Ian Urbina is a former journalist who worked for the New York Times who was accused of scamming music royalties from intern musicians. As I was researching this whole scandal, I came across a fact checker article. While I do not trust fact checker websites 100%, I checked the sources and the claims they made, and they seem to be accurate and well researched. This scandal was blown out of proportion by the musician who used the same tactics he accused Ian of and Ian's inability to make the situation clear. This does not mean that Ian was innocent. While he made some "rookie mistakes" he bought the musicians with honeyed words promising promotions. Once social media got wind of this scandal it resulted in the truth becoming more obscure and people becoming furious. This whole scandal could have been prevented by communication between Ian and the musician, but the musician decided to create a video and post about his issue before even attempting to research and clear out the royalty issue. The royalties were not received by Ian, instead "Ian seems to have zero financial interest anywhere, with a non-profit being the sole beneficiary of non-artist royalties" (Fact-checking the Ian Urbina music royalties story (substack.com)). Ian uploaded documents that showed he was not receiving any money from the royalties, but this was done too late as most of the story became to convoluted to solve so easily. This raises a serious question about the dangers of social media and how misinformation can avalanche into a serious scandal.
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