🌊 Happy Roca Day!

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April 27, 2020

For eight weeks straight, we had been consumed with an idea. 

A pandemic was raging, the economy was in freefall, and lockdowns were turning lives upside down. The world was headed into uncharted territory, with analysts projecting a depression, millions of deaths, and that, simply put, life would never be the same. 

And as the anxiety gripped the world – as people watched their businesses close, graduations be canceled, and loved ones give into panic – what did the media do? 

Reinforced its partisan lines and declared war on any who disagreed. You thought the virus came from a lab? Conspiracy theorist! You wanted a vaccine? Big Pharma snowflake shill!

It was in this environment that we had the idea for Roca: We – the two Maxes, co-workers and friends at the time – were in lockdown at our parents’ respective homes, Max Towey (then 23) in Falls Church, Virginia and Max Frost (then 25) in Glens Falls, NY. As we flipped through the news channels and read article after article, it became clear that journalists were failing in their most basic duty – namely, to ask questions and ascertain the truth. 

All we wanted was good-faith discussion: About the merits of lockdowns, the origins of the virus, the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, and the president’s policies. All we wanted was the truth!

Journalists like to think of themselves as arbiters of the truth, but here, they simply just took their preferred side’s narrative and swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. As we watched this Big News meltdown and felt our, our friends’, and our families’ already little faith in these outlets plummet, we found ourselves texting about this daily. As the conversation progressed – and we lost any optimism we had about news companies improving themselves – we shifted to proposing ideas for our own business. 

Within a few weeks, we had settled on a name: Pluto News, named for the underdog planet that was rejected by the establishment. Here are some of the messages we sent at that time: 

For any readers who have been following our YouTube channel, you know we have been to all of these places.

Anyone who has been reading this newsletter knows we still live by this mantra. 

And perhaps the most significant message we sent was to Billy, Max T’s college roommate:

That message provoked Billy’s curiosity and six weeks later, he quit his job to join the Roca Wave. The three of us would become the founding team. 

All of this happened exactly five years ago. In the 1,826 days since, there hasn’t been a day where the idea that captured us back in April 2020 hasn’t consumed our thoughts, hasn’t energized and motivated us.  

A great deal has changed in that period: The world has emerged from the pandemic, we’ve matured as a business and as people (two of the Roca co-founders are now engaged!), and the topics, concerns, and debates that matter to people have shifted dramatically. We’ve moved cities and been through both the most energizing and stressful times of our lives. 

Yet the problem that motivated us then hasn’t just persisted – it has grown: Legacy Media’s rigid partisanship has continued to erode trust in institutions, and journalists still fail to address debates with an open mind, honesty, and reason. When stories don’t fit their narratives, they don’t report them. When they want to make their side look good and the other bad, they find the facts to do so.

For that reason, after five years, our core idea remains unchanged: The world needs an open-minded news provider that is committed to seeking understanding and the truth so that readers make up their own minds about the day’s most important issues. 

Every day, we try to be that news source. Thank you for reading. 

By the way, in honor of Roca’s five-year anniversary, we’re giving away FIVE YEARS of free Roca Premium. You heard that right! Five years! To be eligible, you must be an existing subscriber or have a free trial. Click here to sign up.

We hope you have a nice weekend. Our normal programming will return tomorrow. 

Oh, and one more thing: Before we launched the company, a lawyer advised us that we drop the Pluto name, given that Disney enforces the trademark for Pluto, the Disney dog, like a hawk. A couple weeks before our launch, Billy, who is half-Brazilian, mentioned the pororoca, a bi-annual wave that sweeps the Amazon, cleaning the river and drawing surfers from around the world. 

That was like our goal with the news: To shake up the establishment and bring people together. So someone said, “Drop the ‘poro,’ just ‘Roca,’” and our company was born. 

P.S.:

If you’ve missed any of our recent stories, find them here:

• The legal theory that goes beyond the Constitution 

• The Palestinian Who Became Trump’s New Ally

• Can Trump fire Jerome Powell?

• The Other Israel-Palestine

• Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s controversial deportation

• Roca reports from Pakistan

Sincerely,

Max, Max, and Billy