From
http://www.mikesouth.com
By Mike South
April 14th, 2014
“How Much Did MindGeek Pay ABC News For That 15 Minute Ad For Their Tube Sites?”
That is what my friend Danny asked after viewing the segment on “Nightline”. His second comment was that he wanted to “go to Pornhub and Check out that Tasha Reign chick.”
A little background info is in order here. I was contacted by Alex Waterfield, Producer for ABC News Nightline about two months ago. He said he wanted to do a piece on how piracy has devastated what was once thought to be an economy proof business. He said that he was having a problem getting anyone to “go on the record about a company called MindGeek”. We had a lengthy chat and I outlined the brief history of MindGeek, going all the way back to hahahahahahaha Yousef, Matt Keez and Stefane Manos, the origins of Mansef/Manwin and the International Money Laundering charges.
He made the statement that he couldn’t understand why nobody had ever done a story on how Manwin/MindGeek has decimated the industry almost single handedly (and they still haven’t, hint Alex…You guys might want to take some lessons from Charlie Gasperino over at Fox Business news….He gets it…) ) and asked me if I would appear on camera. I agreed to do so. He also asked me for the names of some people who have been affected by Manwin/Mindgeek in particular who would be willing to tell their story on Nightline. Waterfield never even bothered to contact any of them to my knowledge.
I hooked him up with several, including Nate Glass, whom he had already been in contact with. He assured me that he wanted to tell an honest story and that this wasn’t going to be a T&A segment.
Over the course of the next month I gave him the full history on Mansef/Manwin/MindGeek, including all the websites they own and all the companies that they bought.
I explained the Colbeck Capital/Fortress Investment Group financing, told him who the people in charge at Manwin/MindGeek are, including Feras Antoon and David Tassillo. I also gave him the story on Fabian and NATS and Fabians rise and fall from power.
So given all of that info, the piece that they did was little more than “Cotton candy” Journalism. There was little substance to speak of and in the end they were more interested in the porn chick talking about how she would always be naked if she could be than they were in Nate’s attempt to explain the breadth and depth of the piracy problem.
They even dug up Paul Fishbein for God’s sake and most would argue that he is as responsible for Manwins predatory take over as anyone. Fish had a deer in the headlights look and his statement was bout on par with the South Park teache who says “Drugs are bad, mmmmmkay” If Fish had anything of substance to say ABC left it on the cutting room floor.
Watching this made me glad they didn’t make the trip to Atlanta to film me for this piece because I am sure that I would have been edited in the same manner.
In the end it was just an excuse to put half of Adella’s client roster, half dressed on Nightline and tell the world where they can watch them have sex without having to join a site or pay for anything. The only one of Adella’s clients that was noticeably left out was AVN, likely because it is pretty obvious that Manwin/MindGeek is calling the shots over there…..
Damn shame……Makes me wonder if all of “Nightlines” pieces are as poorly presented…..Yes that was rhetorical.