“I don’t believe the ABC News opinion piece,” Cohen said when I asked him about it.
While the “Michael Cohen Live Show” appears to have only recently launched, Cohen has been talking about Trump for years: He has published two books documenting his relationship with Trump and is also the host and co-host of two podcasts with the MeidasTouch people.
On Cohen’s Patreon, a club for Cohen and Meidas listeners Beatdown Club On his podcast, he occasionally does Zoom calls with paid supporters. There are more than 1,100 of them, and the lowest tier requires a subscription of $10 per month, which is at least $11,000 per month. This doesn’t include the $50, $150, or $500 subscriptions (or TikTok gifts). At the start of these calls, Cohen and Ben Meiselas, co-founders of MeidasTouch, ask their followers to “line up their dukes” and imitate a few boxing punches.
On Wednesday, I reached out to the folks at MeidasTouch to assess the extent of their relationship with Cohen. They did not immediately respond to comment.
Whatever the details of this relationship, Cohen has created a huge megaphone for himself by working with Meidas and interacting directly with his fans online. He’s essentially building his own media network, a trend we’ve seen among politicians and pundits since the last media cycle, when people like Rudy Giulian and Tucker Carlson launched podcasts and created boutique news shows online. And because the internet is so messed up, you can’t just post if you want to cut through the noise. Cohen needs to do a little bit of everything and pray he doesn’t damage his credibility.
The chat room
Last week I asked you all to submit your thoughts on the new law that could ban TikTok in the US. You submitted many thoughtful comments and emails. Here’s one that was incredibly friendly and gives a comprehensive overview of what we discussed last week.
From Barry:
“The bottom line: I don’t agree with the idea of banning TikTok just because of its connection to China, without any evidence.
The details: I’ll be 83 this June, know nothing about TikTok and next to nothing about social media – I read Facebook posts from friends and family, but don’t post anything myself. My impression of social media is that it is a mix of pranks, incompetent dancing, influencers and disinformation. It’s a lot of amateur mass entertainment, and that’s okay.
At this point I could rant about internet decentralization, politics, cryptocurrencies, and democracy and society in general, but that’s why I subscribe to Wired – for Paul Ford, Steven Levy, etc. Leave that to the professionals.”
Happy early birthday, Barry, and thanks for your thoughts!
Over the next week, I’ll be tackling all of the Federal Election Commission filings on tech super PACs and campaigns piling up in my inbox. I’ll report back next week with what I found out. But I’m curious, is there anything I should pay attention to? A lot can be found in these documents – for example, which influencer management companies politicians use or which major campaigns send money to big tech PACs.