Tim Pool:

Is He The Millennial’s Equivalence to the Late Great Tim Russert

I don’t know how or when Tim Pool fell into my scope of talking head protagonist for this generation of Millennials. Here he was, on his YouTube channel, wearing his signature knit cap and wire-rimmed glasses looking like some Seattle grunge band dropout, speaking on his own terms on a variety of political issues, cultural issues, entertainment issue, on just about anything he felt was a need that piqued his curiosity. Tim Pool is a thirty-something (33), self-taught journalist. He didn’t graduate from any institute of higher learning. His claim to fame was his own self-reporting during the Occupy Wall Street gathering meant to protest the inequality of wealth in this country along with political corruption and corporate influences.

The Guardian newspaper showcases some of Tim Pool’s more visual coverage of the protest as Mr. Pool has deployed aerial drones in much of the protesting. For some, what Mr. Pool was doing was considered as authoritarian surveillance but in the end, some of the drone camera footage was used to exonerate a photographer who had been arrested by the New York Police Department.

I don’t know if Mr. Pool found his career in journalism or if he just fell into it but things began to start happening for him. He took on challenges and assignments and job opportunities and the timing couldn’t have been more appropriate. With each challenge and with each expedition, Tim Pool would seem to learn more about the highs and lows of this world of journalism. With each kiss on the cheek come s two swift punches to the gut as he has come to experience from his invite to the White House Social Media Summit to a 4:00 a.m. intruder.

Let’s take a look at his channels. Mr. Pool has at least three avenues to get his message out. He has TimCast, Tim Pool, Subverse and the latest one, Timcast IRL. His viewing numbers are also quite impressive, 102,442,972 (Tim Pool), 206,388,623 (Timcast), 3,726,139 (Subverse) and still growing. With these types of numbers, you would think that some network would entertain the thought of having Mr. Pool as a weekly political commentator for the Millennial generation. It would appear that he has the temperament and verbal gymnastics of the late NBC Meet The Press host, Tim Russert. There was a time in my life where I was a Sunday morning talk show junkie. There was Meet The Press with Tim Russert, ABC This Week, Face The Nation on CBS and Fox Sunday. I would listen to all sides of an argument. And then Tim Russert died from a heart attack and the substitutes that replaced him have been piss poor empty suits and dresses. They never had the flow and subdued edginess that Russert employed with the guests on his show. I soon lost interest with all of the shows as they became static white noise as each guest talking head regurgitated what they wanted you to hear and not what was asked of them.

When I was young, my political leanings were more to the Democratic side. As each year passed and the rhetoric intensified and the half-truths became outright lies and whoever was president failed to live up to a promise, my leanings became independent and conservative. I don’t just blindly follow a group or fall into a collective hive mindset because that’s what the group is doing. Tim Pool has stated that he grew up in a Democratic household and he has a moderate position. I’m not predicting this but as he continues to delve into the political waters, maybe there will be some jaded arenas that may befall him and he’ll take the independent course? When Barack Obama won, the only thing I saw from his time in office was a huge insurance premium bill that was out of my range. But I digress.

I just happened to catch Glenn Beck interviewing Tim Pool on Glenn Beck’s podcast. In participating in that interview, I saw a calm and more measure Tim Pool. On his own in front f his channel, he’s speaking into a camera. With Glen Beck, the dynamics had shifted as there was someone sitting across from him engaged in a conversation. This demonstrated to me that Mr. Pool has options. He had to give feedback to Glenn Beck and make a salient argument on the position he held while not giving ground to that position. For an interview that went close to an hour and forty-four minutes, Mr. Pool held his own. He may not have the seasoned bravado like Bill Maher or Jon Stewart but he’s more capable than NBC’s Chuck Todd.

There are those who are critical on Tim Pool. There are some who find him not as liberal as they would like and there are some who find him as not conservative enough for their liking. In a couple of recent articles, one article described him as an extreme leftist while another article described him as a far-right personality. But it seems more than the people on the left is doing more bashing of late with Tim Pool. It has gotten to the point now where Mr. Pool’s safety has come into play. In a recent YouTube broadcast, Mr. Pool was letting his followers know that he was visited at four in the morning at his home by a stranger who had walked a long distance because he had something to tell him. My question to that is, did anyone put this person up to this and how did he get Tim Pool’s home address?

Unlike MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, Tim Pool vets his story and does extensive research on a topic. If he doesn’t know about certain things, he’ll say he doesn’t know. He doesn’t put a spin on it like other media outlet nor does he inflict any type of tone on a question like many media outlets do especially when they imply something nefarious when it comes to a certain president. It becomes a game with them now on how they construct questions that are insulting but they couch it in verbiage that’s meant to masquerade the meaning. Please stop the “land mining” of questions just to show your disdain for the ‘orange man is bad’ campaign.

We are in this new evolution of journalism led by social media. For good or bad, these platforms have become more relevant than traditional outlets. In his short period run as a political commentator, Tim Pool has amassed more viewers to his channel than some of the Sunday morning talk shows. One video alone had more than 667,000 views to it and that was better than ABC and CBS combined. It seems like Tim Pool puts out several videos per day and thus continues to grow. YouTube has started to demonetize political commentary that doesn’t make sense to so many. Mr. Pool, however, is forging ahead because there lies an answer to his situation. Maybe some network will recognize his efforts and he too can reach a bigger audience, someday.