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In a viral video over the weekend, a YouTuber travels to Minnesota, knocking on doors and accusing Somali-owned day care centers of fraud. 

The video was shared by Vice President JD Vance. FBI director Kash Patel said he is aware of the video and the FBI is investigating. 

University of Minnesota media law professor Jane Kirtley says the video is flashy, but not meaty. There aren’t a lot of facts to back up the claims.

“It’s a lot of rhetoric with relatively little substance behind it,” Kirtley said.

She spoke with MPR News host Clay Masters about why this video and others like it are going viral within a new media ecosystem.

The YouTuber says he is uncovering new fraud in Minnesota, but media outlets like KSTP reported more than a year ago about more than 62 investigations into Minnesota child care centers. MPR News has reported about fraud at child care centersfor more than a decade and has followed the Feeding Our Future case from the beginning. Can you talk about just some of the elements at play here?

The YouTuber says he is uncovering new fraud in Minnesota, but media outlets like KSTP reported 

 about more than 62 investigations into Minnesota child care centers. MPR News has reported about fraud at child care centers

 and has followed the Feeding Our Future case from the beginning. Can you talk about just some of the elements at play here?

It is predicated on what I would call a kernel of truth in many cases, but has also engaged in a fair amount of fearmongering, the use of really explosive terminology, references to violence, and the suggestion, essentially that the world’s going to hell in a handbasket, and only President Trump and his supporters can defend us from this onslaught. It’s a lot of rhetoric with relatively little substance behind it. 

He’s also, I think, significantly relying upon an individual who’s identified as David. We see him in the video, but he’s never given any other identification in terms of his full name or what his research is, or how he’s collected the information he claims that he has as he waves around documents. 

All of these things, I think, again, have the earmarks of not what most journalists would consider to be ethical journalistic practices.

Now this YouTuber, Nick Shirley, is one of a new class of ‘independent journalists’ with YouTube accounts, whose brand is showing you what they say the mainstream media is not. What do you make of this new sort of ecosystem of information?

Well, in some respects, it reminds me of Project Veritas. It was a group of individuals who, like these influencers, essentially claim they are telling you the stories that the mainstream media will not tell you. The tactics that they use are questionable, and the originality of their stories, I think, is also questionable. 

There was a story in The Guardian of London about several of these individuals, and they included a statement that this particular influencer, prior to the last election, was talking to people that were not U.S. citizens and offering them $20 each if they would carry signs saying things like, “I love Biden.” 

And then he used that footage to make the claim that immigrants support Biden. That’s not ethical journalism. You don’t basically create a story. You report a story.

And can you explain the difference between what this YouTuber is doing and what more traditional investigative journalists do?

They use some of the techniques that investigative journalists do. Non-conventional people have done important reporting over the years. I mean, going back a long way, people like Seymour Hersh uncovered many, many big government scandals because he bothered to read government documents. 

He did not have a formal affiliation. So I don’t want to suggest that you have to be a card-carrying journalist to do journalism. That’s just not true. 

But what I think is lacking is, was there even an attempt made to try to verify the accuracy of what he was saying, or did they simply take him at his word? And this is what I see missing in the work of these influencers. 

They have a narrative, and they do everything they can to advance that narrative, but they seem to spend little to no time looking for the other side of the story, and that’s what good investigative journalism has to do. 

It’s not suggesting that all sides are equal, or all sides are telling the truth, but you have to explore every option, including the ones that challenge what you think is the story that you're planning to tell.

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University of Minnesota media law professor Jane Kirtley says the new viral video is flashy, but absent of facts to back up its claims — and its lack of transparency could be considered deceptive. 

Why a YouTube video about fraud in Minnesota went viral

nick shirley outside a Minnesota daycare center

Here’s what to know about a viral YouTube video about fraud in Minnesota

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