View / How media tides turned on Gaza

The New York Times is acutely aware of managing its readers’ reaction to the crisis in Gaza, as Max scooped on Friday. New media figures are learning different lessons from a younger audience.

Take in particular the Nelk Boys, bro-ey pranksters whose recent dabbling in Trumpy politics led them to an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They asked him whether he prefers Burger King or McDonald’s.

The wave of backlash they’ve faced from their fans, and their pained reaction, offers a glimpse of a new intersection of global politics and media. Journalists sometimes wring our hands about “audience capture,” but YouTubers operate on a far deeper level of organic connection to their followers. And, as polling makes clear, the younger people who make up most of those followers, left and right, are increasingly pro-Palestinian.

Their apology tour continued Thursday when the Nelk Boys invited the Egyptian comic Bassem Youssef on to their YouTube show, where he chided them like a disappointed uncle. He lamented their “total lack of critical thinking” and told them: “You’re 30 years old, and you need to be aware of what’s happening in the world, and that your reach and your platforms mean something and it affects people.” One of the show’s co-founders, Kyle Forgeard, abjectly apologized for a move “we’ll always regret” and proceeded to cede the channel to Youssef for an hour of criticism of Israel’s war.

This is the bottom-up populist politics of new media, and I think the first rather than the last episode in an increasingly wild ride.