Dave Jorgenson Trades Washington Post Short-Form for Long-Form Fact-Checking on YouTube

Dave Jorgenson left The Washington Post in July of last year after building its TikTok channel to 1.9 million followers. His new company, Local News International, now counts 454,000 YouTube subscribers for its long-form show, "What's Your Source."

The show's premise is simple: viewers call a hotline with claims they see in their media feeds, and each episode opens with Jorgenson taking a call and investigating. Jorgenson describes the program as "kind of like 'Last Week Tonight,' but more journalism-forward." Unlike John Oliver's HBO show, which develops presentations over months, "What's Your Source" focuses on topics in the current news cycle.

A recent episode ran more than 32 minutes on whether Ukraine's attacks on Russian data centers had shut down an army of propaganda bots. It included a quick check of whether the bots had stopped, a 20-minute interview with a Georgetown expert, and a comedy sketch about how often Americans have ignored warnings of such activity.

"On the surface, it looks effortless," Jorgenson said in a recent interview. "But, obviously, the duck is treading underwater while trying to look calm on top."

Who is building the show?

The staff blends news and comedy backgrounds. Co-founders Lauren Saks and Micah Gelman worked with Jorgenson developing the video business at the Post. Two former writers from the recently cancelled "Late Show with Stephen Colbert" have joined. Jorgenson himself once interned at Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report."

Other comedy shows have tapped journalists, including Oliver's "Last Week Tonight," Samantha Bee's "Full Frontal" and Jon Stewart's Apple show "The Problem," which named CBS and ABC News veteran Brinda Adhikair an executive producer.

Showrunner Felipe Torres Medina draws a line between his team and newsrooms. "We are not journalists, and we rely on the very hard work of many, many journalists and our researchers. And so, our responsibility is kind of like, let us stay true to the information, let us stay true to journalism, let us inform," Medina said. "But I do think our North Star, as to how we approach this job, is, like, let's make it as funny as possible."

Is this a late-night show?

Staffers say no. The team has more time to research and hone comedic responses, and it does not answer to TV ratings. Local News International earns money through memberships and advertising; Harry's, the direct-to-consumer shaving-products company, is a sponsor.

Writer Carley Moseley frames the distinction around Jorgenson himself. Colbert and Oliver "will both come out and be very clear that they are not journalists, and that they are comedians," Moseley said. "And I think Dave is a journalist, considers himself a journalist."

Why does the format matter now?

The audience is shifting. A recent Pew Research Center survey from the Pew-Knight Initiative found 58% of U.S. adults consider social media an important way to keep up with the news, and 13% call it their most important source. When Pew last posed the question in 2022, the figures were 43% and 5%, respectively.

That 15-point jump in two years frames the stakes for creators and legacy outlets alike, and "What's Your Source" is one of many new formats both are testing as younger audiences gravitate to looser, less formal news delivery.

LNI spent early months converting Jorgenson's Post followers to the new venture. With one show in production, the company now aims beyond his existing fan base. "We hope to bring in other news creators," Jorgenson said. "Some we know. Some we haven't met yet." Some may cover specific regions of the United States, he added, while others may work from abroad. "We feel we can grow what's unique here at LNI, maybe in a way that other reliable legacy newsrooms are not."