Matt Shea

He's, like, the hero of the inter- People are talking about whether he should run for president in 2028.

And it's a deliberate decision, right, Matt, to engage with these influencers.

Like, if you can fall out with these kinds of people, like go on their podcast, go on their videos, it'll do well.

But perhaps it's even better to actually go full circle and get them and be their mate to some extent, or at least have some kind of mutual understanding.

Yeah.

Yeah

Yeah, it's all about crypto [upbeat music] Matt, have you been trolling me with your burner account? [laughs]

No. That's a strange question.

[upbeat music] Sports, sports, sports, sports, sports, sports, sports, sports, sports.

And actually, Matt, the theme of this episode is the impact that social media and technology is having on women and the representation of women and women's rights and everything else.

We're gonna talk about the kind of content which is probably having overall a more corrosive impact on the perception of women, but the-- it's the kind of content that you might never have even come across and you might not have heard about yet.

Right.

But the crucial issue here I think is the way that it undermines me as a investigative reporter.

It plays into this narrative that my appearance is sort of more important than the journalism and the work I do, and that it's fair game to be derogatory and offensive and sexualize women in public life.

And actually Matt, one of the women who was included in this research, so content about her was analyzed and featured, um, she's a politician in the Netherlands, she's called Suzanne Kröger, and she makes this point which is she's less concerned about the impact on her as an individual because it is kind of, I mean, it's gross and offensive and a bit absurd.

What she's more worried about is the wider impact on women in public life, and particularly women in politics and how this undermines their credibility and also actually could put other people off getting into politics.

Will increase the chance of inaccuracies."

There's lots to talk through, and our guests on this were investigative reporter Matt Shea, the former journalist turned comms advisor Gita Hari, and Professor Karen Fowler Watt, head of journalism at City St George's at the University of London.

We teach this in law and ethics.

I think that it's interesting that we do because having your own sort of moral compass, your own sense of judgment is incredibly important in, in terms of when you offer right of reply too early, it might be leaked.

Never.

Well, that's a separate program.

Listen, let, let's bring in Matt Shea.

Um, a- as Ros was saying, he recently made a documentary for Channel 4 about the finances of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who's commonly known as Tommy Robinson.

He's in the studio, as is Professor Karen Fowler-Watt, head of journalism at City St George's at the University of London.

And joining us from Oregon is Matt Shea, a freelance reporter who's just had a Channel 4 documentary out, which we'll hear about in a few minutes.

But Karen, if we could start with you.

When you are talking to your trainee journalists, what do you tell them about the right of reply?

That's a separate

programme.

Let's bring in Matt Shea.

As Roz was saying, he recently made a documentary for Channel 4 about the finances of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who's commonly known as Tommy Robinson.

And now from one grifter to another.

Channel 4's Dispatches sent reporter Matt Shea for an entire year to answer one very simple question about Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon: where does all the money go? Because the man has been rattling the collection tin for the best part of a decade, possibly reaching into the millions.

[gentle music] You know, I've done a five-part series called The Rape of Britain, and I've got to know five survivors, and I've kept in contact with them.

I find this example of Robinson saying he will donate money to survivors, specifically five women he interviewed for a series of films he made.

No.

So y- you may also remember, and they cover this in the documentary, that he got stopped at the border by police with £13,000 in cash in his car just after the Unite the Kingdom rally.

And Matt Shea, the, uh, investigative journalist heading up the Dispatches program-

Where were the masked, sorry, where were the masked protesters then-

The second was by Logan Paul in response to my film about him.

I mean, I had such deja vu because he was sending me a voice note saying like, "Matt, you're irrelevant, and we're gonna decla- ...

He, in his exact words, he said, "We're gonna declare a declaration of war on you," meaning the media, right? And it's, it's almost exactly what Andrew Tate said to me on the phone when I made a documentary about him.

These kind of social media right-wing superstars make a living and a career off of pitting themselves against the, quote, mainstream media.

Exactly, and you also have to make sure that the journalism you're doing is important enough to cause a dent in their kind of narrative they're spinning, 'cause they want the journalism that you're doing on them to a degree because it gives them attention, right? And then they feed off of that attention and get more followers.

So-

And we're not gonna start calling you Matt the Rat Shay.

Yeah, he's trying to start that.

Why? Why? Well, because it's all about Chubby Robitsud, or Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, or Tommy Ten Names, or Tel Aviv Tommy, or however you want to refer to him.

It is a program headed by a man called Matt Shea, and it says-- Well, basically, the show has been looking into the public records and documents pertaining to Tommy Robinson's financial dealings.

And they reckon they've uncovered some interesting things about him, where his money comes from, and more importantly, where he spends it.

Allegations in the show that money was raised for grooming victims or victims of rape gangs that never made its way, the money never made its way to any victims.

His family, I am told, did not want to accept that money.

Now Channel 4 is trying to suggest that there is some type of impropriety via this hard leftist reporter, Matt Shea.

And Channel 4 posted last night that he was investigating Tommy Robinson's finances for dispatches when he received a voice note from Robinson.

Now, what I can tell you is that you are going to be hearing a lot from Tommy Robinson on this story over the next 24 to 48 hours.

bringing you the unfiltered truth that legacy media shy away from or cover up.

We are the media now.

And he posted some of his greatest hits moments, taking down legacy media reporters.

Here's some of them.