Tag: journalists

Leftist Minneapolis Livestreamer Andrew Mercado Threatens Nick Shirley and Other Right-Wing Journalists, Says Their Security ‘Will Have to Earn Their Paycheck’

Leftist livestreamer and “citizen journalist” Andrew Mercado made direct threats against Nick Shirley, Cam Higby, and other right-wing journalists during his live broadcast in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

Mercado is on the ground covering the escalating tension in the city over the shooting of a woman who attempted to run down an ICE officer earlier in the day.

The leftist activist has nearly 90,000 YouTube followers.

Mercado’s Facebook profile reads, “Editor-In-Chief at Mercado Media. YouTube Partner. Meta Partner. US Army Veteran. Minnesotan.”

During his stream from Wednesday’s protest, Mercado is seen walking among a group of activists while ranting about his plans to target “right-wing propagandists.”

“I’m going to harass the f-ck out of right-wing propagandists… tracking where they’re at and then just literally following them with a feed… They’ll have security but that’s fine,” the activist streamer stated.

Mercado continued, “Security will have to earn their paycheck that day… We have to follow Nick Shirleys and Cam Higby around… They need to not be able to move without the entire country knowing where they are at.”

The portion of his livestream was clipped and posted to X, where it now has over 100,000 views.

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Pakistan sentences journalists, YouTubers and ex-military officers to life over inciting violence

A court in Pakistan’s capital sentenced seven people, including three journalists, two YouTubers and two retired army officers, to life imprisonment on Friday, after convicting them of inciting violence during riots in 2023 and spreading hatred against state institutions.

An anti-terrorism court judge, Tahir Abbas Sipra, announced the verdict in Islamabad after completing trials held in absentia.

None of the accused were present in court. They have been living abroad after leaving the country in recent years to avoid arrest.

Those convicted include former editor Shaheen Sehbai; two other journalists, Sabir Shakir and Moeed Pirzada; YouTubers Wajahat Saeed Khan and Haider Raza Mehdi; and retired army officers Adil Raja and Akbar Hussain.

According to the court order, the charges against the men stemmed from the violent unrest that erupted in May 2023 following the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in a graft case.

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The Legacy Media’s Long Knives Are Out for Nick Shirley

You knew this would happen. An independent journalist scoops the legacy media, and they go after him. It’s happened before, and it will happen again. Nick Shirley has made CNNCBSABCNBCNYT and all of the other leftist media look bad, and now they will try to make sure he pays.

Our own Eric Florack captured the essence of what Shirley accomplished just a few days ago: 

This is most likely the single biggest story ever covered by an independent journalist. In one video alone, Nick Shirley has exposed over $100 million in fraud. I suspect he’s merely scratched the surface on the story.
 
Keep in mind, this is right in the backyard of the big paper in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Star Tribune, a paper with far more in the way of resources to lean on than Mr. Shirley could ever hope to field. They can’t be bothered. Or perhaps they’re shielding us from something. As you can imagine (and I suspect some viewers can see) the video has had over 100 million views so far. You can imagine why. Nobody, including the Tribune, is covering the story well enough.

Eric is right. The legacy media couldn’t be bothered, that is, until Shirley’s discoveries spurred on more investigations in Minnesota and elsewhere, and a pattern has emerged. There is a ton of corruption in the Somali-American communities, and we’re paying for it, as PJ Media’s Victoria Taft revealed: 

In the state of Washington, one internet sleuth began going through the grants and found 539 Somali daycare centers. Some of these centers are in people’s homes. Many of these taxpayer-subsidized centers do not list an address.

So, how does the legacy media respond to all of this? Does it wake up and start covering the alleged fraud and corruption, or does it go after the journalistic whistleblower?   

Actually, those were just rhetorical questions. I know you know what they did. 

Here’s CNN confronting not the alleged scammers, but Shirley himself. 

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Palestine was the deadliest place to be a journalist in 2025: Media union

Palestine was the deadliest place to work as a journalist in 2025, with the Middle East as a whole the most dangerous region for media professionals, according to a global journalist union.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said the region accounted for 74 deaths last year – more than half of the 128 journalists and media workers killed – in a new report released on Wednesday.

The Middle East was followed by Africa with 18 deaths, Asia Pacific (15), the Americas (11) and Europe (10), according to the report. The vast majority of those killed were men, but the list included 10 women.

“128 journalists killed in a single year is not just a statistic; it is a global crisis. These deaths are a brutal reminder that journalists are being targeted with impunity, simply for doing their job,” IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said.

Palestinian journalists were the biggest cohort of victims: 56 Palestinian media professionals were killed in 2025. Yemen followed, with 13 deaths, Ukraine, with eight, and Sudan, with six, according to the IFJ.

The Paris-based media union cited Israel’s killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif as the most “emblematic” of the 56 journalists murdered in Palestine last year covering Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Al-Sharif, 28, was killed on August 10 alongside several colleagues when Israeli forces struck a media tent outside Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital.

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Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown Appears to Threaten Journalists for Investigating Somali Fraud

As allegations of fraud in the form of Somali daycare centers is exploding, now across the country and not just in Minnesota, people on the left are rushing to defend the fraudsters.

In Washington State, Attorney General Nick Brown, put out a statement on Twitter/X that sounds like a threat to any independent journalists who might look into it.

Brown wrote:

My office has received outreach from members of the Somali community after reports of home-based daycare providers being harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking.

We are in touch with the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families regarding the claims being pushed online and the harassment reported by daycare providers.

Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation. Neither is filming minors who may be in the home. This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior. I encourage anyone experiencing threats or harassment to either contact local law enforcement or our office’s Hate Crimes & Bias Incident Hotline at 1-855-225-1010 or http://atg.wa.gov/report-hate.

If you think fraud is happening, there are appropriate measures to report and investigate. Go to DCYF’s website to learn more. And where fraud is substantiated and verified by law enforcement and regulatory agencies, people should be held accountable.

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YouTuber Nick Shirley Says He’s Receiving Death Threats Saying He’ll Be ‘Kirked’ After Bombshell Video Exposes $110 Million Somali Daycare Fraud Scheme in Minnesota

YouTuber Nick Shirley has revealed he’s receiving death threats and warnings that he’ll be “Kirked,” a sinister reference to being assassinated, following his viral video that uncovered over $110 million in alleged taxpayer-funded fraud at Somali-run daycare centers in Minnesota

Shirley, 23, who documented empty daycares raking in millions while showing no signs of actual childcare, appeared on the “PBD Podcast” on Wednesday and detailed the harassment, including doxxing of his family and being stalked by Somalis during filming.

The independent journalist’s explosive 42-minute video, published last week, has garnered over 132 million views.

In the footage, Shirley and his team visit multiple daycare facilities in the Minneapolis area, home to one of the largest Somali populations in the U.S., only to find locked doors, no children in sight, and signs of abandonment despite these centers receiving massive government subsidies.

One center alone reportedly pocketed $4 million in taxpayer dollars, with Shirley estimating the total fraud uncovered in a single day at over $110 million.

On the PBD Podcast, hosted by Patrick Bet-David, Shirley described the intense fallout from his exposé.

“I’ve been getting death threats,” Shirley said. “People are telling me I’m going to get Kirked.”

“They’re saying, ‘You’re going to be Kirked … you’ll be the next Kirk.’ And it’s just like, are you kidding me? I hate what’s happening right now,” Shirley said. “I feel bad for my family, honestly, because we didn’t do anything wrong, and yet you guys are coming after me like I’m some sort of villain. My little sister is getting phone calls [from the news]. I’m like, why are you guys doing this?”

The term “Kirked” is a dark reference to the September assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

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Citizen Journalist Descends On Ohio, Immediately Finds ‘First Signs Of Potentially Massive Somali Fraud’

The “Nick Shirley Effect” has begun, with Muckraker founder Anthony Rubin on the ground in Columbus, Ohio, home to the second-largest Somali community in the U.S., investigating daycare centers. This development comes less than a day after Ohio attorney Mehek Cooke said federal investigators are examining allegations that elements within Ohio’s Somali community defrauded millions of dollars from the state’s Medicaid system.

“The first Somali-affiliated daycare facility that we knocked on after landing in Columbus, Ohio, today did not answer,” Rubin wrote on X, alongside a video showing the daycare center, Great Minds Learning Academy.

Rubin continued, “A neighbor across the street told us, ‘I’ve never seen anybody come out of the building or go into the building.'”

On Sunday, Breitbart News published an interview with Ohio attorney Mehek Cooke, who alleges that members of the Somali community in Ohio have defrauded millions of dollars from the state’s Medicaid program. She said that authorities at the highest levels are investigating “what is happening in Ohio.”

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Mexican State Files Terrorism Charges Against Journalist over Reporting

Mexican authorities have filed terrorism and organized crime charges against a local journalist over his work as a crime reporter. The arrest and prosecution sparked widespread condemnation from international press freedom organizations over the use of law enforcement against journalists who are uncomfortable with the political elite.

The incident began on Christmas Eve, when investigators with the Veracruz Attorney General’s Office, along with soldiers from Mexico’s Army, arrested Rafael Leon Segovia, who uses the pen name Lafita Leon, on terrorism charges. According to information released from Veracruz’s AG’s Office, Leon Segovia’s arrest came following an arrest warrant and remains in custody awaiting a hearing this weekend.

It remains unclear why authorities went after the journalist. Local journalists in Mexico claim that the charges came after he recorded a video of a car crash involving the daughter of a politically connected attorney in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. The case has sparked condemnation from the international press freedom organization Article 19.

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DOJ Subpoenaed Flight Records For Reporter Who Exposed Epstein Scandal

Miami Herald reporter Julie Brown’s late 2018 series on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein contributed to the Justice Department reopening its case against Epstein the next year.

It looks like the DOJ also subpoenaed Brown’s flight records. Brown said she found her name in the recently released “Epstein files”—the trove of documents released by the DOJ earlier this month pursuant to congressional legislation.

“What I didn’t expect to see was an American Airlines flight record from 2019 with my full name on them, including my maiden name, which I don’t use professionally. It’s an unusual name, so it’s clear it’s me,” Brown wrote on her Substack.

“The document appears to be details of an itinerary for a series of flights I booked in July just before the SDNY and FBI arrested Epstein.”

According to journalist Michael Tracey, the DOJ may have been tracking Epstein accuser Annie Farmer. Brown and the Miami Herald reportedly booked a flight for her in July 2019.

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Somali ‘Medicaid Mogul’ Accused Of Looting Maine Taxpayers, Family Allegedly Put Bounty On Reporter

If you thought the alleged Medicaid fraud in Minnesota by Somalis, which federal prosecutors say could reach $9 billion, was insane, wait until you read the latest report from The Maine Wire: the head of a local nonprofit is accused of lashing out at a local journalist over an investigation, while members of his family allegedly put a bounty on the head of a journalist in Somalia for sharing the reporting.

Earlier this month, Abdullahi Ali, the Executive Director of Health Services contractor Gateway Community Services, was accused of ripping off taxpayers.

NewsNation spoke with a whistleblower who spilled the beans: false records were filed for services that were never provided…

A former Gateway employee, Christopher Bernardini, said the nonprofit was reimbursed with tax dollars from Maine’s Medicaid program and later with federal tax dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program.

While heading up the nonprofit in Maine, Ali was also running for President of Jubbaland in Africa. He boasted to a Kenyan media outlet about how he helped raise funds for the Jubaland Somali army to buy guns and bullets.

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