This article is WAY too long to post a full swipe here. But it is a hell of a piece. I knew he wasn't shit after he got a family member with that LifeGoals shit and I remember reading about the Mountain Climbing a couple of years back.

This piece is long AF but absolutely worth the read.

I've included a partial swipe

https://www.thedailybeast.com/shaun-king-keeps-raising-money-and-questions-about-where-it-goes-3


hen Shaun King and progressive journalist Benjamin Dixon launched an ambitious multimedia reboot of Frederick Douglass’s abolitionist newspaper, The North Star, last February, it was celebrated across social media by prominent voices including Susan Sarandon, Michael Eric Dyson and Megan Mullally. A month later, the company boasted on Twitter that it already had “multiple angel investors” and more than 30,000 subscribers contributing $5 per month for students and $10 a month and up for the general public.

Subscribers at the highest giving levels, according to one former employee I spoke with, included Sigourney Weaver, Brené Brown, and black billionaire philanthropist Robert Smith, who gave a healthy $10,000 a month. If every single subscriber gave at the lowest $5 a month “student plan” level, subscriber revenue totalled more than $125,000 monthly, or $1.5 million a year, per figures tweeted by both King and The North Star.

“Remember — this is not just the cost of membership — we are going to be building multiple studios and offices and will be hiring nearly 50 world class journalists and staffers for The North Star,” King wrote in a fundraising letter last November. “We are going to be launching a full news website, an iPhone & Android app, four brand new podcasts, online video news broadcasts, and so much more. We are building The North Star together.”

But 14 months after launching, almost none of what King promised to build has appeared and the site has struggled with issues that alienated many subscribers. The headquarters and television studio was quietly shuttered last summer, and all Atlanta-based staffers laid off. The mobile app disappeared for over a year, and the “full news site” displays branded The North Star apparel for sale alongside relatively scant original journalism.

King told me in an extensive email exchange for this story in early April that The North Star’s stumbles, including the dearth of deliverables promised, can be chalked up to the same overzealousness that has been the downfall of his other projects—the result of his tendency to take on too much, too soon.

“When we launched The North Star, virtually every advisor I had insisted that we should not do written articles, podcasts, and video news at the same time,” King wrote. “I just knew we could do it. They were right.”

But seven former employees of The North Star — three of whom spoke anonymously out of fear of reprisal by King, and six of whom were told they had to sign non-disclosure agreements to receive severances — said the issue was less King’s over-ambition than his absenteeism, insistence on absolute control, and radical incompetence. They said he had little interest in feedback from staffers he had ostensibly brought on for their lengthy resumes and media experience, despite his own lack of the same. Two iterations of broadcast news shows were scrapped, and their staffs and hosts fired, before they ever aired, and Dixon was pushed out even as money poured in and the site remained underpopulated.

It’s well documented that King—one of Bernie Sanders’ most prominent surrogates in both 2016 and 2020—has used his social media platforms to garner national headlines for stories of racial injustice that would likely have otherwise been neglected or ignored. The outrage and media attention that followed King’s sharing of graphic and horrific footage of Ahmaud Arbery, a young black man, being gunned down in February by two white men, was the catalyst for Georgia law enforcement to finally arrest the killers. In 2017, King successfully crowdsourced the identities of at least two of the white racists who brutally assaulted DeAndre Harris during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

As those headlines have raised his profile, King has continued to raise money, including through a Patreon fundraising campaign launched this April—again requesting $5 per month from students, $10 and up from general public subscribers—to turn The Breakdown podcast into a “daily video news broadcast.” Critical observers were quick to point out that King’s earlier fundraising letters for The North Star had also promised subscription fees would underwrite “daily online video news broadcasts.” In the letter announcing the relaunch, King explicitly asked contributors to the original The North Star fundraiser to also become monthly paying subscribers to a live broadcast version of a podcast that’s part of The North Star, a project that was already funded, per King’s own tweets, in February 2019. "Before we announce this to the public,” King wrote in the email, “we want the original Breakdown Crew to join us.”

The announcement of the new crowdfunding campaign revived rumors that have swirled on social media since it first launched that The North Star is more of a money-making maneuver than the “fully independent, unbought, unbossed media company focused on freedom” King had promised.

It has also fueled long-standing accusations—primarily lodged by black women and queer folks, nearly all of whom are his former co-organizers, colleagues, employees and supporters—that King has inflated, mismanaged or failed to account for funds he’s raised for various social justice causes.

While it should be noted that no criminal or civil charges have ever been filed against King, the story—in the words of former employees of The North Star—was one of “self sabotage” by him, and “really shady fucking business” with “a liar & a fraud.”......

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A lot of you players ain't okay.

We would have been better off with an okaycivics board instead of an okayactivist board

its the same exact story with him every time but theres never any shortage of people giving him money.

dude had celebrities coming out of the woodwork to defend him when he was getting exposed for another scam not too long ago.

meanwhile he was prolly milking them for this new scam at the same time.

dude put together a team of his own closest allies as an independent public accountability panel to examine his financial record. then posted some non binding affidavit/statement saying everything was cool.

that prolly shoulda been the end of his gravy train for anyone who applied even a little bit of common sense.

lol @ that susan sarandon tweet.

make someone else the head, and just work from behind?

in true arrogant grifter (whiteness) fashion he wants to be the face of his continued finess

it's weird at this point

_____________________
puttin' the roota in the toota since 98'

or they are terrible at delegating authority.

Why doesn’t he just accept donations for the work he does now? I know new projects bring new energy but obviously he isn’t good at completing these projects.

Ideas are easy.. implementation and reiterating until you get it right is the hard part.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

wasn't responding to you

_____________________
puttin' the roota in the toota since 98'

at least I didn’t think I was but whatever

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

ima start using that.

the craziest part is that the more scrutiny and controversy hes attracted...the more brazen hes gotten.

i honestly wouldnt be surprised if he ended up in jail at some point. theres a lot of legal gray area to give himself some cushion with his social justice fundraising and all that stuff. but once you start talking about defrauding business investors and shit like that...its a different ballgame.

it doesnt even really get covered like everything else he does...but his political shit is outright scam territory (which is completely legal too btw).

dude uses these scam/shell pacs to raise money for candidates and the amount raised doesnt come anywhere close to contributions listed on the candidates fec reports. the balance of that money is going *somewhere* (im sure you can take a good guess). then he would take credit if that candidate won...like his organization played a large part in their campaign/gotv effort. and he would use that to raise even more money for future races.

early on he used to sucker people into giving actblue donations to candidates...but those donations were split like 50/50 with his pac when people thought they were going entirely to the candidate (completely legal but extremely dubious).

hes part of a much larger league of grifters on the left right now tho (tyt, krystal ball, etc). but thats prolly a conversation for another day.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

or maybe he just needs to accept donations for what he is doing right now.

He’s good at exposing stories that get little coverage.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

I'm gonna be that guy right now and say there's two to tango

for people to keep donating to him.

He has a lane he just needs to stay in it instead of trying to be all things.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

bringin it up at dinner parties where they wax about their carbon footprints

"They used to call me Baby Luke....but now? The whole damn 2 Liiiive Crew."

money to him at this point that’s all on you.

Only time I hear bad things about him is on here when someone digs into the “money” from his activism.

and money tends to get funny anytime an “activist” gets donations.

His radio features on Steve Harvey are good tho. He usually has info on different local races involving Black candidates or policies we should know about or an injustice that didn’t make the headlines.

...so I can see why people donate based off that.

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

_______________________________________

He seems pretty bad at running organizations. He sounds like he is Manic. He gets these big ideas, and puts a lot of energy into it at first, but then eventually mismanages it.

I don't think he is stealing money though. I think he is bad at managing money but I haven't seen anything that makes a good case that he is stealing money.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

And I think that's just his personality.

But he isn't stealing anything. People don't understand the meaning of the word "donation".

If you donate to a news organization, and it doesn't pan out, tough shit. Just buy a newspaper next time. Niggas been giving to the American Cancer Society for decades and cancer still aint cured.

_____________________________________

Let me guess, I can have "good day" now, right?

>been giving
>to the American Cancer Society for decades and cancer still
>aint cured.

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

>but then eventually mismanages it.
>
>I think he is bad
>at managing money
>
>

make it make sense ya'll!

_____________________
puttin' the roota in the toota since 98'

Y'all buy those labels, I was born supreme

So he knows it's a problem that he causes. He has a responsibility to do his part in seeeing to it that the money is managed properly and/or not stolen by him or anyoen else in his sphere.

mofos out here calling shaun king a clumsy robin hood

I canna

_____________________
puttin' the roota in the toota since 98'

its one thing to be a shitty executive where all of the money is misspent but accounted for.

its another thing when nobody knows where the money is going or has gone.

and its even worse when its people who worked for/with you asking the questions.

and even if this charitable view of him is accurate (I kinda agree with it) at some point any halfway reasonable person would stop thinking he needs to be the center of these things.

except he keeps going.

which means either he is diagnosably off the rails and cannot control himself, or he does know what he's doing and he's flimflamming.

there aren't any other explanations after it's happened so many times

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

He's in a position where his wins have been very highly publicized, so his losses are going to get the same treatment.

He's failed a lot. Businessmen fail at business all the time, file multiple bankruptcies, and move on. The difference is that instead of stiffing investors with the loss, he's crowdfunding. At the end of the day, if his name wasn't associated with successful campaigns against white supremacists hen nobody would care.

I can see how it rubs people the wrong way, but the whole "he's a thief and a fraud" angle is way overplayed.

_____________________________________

Let me guess, I can have "good day" now, right?

Elon's whole scheme is to get the government to pay out billions to make his bullshit reality.

it's accurate but not for the reason you think

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

>At the end of the day, if his name wasn't
>associated with successful campaigns against white
>supremacists hen nobody would care.

its not like he became a lightning rod for controversy because he started challenging racism or dominant white culture.

he became controversial when he started fucking over people he was supposed to be allies with.

he was getting called out for fraudulent behavior by black people on social media before mainstream white america even really knew who he was.

i mean...he catapulted to prominence as one of the faces of the black lives matter movement...while he was being called out by the formal black lives matter organization/leadership lol.

But the truth is, dude was known well before BLM was a thing and was doing million+ dollar fundraising campaigns already.

I'll agree with you that he didn't become a lightning rod for controversy because he challenged white supremacy. He became a lightning rod because he challenged white supremacy in a tangible manner and actually produced results instead of just yelling in the streets like everybody else.

And I don't fall for the "black women and lgbtq are calling him out" dog whistle either. The whole "Black men are the white people of black people" angle is garbage too.

_____________________________________

Let me guess, I can have "good day" now, right?

pre-blm...

his most successful fundraising campaign was for haiti earthquake relief (which everybody and their mom raised a shit ton of money for).

his most successful 'venture' was a crowdsourcing platform for activism.

both were boosted as a result of oprah highlighting them (he was an oprah scholarship winner in the past) and not because of his association with them.

and oddly enough...the crowdsourcing platform had to be shut down because of...sketchy financial activity where people complained about receiving money late (if at all) and shaun king pocketed *40%* of the revenue as his take home pay.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CWW0ymeWIAAc6lg?format=png&name=900x900

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

he claimed he was well known before blm because he raised some money.

i pointed out that he wasnt that well known before blm and raised money off the strength of oprahs endorsement.

this shouldnt have to be spelled out for you.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

or is it?

this is SUPPOSED to be philanthropy.....so why are there 'money issues'? Why does there APPEAR to be money issues. I know 'Wikipedia' ain't necessarily the greatest source of information but 'hear me out':

The appearance of impropriety is a phrase referring to a situation which to a layperson without knowledge of the specific circumstances might seem to raise ethics questions. For instance, although a person might regularly and reliably collect money for her employer in her personal wallet and later give it to her employer, her putting it in her personal wallet may appear improper and give rise to suspicion, etc. It is common practice in the business and legal communities to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

when you white...or look white and 'things' start going wrong when you appear to be 'helping black people'...you gotta have your shit together


and to brag about how you didn't listen to people with experience about taking the wrong approach WITH PHILANTHROPY....NOT BUSINESS..is just fucking stupid.

so even if there are no 'facts', a lotta y'all still in here capin' for this nxgga.


thass a bad look. thass 'opp shit'

but go off.

IG: amadu_me

"...Whateva, man..." (c) Redman