Sunday Message from Meidas: This Is a Big Deal

Hey everyone, it’s Ben Meiselas, co-founder of the MeidasTouch Network, here with my Sunday message.

As you know, this is my favorite post of the week, where we can reflect on everything that has happened and talk about the week going forward.

As I reflect on the week, I want to reiterate that what you have all been able to accomplish is a really big deal.

I know the rapidly moving news cycle makes it difficult sometimes to appreciate the progress that’s being made. But big progress has been made.

Donald Trump floods the zone with so much craziness, so much nastiness, and so much horrible stuff that it can feel completely overwhelming. But there really is a monumental amount of progress being made right now, and I think it’s important that we take stock of it.

So let’s talk about it.

In the past week, we have seen numerous top White House officials announce that they will be resigning. You truly have the rats fleeing the sinking ship right now.

You have a White House that recognizes it is likely going to face massive losses in the midterms and then relentless, aggressive investigations into all of the criminality that has taken place.

We should never get too confident in the polls or anything like that, but most polls are not only projecting Democrats to win the House, many are suggesting Democrats can win the Senate as well.

But as I’ve always said, winning elections is, of course, a big deal, but this is about something much bigger than election year politics.

I believe it’s increasingly clear that the American people want generational change.

They don’t want to simply go back to the status quo that existed before Trump. They want government that is actually rooted in the people and focused on addressing the concerns that matter to them.

People are demanding accountability. They are demanding a government that fights for them and delivers for them, not fraudsters and not people who make promises and never deliver. Not a system that benefits the oligarchs and Epstein Class. Not a system that even allows a future Trump to cripple the nation again.

This week we’ve seen major developments with the Epstein files, with Katie Phang pushing forward her historic case under the Epstein Transparency Act moving closer to getting more files released.

You’re seeing how independent journalism can be activated into action. It’s such an honor to have Katie Phang as a host on the MeidasTouch Network as we continue to build and grow and show what independent media is capable of doing.

Then you have reporting from Aaron Parnas and others that has exposed the horrific conditions aboard U.S. aircraft carriers and at military bases in general.

I think, in large part because of the reporting that’s been done here and because service members and their families have finally been given a voice, the USS Abraham Lincoln is going to be coming back home.

But it’s not enough. We need to continue bringing attention to the conditions our service members are being subjected to across the world as Donald Trump has gotten us into this unlawful and catastrophic war with no plan and without thinking about our service members and their families.

Whether it’s fighting for service members and their families, Epstein survivors, or the American people who are struggling to get by, that’s what we’re focused on here at the MeidasTouch Network.

Building a media entity that works for the people. That is responsive to the people. That fights for the people.

Another major development that I think has happened as a result of this independent media ecosystem we have created together is that the Trump regime is unable to manipulate the media as easily as it used to in the war.

They’ve always relied on the same corporate news playbook where they leak the news and expect everybody to run with their framing.

Now, people aren’t buying it.

We can call them out instantly.

We can call out their tactics and behavior, and the American people can see when they’re lying.

When the Trump regime tried to leak to Axios this weekend that 16 million barrels of oil went through the Strait of Hormuz on 40 tankers, people immediately challenged it.

People don’t just fall for this stuff anymore. I think part of the reason is that we are creating a healthy independent news ecosystem that gets the news out quickly and challenges the propaganda in real time.

And if you watch what’s happening in the White House, they’re really flailing right now. You have the Natalie Harp story, which I’ve talked about and which we’ve been talking about for a very long time, and it has now become a major story. There are serious questions here, including national security questions about her role and access, that need to be examined.

But there’s also a bigger issue about priorities.

Donald Trump cares more about Natalie and IndyCar races and foreign jets and his own stock trading than he does about the American people.

We learned from his latest financial filings that he made more than 1,000 securities transactions in June, including transactions involving companies like Boeing and Amazon, companies whose businesses intersect with the federal government.

Some individual transactions were reported in ranges reaching into the tens of millions of dollars.

And all of this is happening while the American people are struggling.

As we get closer to the midterms, I keep reflecting on the fact that having this independent media ecosystem was never a foregone conclusion.

It didn’t just exist. It was built. It was built by you, and we’ve been honored to build it alongside you.

I think that will be one of the major stories of the midterms. But we also have to think beyond the midterms and more deeply about our politics.

Is our politics actually going to

deliver for people? That isn’t just an election question. It’s a question about the role of government and what we, as citizens, demand from our government and our politics.

That’s what we’ll continue to focus on here at the MeidasTouch Network.

We’ll keep doing our best, and most importantly, we’ll keep listening to you.

It’s about listening and then giving a voice to what is happening throughout this country and throughout the world. We’re going to keep fighting with you shoulder to shoulder.

I feel very good about where this community is positioned right now. I feel very strong about where we’re heading.

As I talk about in WTF America!?, the book we have coming out in October, the toxic right wing propaganda ecosystem was really created beginning in the 1960s, and it grew and grew and grew. It has had roughly a 60 year head start.

We’ve been growing for about six years, with really four years of rapid growth, and look where we are already.

Now think about where we could be in 15 years, 20 years, 30 years.

That’s how I think about generational change. It doesn’t happen overnight. You build it. You build institutions that last. You build trust with people. You keep showing up. And you keep growing it together.

So that’s my message to you this Sunday.

Don’t let the craziness and ugliness of each news cycle obscure what is actually happening. There is real progress being made.

There is real power in what we are building together. We’re going to have setbacks. There will be bad days and difficult moments. But we’re not going anywhere.

We’re going to keep showing up. We’re going to keep reporting the truth. We’re going to keep listening to you. And we’re going to keep fighting shoulder to shoulder with this community.

Let’s stay on this course. Let’s keep building.

And if you can, become a paid subscriber to the MeidasTouch Network here on Substack. Your paid subscriptions allow us to keep investing in this independent media ecosystem, bring on more voices, do more reporting, and keep growing without bending the knee to the corporate media model.

Every paid subscription helps us build this for the long haul.

Thank you for being a part of this. Thank you for believing in what we are building together. And thank you, as always, for having my back.

I’ll always have yours.