Vitus “V” Spehar is the face behind Under the Desk News, a TikTok channel with 3.1 million subscribers. In our new series, Full Frame: Creators, The Verge's Becca Farsace spent the day with V to learn more about the trials and tribulations of having an online political presence in 2024.
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00:00good morning from rochester new york which happens to be my hometown today i am spending the day with
00:04v spear they are a independent journalist slash influencer who posts daily news updates to their
00:11tiktok account which has over 3 million subscribers tuesday night wednesday night and here's what
00:17happened super tuesday turned out to be more of a super snooze day nikki haley went to israel to
00:22sign bombs i actually met v a year ago down in dc we were covering the tiktok senate hearing and
00:29when we interviewed v they said this thing about news not necessarily being accessible
00:34so one of the reasons why i started doing under the desk news is because i didn't feel super
00:37included in like academic academia and in news right you have to be super smart to be a journalist
00:43you have to be super smart to understand things so i started under the desk news to be like you
00:47are smart you definitely understand it it really resonated with me so when i launched this greater
00:51focus series about why creators do what they do and how they do what they do i knew i wanted to
00:56talk to v and it all starts at a barber shop good morning good morning do you always start
01:09your day with yeah haircut yeah every day the hot towel is yeah no the tuesday i was visiting v
01:16wasn't just any old tuesday it was the tuesday of their very first perm you don't see katie kirk out
01:22here like this get her hair done i've never seen kamala harris getting a silk press talking about
01:25the nation this is true but the perm smells really bad it smells really bad in here it's so bad but
01:33more importantly it was also the tuesday right before the white house correspondence dinner
01:38to get a perm on this week of white house correspondence week yeah it's a high level of
01:45trust with with with anna and friends the white house correspondence weekend and dinner is a full
01:51weekend of events that brings all of the journalists who cover the white house and
01:55celebrities and even the president together it's a very high profile event in washington dc and it
02:01requires an invite a few years ago the idea that a tiktok star like v could attend a political event
02:07as prestigious as this would have been insane but while working for the washington post tiktok
02:12channel they were given the ability to go and now they've attended three years in a row but in no
02:16way was a ticket to one of washington's hottest parties a plan for v the origins of their tiktok
02:22channel looked a lot more like this hey today i'm going to show you how to make a coffee soda okay
02:27let's get this over with i just woke up vanilla syrup and just a touch of cinnamon so it's the
02:31director of impact of james beard foundation which is like big food foundation and the pandemic came
02:36i got furloughed so i started making tiktoks with all my chef bro friends because it was like
02:40something to do then january 6th came and i just dove under my desk mike michael
02:49michael vance you can invoke the 25th right now and then you could be president you'll be president
02:55for 14 whole days president and it went super viral and my friend randy was like you better
03:00get back under that desk and explain to people what's going on again and since january 6 2021
03:05v has continued to make videos under their desk which has led to more followers and big
03:09collaborations with politicians what are you what are you doing under my desk well under the
03:14desk is kind of my thing not to mention partnerships with major news networks all right we are here
03:19live at the macy's thanksgiving day parade i am live streaming for nbc and even a short role as
03:24a correspondent for the washington post tiktok channel hey there v spear for the washington post
03:29and today we're going to teach you how to administer narcan all of which has helped them become a
03:34recognizable face in the world of political discourse on tiktok we are here on the cell
03:39phone of the white house like the actual white house i think what we've been able to do is change
03:44the way that people see the news and kind of return it to this idea of it being a community
03:48activity and not an authority at a desk telling you what to think and how it is but it's this
03:53community-based approach that has also caused some trouble for v see under the desk news occupies
03:58this sort of strange space between news anchor and internet personality meaning that first they
04:03aren't held to the same journalistic standards that traditional news media outlets theoretically
04:08have to meet and second as a community member they often give advice or guidance you couple that
04:15with the huge divide in u.s politics and it is a recipe for negative feedback which came to a head
04:21when v posted a good news only tiktok the week following hamas's attack on israel which was
04:27october 7 2023 in the now deleted video v encourages folks to log off and take a break
04:33from the news for the weekend and this resulted in a flurry of stitches on tiktok let's stay off
04:38social media for the rest of the weekend checking in when we need to but remember when you see
04:42really dangerous no no actually this is the exact kind of apathy that we cannot afford that
04:47palestinians cannot afford i'm disappointed but i'm not surprised that under the desk news did not
04:53take any accountability for what they said in their last video to not pay attention to turn it off
04:59will only embolden those committing the oppression v told me that the clips that folks were stitching
05:04were taken out of context and didn't include what they had been covering that week which was how to
05:08explain difficult or painful news to kids he believes this led to the wrong impression and
05:12added i'm not the same person i was before october 7th and the five weeks that followed none of us
05:17are but i continue to learn and try and do the best i can to trust myself and my community but
05:23this isn't the only problem facing these content these days another big story tonight what next
05:28for tiktok the chinese-owned company is threatening to go to court to challenge new legislation that
05:33could effectively ban the platform sometime next year the tiktok ban is hard i feel like it's been
05:39a slow death because it started last year i'm gonna get another job i'm gonna be okay right
05:43i've established myself i've broken that ceiling to kind of be able to be successful in the real
05:48world in the traditional industry the people who are making 300 bucks 600 bucks on tiktok
05:53we're going to make that up it's really callous of congress to be saying in six months to a year
05:58we're going to get rid of this with no economic prospect for these people to make that extra
06:02couple hundred dollars that is life-changing to many people v has been able to take their
06:08success on tiktok and use it to create a business that almost entirely does not rely on the app
06:13and after we left the barbershop it was time to cater to that it's easy to group successful
06:19creators with lavish lifestyles but v actually lives quite a modest one they drive an older car
06:25that they bought off of hertz in the peak of the pandemic they don't have the latest and greatest
06:29in terms of technology and this small purple room is their office and studio it could not be more
06:36different from the studio i was in a few weeks ago while profiling creator maddie benedetto of
06:40unnecessary inventions whose episode i'll link down below unlike maddie view space is anything
06:44but sprawling instead it's just enough room to do what makes them a living which is podcasting
06:49consulting and doing speaking engagements hi pals on the day i was following v they were recording
06:55two segments for their podcast with betches media called american fever dream that covers politics
07:00and pop culture until next time i'm vitus spear and this is american fever dream but they also
07:07travel the country speaking about everything from social media to politics to digital journalism
07:12let's go back in the air conditioning and under the desk though huh
07:16after six hours of watching v do everything but create content for under the desks we arrived at
07:21their home one so recently moved into that moving boxes were still scattered about
07:26and i finally got to meet their docs oh my gosh but also watch them create
07:31let's see what else is going on with the rock an under the desk tiktok starts with a lot of
07:36sifting these are my most visited sites i saw them visit loads of different websites while i was with
07:41them but their top picks for news include the washington post axios ap and politico to name a
07:47few i think it's good to look at like the collective of what's being reported and then try to read
07:51between the lines on it v's goal in this first step of making their daily content is to find
07:56six to eight stories or as many stories that will fill 90 seconds to tell their audience about but
08:01there's one rule i don't like to just tell them stuff that's bad and there's nothing they're
08:04going to be able to do about it i think it needs to be something that like hey this is happening i
08:08want you to be aware of it be conversational on it and there's something we can do about it
08:11we sat in v's dining room together for well over an hour as they listened to an ongoing senate vote
08:16read loads of news and scripted what they wanted to cover before it was finally time to record the
08:21content they're best known for do you ever regret starting this under the desk i was so much younger
08:28when i started doing this and now i have like sciatica it's amazing i don't even care i'll do
08:33it for you forever to film their content v records directly to the tiktok app using an iphone 13 pro
08:40look at this perm the perm is perming all right it's tuesday night and here's what happened and
08:46just like that view is off no the senate has not done the final vote to pass the spending package
08:51for foreign wars in the tiktok ban one in five americans okay and if you are one of the one in
08:57five americans who works under a non-compete well there's some good news for you today the ftc
09:02overturned a rule they didn't overturn the rule hold on voted to ban okay now earlier today the
09:09senate advanced this legislation to a final vote by 80 now earlier today the senate advanced this
09:17legislation to go a lawsuit and nothing will change about your tiktok experience immediately
09:26that's the news for tonight i will see you in the morning
09:30yep you ready you doing it here we go post
09:42so after v posted that tiktok my time with them was up and when i took away from spending a day
09:47with them and editing this entire piece is that i mean reporting on anything political in 2024
09:53is going to be tough and v is definitely fighting an uphill battle with the tiktok ban
09:59and just the huge divide in u.s politics and the community-based approach that they take
10:05but the thing that i can't stop thinking about is that no matter what we were doing that day
10:12v showed up to it and gave an 110 percent effort and in terms of them being a creator and having
10:19a business as a creator i think that that is what makes them successful and that's something
10:24i'm going to take with me anyway thank you so much for watching i'm becca this was another
10:28episode of my creator series let me know who you want me to spend time with next
10:32i appreciate bud and i'll see you in the next one