Worming Through Dangerous Times
A lil' mission statement from me.
Hi,
Journalism was never the original plan.
Back in the 90s, there was no career advisor in Bethlehem, New Zealand — just a computer that would ask you 50 questions before spitting out career options.
The top three careers for me were apparently medicine, computer science and law. I’d end up trying the medicine route, before discovering the computer had it quite wrong. So I enrolled in journalism school.
I was surrounded by enthusiasm and options. Things felt good.
Somehow I stumbled into a TV newsroom in New Zealand, and had the most ridiculous thrilling time. The money wasn’t great, but the job was stimulating, ridiculous, and at times — important. It was a team that had resources, and if someone tried to take legal action against you, the lawyer would come down from upstairs and sort it all out. I never worried about being sued.
20 years later, and that newsroom no longer exists. Newsrooms across the world are either dead or severely gutted. They’re on life support. In New Zealand, a Canadian billionaire is making power moves at The Herald, while another billionaire continues to exert his influence at the Washington Post.
I left TV3 in 2016, a weird documentary I’d made giving me the push to go out on my own and try new things. From there I’ve tried different ways to tell stories, experimenting in documentary, podcasting and print.
And looking at all the shit on fire around me right now, I feel incredibly lucky to have Webworm, a place where I can still do the journalism thing. And people are reading it: Over the last three months, Webworm articles have had close to two million views. That’s insane, and something I am really proud of.
It’s all thanks to you, the Webworm community.
And before I become insufferable on my high horse, I want to make it clear that I do not have the power, resources, or collective skills of a newsroom. We desperately, desperately still need newsrooms to hold power to account and expose new information to the public. Anyone watching their news on TikTok or Instagram reels needs to remember what those influencers are talking about wasn’t magicked up out of nothing: most of those stories exist because of journalists and newsrooms.
And sometimes because of Webworm — my story this week spreading around:
But things can get weird doing this journalism thing solo.
I often write about bad people doing bad things, and that leads to lawyers and legal threats landing in my inbox, telling me to take things down immediately. Some of those I tell you about, some I don’t. There’s no-one upstairs to come down and take care of it: That’s on me. Reporting and publishing stories comes with responsibility, and that is always just going on in the background.
And then, 11 days ago, a new fear was unlocked.
University student Mahmoud Khalil was handcuffed and marched to a van by federal immigration agents in New York, before being transported to an immigration jail in Louisiana. His alleged crime was leading a student protest about the genocide in Gaza.
He’s had his first court hearing, and remains in custody.
Last week Donald Trump said Khalil will be the first “of many to come”, which led the dean of Columbia Journalism School telling their students:
“If you have a social media page, make sure it is not filled with commentary on the Middle East.”
“Nobody can protect you.”
“These are dangerous times.”
It’s weird reading words like that as I sit writing Webworm here in the United States.
I’ve made it pretty clear here that I strongly disagree with the genocide in Gaza. That got me in shit with a few people in my life, and some readers, but I never really thought it would create any risk for my presence in the US.
I still don’t, really — I’m a white guy, I’m small in scope, chances are I’ll be fine. But it’s not a great feeling existing here on an 01 visa that’s about to run out, preparing to apply for a new one.
Here in the US, saying Palestinians should not be blown up is supporting Hamas, which according to Trump makes you game for deportation.
Which brings me to my main point: Fuck all that.
With all this talk of censorship and editorial control from billionaire men, I just wanted to make it clear that none of that will be interfering with Webworm in any way.
Like the various legal threats that come across my desk, the US administration’s stance will not change business here — and this is a good a time as any to remind you of this from yesterday:
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Israeli forces launched 100 simultaneous strikes across the Gaza Strip, shattering the fragile two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 436 people have been killed since the attacks began, including at least 183 children, 94 women, 34 elderly people, and 125 men. At least 678 others have been injured, many critically, with more still trapped under the rubble.
Two-thirds of those killed were women and children, who were sleeping.
This is also a good time to reshare some of Webworm’s previous reporting and commentary on the genocide:
Finally, it’s important to remember one of the key reasons the Trump administration and various Christian Nationalists are extremely happy with Israel’s attempt to wipe out Gaza:
They believe that if the Jewish people return to the “promised land”, Jesus will come back. And those pesky Palestinians are standing in their way.
When Jesus comes back, the world ends and all the Christians go to Heaven — a real place where you live forever and get whatever you want.
To be clear: They give zero fucks about the Jewish people. According to their beliefs, once Jesus is back and the world ends, the Christians ascend to Heaven while Jews are sent directly to hell to suffer for all eternity.
And they are perfectly OK with that, which is why the genocide is a great, positive thing.
It’s all just part of the grand, utterly delusional plan that we’ve talked about before on Webworm.
And that we will keep talking about.
David.
A pretty incredible essay, FYI: "I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped" - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney
Very grateful for you & all journalists with courage & integrity.