Pool was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in a middle-class family. His father was a firefighter and his mother sold cars.[6] His maternal grandmother is Korean.[7]
Pool attended a Catholic school until completing the fifth grade[8] and left school at the age of 14.[6][9]
Career
Occupy Wall Street
After watching a viral video from Occupy Wall Street, Pool purchased a one-way bus ticket to New York.[10] Pool joined the Occupy Wall Street protestors on September 20, 2011. Shortly thereafter, he met Henry Ferry, a former realtor and sales manager, with whom he founded media company The Other 99.[11] Pool also began livestreaming the protests with his cell phone and quickly assumed an on-camera role.[10] Pool used a live-chat stream to respond to questions from viewers while reporting on Occupy Wall Street.[12] Pool also let his viewers direct him on where to shoot footage.[13] He modified a toy remote-controlled Parrot AR.Drone for aerial surveillance and modified software for live streaming into a system called DroneStream.[14][15] In mid-November 2011, Pool broadcast live streams, one of which reached 21 hours in length, of Occupy Wall Street's eviction from Zuccotti Park.[16] Pool's use of live streaming video and aerial drones during Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011 led to an article in The Guardian querying whether such activities could take the form of counterproductive surveillance.[15]
In January 2012, he was physically accosted by a masked assailant.[16][17] Also in January 2012, The Other 99 was disbanded following a feud between Pool and Ferry.[18][19] Pool had also planned on livestreaming occupy protests across the United States for a documentary called Occumentary, but it was never filmed.[10]
Pool's video taken during the protests was instrumental evidence in the acquittal of photographer Alexander Arbuckle, who had been arrested by the NYPD. The video showed that the arresting officer lied under oath, though no charges were filed.[20] While covering the NoNATO protests at the 2012 Chicago summit, Pool and four others were pulled over by a dozen Chicago police officers in unmarked vehicles. The group was removed from the vehicle at gunpoint, questioned, and detained for ten minutes. The reason given by police was that the team's vehicle matched a description of another vehicle they sought.[21]
In the context of the Occupy movement, Pool's footage was aired on NBC and other mainstream networks.[11][14][22][23] According to The Washington Post, Pool "helped demonstrate to activists that livestreaming had potential as an alternative to depending on cable news coverage".[24] He was nominated as a Time 100 personality in March 2012 for his importance to the Occupy movement, alongside David Graeber,[25] as Time dubbed Pool "the eyes of the movement".[26]
In November 2011, Pool told On the Media, "I don't consider myself a journalist." "I consider myself an activist 100%" there "to support the movement."[27] In October 2012, he told El País that "I'm not an activist" and described himself as a journalist.[28] In 2018, Pool said that "I don't align with Occupy Wall Street and never did".[29] In 2021, he denounced the Occupy movement as "crooked".[30]
Vice and Fusion
Pool in 2015
After joining Vice Media, Pool began producing and hosting content and developed new methods of reporting.[31] In 2013, he reported on the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul with Google Glass.[32][31] In April 2013, Pool received a Shorty Award in the "Best Journalist in Social Media" category.[33] From 2013 to 2014, while working for Vice, Pool covered and live streamed the mass protests in Ukraine that led to the collapse of the Yanukovych government.[34] He also covered the Ferguson unrest and covered protests in Thailand, Turkey, and Egypt.[10]
In 2014, he joined Fusion TV as Director of Media innovation and Senior Correspondent.[35][36][37]
Independent work
As of 2021, Pool operates six YouTube channels, two of which, Timcast and Tim Pool, feature daily political commentary,[needs update] while a third serves as a clip channel for Pool's podcast, Timcast IRL.[38][10]
In May 2022, it was estimated that Timcast IRL generated $65,824.86 in non-advertising revenue for YouTube across 100 videos on the Timcast IRL channel from October 2020 to November 2021.[39]
Journalism and commentary
Pool covered the 2016 Milwaukee riots. Pool said he would leave the area and stop reporting on these events, saying he thought it was dangerous due to perceived escalating "racial tensions".[40][41]
In February 2017, Pool traveled to Sweden to investigate claims of "no-go zones" and problems with refugees in the country. He launched a crowdfunding effort to do so after U.S. president Donald Trump alluded to crimes related to immigration in Sweden. InfoWars writer Paul Joseph Watson offered to pay for travel costs and accommodation for any reporter "to stay in crime-ridden migrant suburbs of Malmö."[42][43] Watson donated $2,000 to Pool's crowdfund to travel to Sweden.[10] While in Sweden, Pool largely disputed that migrant suburbs of Malmö and Stockholm were crime ridden, saying that Chicago is vastly more violent.[44][42][43] While filming in Rinkeby, an "especially vulnerable area" in Stockholm, Pool alleged that he had to be escorted by police, due to purported threats to his safety. Swedish police have disputed Pool's claims, stating, "Our understanding is that he didn't receive an escort. However, he followed the police who left the place."[45] The police stated that, "When Tim Pool took out a camera and started filming, a group of young people pulled their hoods up and covered their faces and shouted at him to stop filming. The officers then told Tim Pool that it was not wise to stay there in the middle of the square and keep filming."[45]
In November 2017, Pool created his second YouTube channel, Timcast News.[46]
In 2019, podcaster Joe Rogan invited Pool onto his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, following an interview with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. The two criticized the banning of Milo Yiannopoulos from Twitter, arguing that the provocateur had not truly encouraged his fans to harass Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones.[47]The Atlantic contributor Devin Gordon criticized Rogan and Pool, stating that both men demonstrated a limited understanding of Twitter, censorship, and abuse during the discussion.[48] Rogan invited Pool and Dorsey, as well as Twitter chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, back on his podcast. Pool described cases where he asserted conservatives were unfairly suspended on Twitter. In particular, Pool brought up the banning of Alex Jones and argued that Twitter rules against misgendering transgender users is ideological. Gadde said that Twitter is a free speech platform on which punishments are based on evaluation of consistently-applied harassment guidelines.[49][50]
In July 2019, Pool was invited to participate in a White House event hosting right-wing internet personalities who President Trump characterized as unfairly targeted for their views.[2] Some news outlets described Pool as a spreader of a conspiracy theory about the murder of Seth Rich.[2][51]
In August 2020, Trump liked a tweet published by Pool expressing sympathy and support for Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Illinois then facing trial on charges of killing two people during the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for which he was ultimately acquitted.[52] Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., retweeted a statement by Pool describing how the case of Rittenhouse had convinced Pool to vote for Trump.[53][54][55][56][excessive citations]
In June 2021, Pool invited North Korean defector Yeonmi Park onto his podcast. Park claimed that North Koreans “don’t know the concept of love” aside from political admiration of Kim Jong-Un. Pool replied by telling her that this was "The most villainous thing I’ve ever heard,” however an investigation by experts and journalist into Park's claims about North Korea found that she had fabricated many of her stories, including the ones she told Pool.[58]
In November 2022, Pool interviewed rapper and presidential candidate Kanye West on his podcast, Timcast IRL. West's political advisors, alt-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos and white supremacistNick Fuentes also participated in the interview. The interview came days after West and Fuentes met with former President Trump. During the interview, West made a series of antisemitic statements, including claims about a Jewish conspiracy controlling the American government and media. Pool criticized West's comments on Jews, saying "I'm gonna disagree with you." After Pool refused to criticize Jews, West and his advisors walked out of the interview.[63][64][65]
In September 2024, U.S. federal prosecutors charged two employees of Russia's state-controlled media network RT of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, conspiracy to commit money laundering and of allegedly launching a $10 million propaganda scheme that enlisted popular right-wing social media influencers. The indictment describes, but does not mention by name, Tenet Media, which has partnered with commentators Pool, Dave Rubin, Lauren Southern, Benny Johnson, Matt Christiansen, and Tayler Hansen.[68][69] Pool matches the indictment's description of "Commentator-2", who it alleges agreed to provide content to Tenet Media in exchange for "$100k per weekly episode".[70][60] In his response to the indictment on Twitter, Pool, who had previously stated that Ukraine was one of the United States' enemies,[71][72] stated that he was unaware of the company's connections to Russian funding and declared himself a victim of the alleged scheme.[69] U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said "the company never disclosed to the influencers – or to their millions of followers – its ties to RT and the Russian government".[69]
Other activities
In 2014, Pool helped launch Tagg.ly, a mobile app that watermarks photos. Pool said he was interested in this kind of application due to experiences where others used his photographs without attribution.[73][74]
In 2019, he co-founded the news company Subverse, which raised $1 million in 22 hours via regulation crowdfunding in 2019, surpassing the previous record on Wefunder.[75] The service was later renamed SCNR. Pool partnered with Emily Molli and former Vice editor-in-chief Rocco Castoro, although Pool later fired both of them in January 2021.[76][77]
In 2022, he collaborated with drummer Pete Parada to release two singles "Genocide" and "Only Ever Wanted". "Only Ever Wanted" reached the No. 2 spot on the global iTunes chart.[78] The single was most downloaded on the Billboard charts in September 2022 in Alternative Digital Song Sales.[79] Both singles reached the No. 1 spot on iTunes.
Like several other "alt-right gateway" or "alt-lite" figures, Pool presents himself as a disaffected liberal in order to convey authenticity.[88] In 2019, Pool described himself as a centrist or "center libertarian left", and rejected a left–right political paradigm for both self-description and in other contexts, instead dividing the public into those who are "discerning" and "skeptical" regarding mainstream media (which Pool describes intertwined with left-wing politics) and those who are "undiscerning" and "uninitiated". Pool has criticized anti-fascist protestors and progressive social justice movements.[89]: 210 He had said that "the news is dying" and that in trying to appeal to young people with sensationalism, it skews towards liberal and left-leaning audiences.[89]: 211 A 2019 article in the journal Television & New Media analyzed Pool and two other YouTube influencers, Dave Rubin and Blaire White, as combining "micro-celebrity pratices with a reactionary political standpoint".[89]: 201 Prior to Occupy Wall Street in 2011, Pool sometimes described himself as being anti-authoritarian or "pro-transparency", but not as very political.[10]
A July 2019 Vice article described Pool as "a right-wing media figure", while another Vice article from the same month described him as "lefty" and "progressive".[90][91] In 2019, Politico said Pool "describes himself as a pro-Bernie Sanderssocial liberal" but said his "views on issues including social media bias and immigration often align with conservatives'".[92]
According to Al Jazeera in 2020, "Pool has amplified claims that conservative media endure persecution and bias at the hands of tech companies."[93] On August 24, 2020, Pool announced his support for Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, writing that he felt alienated by changes he perceived in the modern left.[55][76]
In 2021, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described Pool as a "pro-Trump social media personality" who "uses his YouTube show to showcase far-right extremists".[94] In 2022, NBC News referred to Pool as a "right-wing influencer".[95]BBC News in 2023 said Pool's podcasts "cover right-wing talking points and conspiracy theories".[96]The New York Times in 2023 described Pool's podcast as "extreme right-wing", and Pool himself as "right-wing" and a "provocateur".[97]Le Monde in 2024 described Pool as a "star influencer" of the "American far right",[98] and a 2023 article in the Journal of Quantitative Description described Pool as "extreme right".[99]
^ abcCollins, Ben; Alba, Monica (July 11, 2019). "Conspiracy theorists, far-right agitators head to White House with social media in their sights". NBC News. Retrieved August 24, 2021. While the Trump administration has generally embraced the far-right social media sphere, Thursday's event will be one of the first to bring that digital ecosystem into the real world.... Tim Pool, a YouTube personality who has pushed the false conspiracy theory that former Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich leaked hacked emails to WikiLeaks, also plans to attend the event.
^Shephard, Alex (July 11, 2019). "Trump Assembles His Gang of Social-Media Deplorables". The New Republic. ISSN0028-6583. Retrieved September 8, 2024. So did Tim Pool, a YouTube conspiracy theorist who has suggested that Seth Rich, the former DNC staffer whose 2016 murder remains unsolved, was collaborating with Wikileaks on anti–Hillary Clinton releases.
^Cheney-Rice, Zak (August 31, 2020). "Trump Is an Arsonist Masquerading As a Firefighter". Intelligencer. Retrieved December 29, 2020. Rittenhouse appears to have joined a loose agglomeration of armed militia members who took it on themselves to patrol the streets that night
^Sardarizadeh, Shayan; Wendling, Mike (May 9, 2023). "Why some people are spreading false rumours about the Texas gunman". BBC News. Retrieved July 16, 2023. There's no evidence that Garcia was inspired to action by Mr Pool's podcasts, which cover right-wing talking points and conspiracy theories. But Mr Pool immediately tried to cast doubt on the veracity of the material, accusing those digging up the material as being part of a "psyop".
^Reynaud, Florian; Leloup, Damien (September 5, 2024). "US crackdown on Tenet Media reveals ongoing Russian election interference". Le Monde. Retrieved September 8, 2024. However, the company has managed to attract some big names from the American far right, such as its star influencer Tim Pool... At the same time, he shifted politically, increasingly collaborating with hard-right influencers over the past 10 years.
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