They became a victim of its own success…Vice partnered with HBO for their nightly newscast…it just got boring. It just became ‘Oh, look at this evil Republican and Trump’. Trump really did break a lot of these people…Vice just stopped thinking for themselves. They stopped being interesting.”
