Status Coup on Last Week Tonight w/ John Oliver!

"They tell you it’s only immigrants—it’s f*cking anybody!" a pissed off Minneapolis protester told us in a viral clip from our ICE protest coverage (and some behind-the-scenes news!)

WE’VE BEEN ON THE GROUND IN MINNEAPOLIS for NEARLY 2 MONTHS! It has cost us over $30,000 between staff and travel. Now, we’re planning a TOWN HALL event hosted by our reporter JT Cestkowksi to focus on the Trump administration’s crimes—and lasting damage—on the people of Minnesota. We are INDEPENDENTLY FUNDED! We need your support to stay ON-THE-GROUND reporting. SUPPORT SC for as low as $5 bucks a month!

We’re proud to say a viral interview we conducted ON-THE-GROUND in Minneapolis back in January was included in this past weekend’s episode of the popular HBO show “Last Week Tonight” with comedian John Oliver.

The interview was from January 14th in the chaotic hours after ICE shot ANOTHER Minneapolis resident—fortunately this time in the leg and the man survived. Protests erupted in the streets, leading our reporter Zach D. Roberts and videojournalist Jon Farina to rush to the scene.

What came next was ABSOLUTE MADNESS as ICE turned the streets of North Minneapolis into a war zone…BOMBARDING unarmed protesters with flash-bang grenades, tear gas, pepper balls, and a different chemical gas with a horrific green color (watch recap video below).

During that evening, our reporter Zach Roberts interviewed a pissed off Minneapolis man who told us he actually NEVER protests.

“You know what really pisses me off? It’s the fact that they detain people, cuff em, and then they still beat the shit out of them! They tell you it’s only immigrants—it’s fucking anybody! I have friends that got detained and all they were doing was fucking driving home from work—what the fuck! I’m not fucking paid to be here like everybody fucking says…what the fuck is that! I gotta work in the god damn morning just like everybody else! I’m just here trying to stand up for community dude. We’re all human beings here, I don’t give a shit who you are, where you came from, what color you are, it doesn’t fucking matter! This is wrong!”

-Chris Ostroushko, a Minneapolis protester

The laws of gravity on what clips go viral, and which don’t, have always mystified me —but this clip ended up going viral, racking up over 3 million views on Twitter (I refuse to call it X), retweeted over 12,000 times, and featured on a variety of popular political and news podcasts and YouTube shows.

Fortunately, we were able to license the clip to several networks including HBO, MSNOW, and news outlets in Canada and Italy.

And here’s some BEHIND-THE-SCENES news: some of our other clips from our ON-THE-GROUND reporting in Minneapolis also got picked up…by major shows that just straight up stole our footage!

That’s right: both The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Jimmy Kimmel Live straight up aired footage of ours without licensing it (i.e. paying). We kindly reached out with an invoice—to which both refused to pay claiming the footage was “fair use” (it’s not).

In fact, Kimmel’s person called us, buttering us up on how much he respects our work before he told us their “lawyers say it’s fair use and we don’t have to pay” (false).

So on top of dealing with the chaos of Trump’s violent fascist invasion of Minnesota, we had to also find a copyright attorney to go after these shows (which is still in process). We routinely deal with smaller YouTube channels and Twitter accounts stealing our footage—but you would think Paramount Global (Daily Show) and Walt Disney (Kimmel) would not be in the business of simply jacking INDEPENDENT ON-THE-GROUND reporting and profiting from it.

We’ will give you more details on this and other BEHIND-THE-SCENES matters related to our Minneapolis ICE reporting on our next MEMBERS-ONLY call (which we’re currently planning on holding next week and will be sending out info on that once finalized).

It is not lost on me, or anyone on our small but growing team, that our recent success—including being featured on a prominent HBO show—is thanks to you our viewers and paid supporters. We would have not been able to report in Minneapolis for nearly 2 months—and before that Chicago for nearly 2 months covering ICE’s terror there—without more and more viewers signing up as paid members for as low as $5 bucks a month.

Thank you!

***We have been ON-THE-GROUND in Minneapolis for nearly 2 months and want to STAY ON THE GROUND covering Trump’s ICE terror campaign there (and anywhere else).

This ON-THE-GROUND reporting is extremely important, increasingly MORE DANGEROUS, and EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE between flights, rent-a-car, hotels, food, equipment, and paying rotating reporters and cameramen). On top of our normal payroll, the travel costs associated with these reporting trips is costing us tens of thousands per month.

Most importantly, we are an INDEPENDENT outlet without corporate funding. If you value this reporting—if you depend on us—we sincerely ask you to SIGN UP TODAY as a paying member of Status Coup for as low as $5 bucks a month…that comes out to 16 cents a day.***

Already a Status Coup member? You can also support this ON THE GROUND reporting by donating.

Let’s keep waking up the masses.

WATCH FULL SEGMENT ON LAST WEEK TONIGHT with John Oliver