The Demonetization of The Pro Channel and Background

As many of you know, The WDW Pro Channel was demonetized by YouTube in the middle of a Friday night over "reusing others' content". As a news channel, that's hard for us to make defense against because there's no specificity as to what exactly we reused. Was it an ad that popped up in an article we were reading and is considered "others' content"? It is a trailer that we watched after triple-checking it wouldn't violate any copyright issues? Is it the new intro that we ran through copyright checks days ahead of debuting it for the show? Nobody knows except whoever approved the YouTube demonetization because nobody is going to tell us that.

It's a problem of YouTube that we knew existed going in. And that's why there was always a Plan B. Luckily, I think we made it just in time for Plan B to be viable. Plan B is That Park Place.

Before I talk about That Park Place the YouTube Channel, however, I want to express what I think is really the culprit of our takedown. If you look at all the coverage we have done in the last six months, we've largely covered the same topics as other similar channels albeit with significant scoops added and more insider info on many of these issues. However, one story put us apart from most other channels in the last week-or-so. We have been made aware that of all the things we've discussed, one topic has Disney livid. According to a trusted source, Disney has not been pleased with public exposure to the Afghanistan NatGeo debacle. Not only did the documentary Retrograde seemingly put Afghani allies in such danger that many were tortured and killed (and all because they stupidly did not blur faces in the documentary), but removing it from Disney+ now might be seen as a admittance of wrongdoing or culpability. I don't know the internal discussion of Disney about how to handle the situation, I only know that we did a video on the topic with Andrew of Legal Mindset and a former military member named Marc. The video achieved over 20K views and brought to light congressional testimony that we felt was vitally needed in order to save innocent lives. It also didn't just make Disney angry. Our video revealed a potential mishandling of information by much larger entities.

If attempting to do real journalism and save innocent lives costs us three months of revenue, damages the WDW Pro Channel and harms our long-term success, we still think that was necessary on principled grounds. 

We're not sure exactly what happened with the channel. When you do not have a single video demonetization issue, no copyright strikes, flags nor otherwise, and suddenly your channel can't earn money for 90 days, it's hard to reconcile that. But we know that Disney has reached out to journalists attempting to cover the Afghanistan story and they're not happy. We know that said stories should appear in the future if everything goes as it should, and we'll be happy to cover those when they happen. 

In the meantime, we need your help. We need you to be our gigawatts. As of now, That Park Place on YouTube is still monetized. We plan to run a new livestream called "Amateur Hour with Pro" on Tuesdays at Noon ET. We really do need you there. We plan to double the number of videos released on That Park Place on YouTube. Amplifying those videos is critical if you can help. And finally, www.thatparkplace.com is growing and growing under the direction of John F. Trent. Your continued readership is appreciated. 

Although this demonetization of the channel impacts our algorithmic success, our reach, and our income, the most disappointing thing for me is it impacts the household livelihoods of those on the team (and I'm not including myself here). I hate that.

Going forward, if we are reinstated soon, we will return to normal with The Pro Channel and That Park Place. We will also take additional steps to try to make sure that this particular claim can neve be levied against us. I'm not sure that is sufficient, but in the battle that we face, it's necessary. We must also support other channels that are attempting to do full-fledged journalism and editorialized news coverage of what is happening in entertainment. If this can happen to the WDW Pro Channel with millions and millions of views per month, it can happen to any channel. And therefore, we have to join together.

I've been touched by the support of so many. I look forward to providing you with updates and insights too spicy and too close-to-home for any other location as we build out this Patreon. I know that some of you would rather we be other places... I assure you, Jonas is working on that as well. We need to be in as many locations as possible.

With very best regards and appreciation,

Pro

P.s. For more information that relates to the story which we think brought serious attention on the channel beyond just Disney's dislike, please see:
https://thatparkplace.com/former-green-beret-thomas-kasza-accuses-disney-owned-national-geographic-of-creating-hit-list-targeting-american-allies-in-afghanistan/