YouTube journalist Nick Shirley is a one-man journalistic machine on the national stage
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Nick Shirley never planned to become one of the most popular freelance journalists in the country, creating videos that would dominate the national conversation and be answered by vice presidents and CEOs.
But after her fraud investigation in Minnesota, Shirley burst onto the scene as a one-man journalistic machine.
Recently, he sat down with Fox News Digital at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas to discuss his extraordinary rise, his philosophy of reporting, and the stories the mainstream media ignores.
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Freelance reporter Nick Shirley speaks during a panel discussion in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, File)
“Well, when I was young, I did vlog pranks, then I started to grow up a little bit and I wanted to see what was happening in the world. And it turned into journalism,” said Shirley about her first reporting. “I didn't know you were a journalist at the time. I thought I was making YouTube videos about interesting topics.
“And now I'm one of the biggest and best-known journalists in America, in the world, actually.”
Shirley admitted that her particular style is difficult to define.
“I think that's a good mix, like…a freelance YouTube journalist, like journalism with a little bit of a documentary style, so it's different than what anybody's done before in terms of this new field of YouTube journalism,” he said.
Shirley said she realized she had an explosive story as Minnesota's “Feeding Our Future” video scam generated nine-digit views on X.
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NIck Shirley's independent reporting style caught the attention of Vice President JD Vance, among other professionals. (Urs Flueler, Pool photo via AP, File)
“When I saw it reach 100 million views, I had never seen a video reach 100 million views on X before. It was shared by some of the biggest voices in the world as well,” said Shirley, who has 1.7 million followers on the platform, and almost 2 million subscribers on YouTube.
Among them were Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and FBI Director Kash Patel.
Shirley said she believes her investigation of primary sources is where she devotes time and resources to new stories.
“I take all public information from the government directly from the source,” he said.
Despite the great success Shirley has seen, she still encounters stories that don't get the exposure she feels they deserve.
“On a national level, I think the fentanyl problem in the United States is really bad,” Shirley said. “I've made a few videos on that, but people don't seem to want to stop the fentanyl problem from happening.”
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Unsurprisingly, from time to time, Shirley said her journalism career takes her to the edge of her comfort zone.
“In the favelas of Brazil, I thought I was going to die. That was a little scary,” he said. “In Kenya and Philadelphia, that was really dangerous.”
Shirley cited her Spanish language skills as an inspiration in her coverage of the border crisis for the Biden administration, which she experienced firsthand.
“I had heard about what was happening. I was living in Chile at the time. And I started to see what was happening with the Venezuelan migrants who were entering Chile,” said Shirley. “When I returned to the United States, I began to look at what was happening on the southern border.
“And since I could speak Spanish, I started to show what was really happening. And people didn't know that children were being trafficked. 17-year-old girls were coming by themselves. 12-year-old girls were coming by themselves. And I started showing what was happening from the border to the shelters in New York City.”
Nick Shirley hit the news cycle last month with a 42-minute video investigating Minnesota's child care centers that appeared to be dysfunctional despite receiving millions of dollars in federal funding. (Nick Shirley)
Shirley served a two-year mission with the LDS Church, and credits her faith as a motivation for her work.
“Well, I think our faith invites us to look at the truth and expose evil,” he said. “Like the scriptures, the Bible, everything, it's a bunch of powerful men who reveal what's going on again, and I think that's been lost.”
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Shirley said the recent case of Fahima Egeh Mahamud – a woman arrested in Minnesota “Feeding Our Future“The scheme of fraud and fraud in the daytime – as proof of the authenticity of his work, as the mainstream media and the Democratic Alliance have worked hard to criticize his investigation.
“Well, the numbers don't lie, and the sentences don't lie,” he said. “Minnesota's largest state-funded preschool just pleaded guilty today.”
