Big Ones -vs- Little Ones

And who pays for support

I was a bit conflicted about where to publish this piece. It doesn’t really have much to do with Freemasonry, so in a way it seemed a better fit over on my personal newsletter.

On the other hand, the vast majority of pushback my writing has received has been Masonic related. It is here, on Emeth, that people sometimes think that I should be silenced. It is also because of those who hold a paid subscription to Emeth that I qualify for the program I mention below. For those reasons, I’ve decided that this essay is best published on Emeth.

It is about free speech and freedom of the press.

Photo by Nellie Adamyan on Unsplash

When I was a kid we got three TV stations (four if you counted PBS, but once one outgrows Sesame Street…) and one newspaper. That’s where the people in my community got their news. And as a result of so little effective competition, those media outlets made a lot of money.

That in turn allowed those outlets to afford good attorneys capable of defending the journalists who wrote for them.

The Washington Post and New York Times fighting the Nixon Administration in court was a concrete example for everyone about the power of a free press when it is properly represented.

But over the course of my lifetime, the media landscape has changed.

Today a solo podcaster down in Texas has an audience that dwarfs that of CNN. Independent media is where it is at.

Much of this change has been good, but in other ways it has been negative.

One of the negatives is that there are no longer really deep pockets that an independent writer can rely upon to help fund a legal defence or fight against a bad actor seeking to silence them.

I started writing about Freemasonry here on Substack way back in February of 2021.

Back then it seemed like almost all of us here were ‘little guys’ exploring some niche interest or another, slowly building subscribers as we were discovered by others who shared our interest.

But things change. People saw that Substack was a wonderful place for writers, and slowly the ‘big guys’ started to come here as well.

Recently there was some talk about the fact that a ‘big famous guy’ came here and with his first post garnered enough paying subscribers to make one hundred thousand dollars. Now that’s nothing to sneeze at!

I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about that though. Specifically complaining that Substack as a company tends to promote these ‘big guys.’ People wish that the ‘little guys’ like me would get some of that promotion as well.

This is misguided.

When a big, rich, famous, celebrity comes to Substack, he or she brings their audience along with them from wherever they were before. That means that there are more people in the Substack ecosphere. More people who might just be interested in whatever thing all us ‘little guys’ write about.

More importantly, those ‘big guys’ pay for everything here.

Lots of Substack newsletters don’t offer paid subscriptions. Yet Substack hosts them on the same basis as those that do. The money to do that has to come from somewhere, and it comes from those who have thousands of tens of thousands of paid subscribers.

The couple of times that I’ve had trouble with something here, I have found Substack’s customer service to be quite superb, and a fix delivered quickly. If Substack spends an hour fixing a problem I have on Emeth, that likely eats up all of the money they make on Emeth over the course of a year. But because the ‘big guys’ contribute so much to the bottom line, they are able to really take care of us ‘little guys.’

Lastly, Substack has some really important programs, like Defender, that a little newsletter like Emeth could never justify. These programs are made possible by the ‘big guys’ with their tens of thousands of subscribers. But ‘little guys’ like Emeth certainly benefit.

Through the years that I’ve been publishing Emeth, I have received some level of pushback to a handful of the essays I’ve written. Change is hard, criticism can be hard to take, and some Masonic leaders get fearful or angry about it.

I’ve also received some pushback because I’ve refused to remove comments from other Masons here that I felt were valid and in keeping with Emeth’s guidelines. Again, some in Masonic leadership don’t like to be challenged.

One particular post did receive what I believe to be an extreme level of pushback. I read that post again the other day, and I stand by every word.

Ultimately, I don’t think that there will ever be serious official repercussions to anything I write. I try to write responsibly, and I write honestly.

But, anything is possible.

A bad actor, acting in bad faith could decide to take action against me because of something that I’ve written.

Recently Substack has expanded its Defender program.

A program in which Substack will hire top flight outside attorneys in order to legally defend those who write here from bad actors.

I don’t think that I will ever need such representation. But, it is possible.

So I applied to the Defender program last week. I sent them the essay that received so much pushback. And I was accepted into the program today.

Now I can write with more confidence. Knowing that if I continue to do so responsibly and honestly, the Substack corporation will bring on outside specialized legal counsel to defend me and my work.

Had this program not existed, and a deep pocketed bad actor decided to go after me legally, my own legal fees would likely destroy me financially, even if I did no wrong and won in the end. Such is the nature of our litigious society.

Let’s be honest though, the little bit of income that Substack makes from Emeth in a year would be eaten up in an hour or two of attorney time. I’m receiving this wonderful benefit not because I’m generating enough income to pay for it, but because the ‘big guys’ are. And everyone recognizes that an isolated threat to a free press is a threat to all of our free press.

The ‘big guys’ are allowing me to write, secure in the knowledge that my life won’t be harmed because some bad actor didn’t like something I wrote, and decides to somehow punish me for it.

I also have to express my profound gratitude to each and every one of you who have purchased a paid subscription to Emeth. Substack makes certain of its programs available only to those who maintain a paid subscriber base of some number or another. That makes sense, because there must be some way for them to determine who is doing work here that people find valuable, and judging that by paid subscriber counts is a really tangible way.

You, my paid subscribers have ensured that I qualify for the Defender program, and all of the other programs that Substack offers. Benefiting me, and benefiting all of those who read Emeth.

So, Thank You, I am sincerely grateful.

As I close, I just want to say that we the ‘little guys’ here on Substack shouldn’t be throwing shade at the ‘big guys.’ Because if it weren’t for the ‘big guys’ Substack wouldn’t have the money to fund everything it does.

And this goes for those who read here as well. If it weren’t for those ‘big guys’ Substack wouldn’t be able to pay for this free reading experience for all.

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