1.8M subscribers — and scrutiny
Critics call Gary Franchi’s YouTube channel, the Next News Network, a hive of conspiracy theories
The Next News Network is a YouTube channel produced in Chicago’s western suburbs that pumps out a dozen or so aggressively partisan videos each day. They usually stick to praising President Donald Trump or attacking his critics, but every so often they wade into the dark waters of conspiracy theory.
In just the last few months, the channel’s owner and host, Gary Franchi, has showcased several baseless allegations, including a suggestion that antifa might be behind the Western wildfires, an osteopath’s insistence that the COVID-19 pandemicwas “a false flag operation” and a claim that Democratic politicians had members of Seal Team 6 killed to cover up a dirty deal with Iran.
Some of those videos got millions of views, helping the Next News Network grow to more than 1.8 million subscribers. SocialBlade, an analytics website, estimates its traffic could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, to say nothing of the revenue from bitcoin investments and survivalist supplies Franchi hawks during his programs.
The channel’s growth has continued even as YouTube has pledged to crack down on conspiracy theorists and misinformation. In October, the platform removed hundreds of channels associated with QAnon, the mushrooming movement that says Satanworshipping pedophiles are scheming to take down Trump.
Franchi, who said he is not part of QAnon, has drawn YouTube’s scrutiny as well. The company has suppressed recommendations of his videos, blocked advertising on some and removed others.
One thing YouTube hasn’t done is kick Franchi off. And that staying power aggravates critics who say the giant video platform is putting profits ahead of social responsibility.
“I’m surprised honestly that he’s still standing,” said Angelo Carusone of Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog group that frequently criticizes the channel. “Just based on what he’s done over the years, the high volume and frequency, I am genuinely surprised.”
Franchi told the Tribune he has done nothing wrong. He said the Next News Network, which he describes as a source of conservative news, hews to YouTube’s shifting guidelines, and that he preemptively takes down videos if he thinks they might cross the line (the Seal Team 6 videowas one of them).
“YouTube has been great,” he said. “I love the platform. I love what we’re able to accomplish there. They have to make decisions, and we respect those decisions.”
Franchi’s resilience doesn’t surprise Hany Farid, a University of California at Berkeley computer science professorwhostudies YouTube’s response to
conspiracy channels. He said for all the headlines about the crackdown, social media platforms put their financial interests first.
“At the end of the day, you’re pushing up against very powerful companies,” he said. “My impression is they do just enough to get people off their backs, but their hearts aren’t into it.”
Conspiracy history
Franchi, 43, who appears onscreen in a jacket and tie with slicked-back hair, trendy glasses and a precisely trimmed beard, said he’s no conspiracy theorist — just someone who asks tough questions.
“Sometimes people don’t like those questions asked,” he said. “So if they don’t like the topic or what direction you’re going, or if you draw a conclusion based on what you’ve learned, they like to try to label it if it doesn’t fit with their agenda.”
His critics scoff at that description — “This is a typical response froma conspiracy theorist,” said Dave Van Zandt of the Media Bias/Fact Check website, which lists the Next News Network as a questionable source — and Franchi’s history provides plenty of fodder for skepticism.
After attending Glenbrook South High School,
he founded the Lone Lantern Society, a group that promoted the notion the U. S. government brought down the Twin Towers on Sept. 11. He helped make documentaries suggesting the Federal Emergency Management Agency was building camps to imprison dissidents.
And in “The Reality Report,” an earlyweb showhe produced in his basement, he dealt heavily in alleged conspiracies. Devin Hansen, who worked as Franchi’s technical assistant after answering a Craigslist ad, said he rolled his eyes at the subject matter.
“I was always pretty vocal with him about howsilly I thought the conspiracy theories were, but he was really into them,” he said.
Franchi was also involved in the unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign of former congressman Ron Paul, who has been criticized for embracing conspiracy theories. Unhappy with Paul’s depiction in the media, Franchi said he started the Next News Network to support another contender.
He rejected candidates like Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz as puppets of the New World Order — shorthand for a supposed plot to create a vast authoritarian regime.
After initially portraying Donald Trump as a circus clown, Franchi wholeheartedly embraced him as a leader who would fight the globalists.
“Donald Trump is bucking the system,” Franchi said in a video as the election neared.
Uneasy relationship
TheNext NewsNetwork grew quickly with Trump’s victory, but even before then Franchi had an uneasy relationship with YouTube. He appealed to his viewers for contributions after the platform shut off ads on hundreds of his videos for featuring what he called “controversial politics.”
YouTube demonetizes videos it determines are not advertiser- friendly, but that’s just one step in its regimen to police so-called borderline content. Another is to suppress those videos in the platform’s recommendation algorithm, a major source of traffic for most channels.
After critics accused YouTube of leading viewers down dangerous rabbit holes by recommending one conspiracy video after the next, the platform announced last year it would reduce the reach of those videos. Following the change, the Next News Network saw its recommendations disappear, according to an analysis by software engineer Mark Ledwich.
YouTube also removes videos that violate its community guidelines, which ban everything from hate speech to cyberbullying to COVID-19 misinformation. But a spokesman said the platform doesn’t forbid all conspiracy content — just that which targets individuals or groups and is linked to
real-world violence.
The spokesman also disputed the idea that YouTube profits from conspiracy videos, saying that by removing ads and squelching recommendations, the company doesn’t make any money from them.
But Carusone, of Media Matters, didn’t buy that. He pointed to Franchi’s April interview with the osteopath, who claimed without evidence that the pandemic was ginned up to spur mandatory vaccines and the implantation of computer chips. YouTube removed the video, but not before it had been viewed 7 million times.
“Everybody’s already made their money after a video racks up millions of views,” Carusone said.
For the most part, Franchi and his collaborators have kept on the right side of YouTube, which relies on viewers and artificial intelligence to flag potential violations.
After the takedownof the osteopath interview, which Franchi bemoaned at the time as “Orwellian censorship,” he removed hundreds of other videos he thought could pose problems, including those related to COVID-19 and vaccinations. Many remained, though, including one in which a fill-in host, Josh Bernstein, repeated the false claim that masks cause people to breathe their own CO2 and harm their immune systems.
The video stayed up well into October. Franchi said he took it down after breaking ties with Bernstein, who recently lost his own YouTube channels.
A new path?
Despite the takedowns, ad blocks and exile from
the recommendation list, the Next News Network continues to expand. Its subscriber base is approaching those of news channels run by Bloomberg and PBS, and with 100,000 new subscribers in the last 30 days, it’s growing faster.
Franchi defended his presence on YouTube as a matter of free speech—“Am I not entitled to my First Amendment position to present information?” — but said he was nervous about his future following the QAnon removals. He recently announced a service that will allow viewers to watch his content through streaming devices for $100 a year.
Some conspiracy theorists have endured after being evicted from YouTube, including Franchi’s longtime acquaintance Alex Jones, notorious for insisting the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax. Though Jones was booted off social media platforms in 2018, his website, InfoWars, still gets more than 10 million visits a month.
“People who are ideologically driven or financially driven, they don’t just slink away,” said Farid, the computer science professor. “They’re not just going to disappear. Of course they’re going to come back.”
But Carusone had a different conclusion. He said YouTube is a unique environment, and that Franchi’s influence would likely evaporate if he were banished.
“There is no path for him outside of YouTube right now,” he said. “There’s no path for a lot of creators. This is their ecosystem. There is no alternative.”
“At the end of the day, you’re pushing up against very powerful companies. My impression is they do just enough to get people off their backs, but their hearts aren’t into it.” — Hany Farid, a University of California at Berkeley computer science professor who studies YouTube’s response to conspiracy channels