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For the past four years, REAL News Michiana has been bringing you stories and investigations the other outlets are either too scared, or too incompetent, to report. While 2024 has been our most successful year with viewership, a sophisticated campaign to attack our funding channels has been just as successful. This story is not only a plea for everyone who appreciates RNM to become a subscriber or to donate to our Paypal, it’s to explain what has happened in a campaign to destroy the only fearless news outlet in the region.
As an ETHICAL news operation, RNM is dedicated to calling out corruption and poorly run government on ALL sides. For decades, corruption within the government in St. Joseph County was committed almost solely by members of the Democrat Party. With the help of RNM and our coverage of Democrat corruption, in 2022, REPUBLICANS won vast elections, putting them in charge for the first time in the county’s history.
Instead of being grateful for RNM’s role in turning the county red, a select few of those newly elected members and their surrogates turned to RNM to attempt to help them COVER-UP their own corrupt behavior. St. Joseph County Councilwoman Amy Drake was at the forefront, attempting to use RNM to lie to our readers for her own benefit. She attempted to have RNM write FALSE stories about the following St. Joseph County Republicans: Commissioner Tony Hazen, Commissioner Carl Baxmeyer, former SJC Chairman Tyler Gillean, Council Candidate Kent Hizer, Councilmember Dan Schaetzle, Former Councilmember Andy Kostielney, County Assessor Mike Castellon and many others at the state and federal levels. Drake also threatened RNM with financial repercussions if we were to run any critical stories of her governance — a threat she has successfully followed through with.
Here’s the deal: RNM was founded to tell the truth and be fearless in our reporting. Since winning her election in 2022, Drake’s corruption has been worse than ANY elected official I have seen in my 20-years of working as a journalist. RNM will not ignore the facts and we have published several stories highlighting her corruption and lies.
In the early days of our publication, prior to Drake’s election win, not only was Drake a member of RNM’s Advisory Board, she was also instrumental in helping us build a subscriber base. Nearly all of those subscribers and MANY more have now unsubscribed at her behest. Subscriber revenue has now dropped by $18,000 per year due to her direct efforts. At the same time, RNM has lost approximately $12,000 in advertising revenue directly related to Drake and her surrogates influencing our advertising partners. RNM reaches more than 1,000,000 people per year — there is no reason we shouldn’t have advertisers knocking down our doors.
The reality is that cancel culture on the Republican side is a very real thing. RNM can only survive by subscribers who are willing to open their wallets to help fund our efforts and advertisers who are willing to ignore Drake and her radical surrogates. We have always worked on a shoestring budget — we cannot afford the loss of $30,000 due to the efforts of a corrupt politician.
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