Ben Collins and Nikole Hannah-Jones are Journalism "Stars." What Exactly Do They Do?

A look at the journalistic output from some of today's media influencers

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NBC News correspondent Ben Collins was very busy posting online about X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on the new social media outlet most like it – Meta’s Threads. “Twitter is like cigarettes that yell at you, a racism website for racists,” he wrote last month. “Haven't been on it for a week and alive again, rid of the rot, like I've dethroned God. I had to be on there for my job, but no job is worth the psychic damage.”

This sort of melodramatic internet-ese is par for the course for Collins, whose beat is to cover “disinformation” and “extremism” for the network. And that’s the kind of beat that, in 2024, gets you a lot of praise from your insular Acela Media buddies on social media. In May, Collins received a Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in TV Political Journalism from USC, for “incisive reporting from the trenches of the information war

Collins seems to spend his days endlessly opining on social media about the state of journalism – like his frequent attacks on the New York Times. But one thing Collins does not appear to be doing very much anymore is journalism. Collins hasn’t written an article for NBC News in more than 100 days. His last one, published in early October, was on one of his favorite targets, X owner Elon Musk. Before that, you have to go back to May 22 to find his previous byline, a short piece about a “fake picture of an explosion” at the Pentagon that had gone semi-viral.

This lack of actual work at his media outlet calls to mind another major journalism “star” in today’s media, the New York Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones. Hannah-Jones is a constant commentator on our culture and politics on X, and is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning The 1619 Project, which has become a true phenomenon. But that was published in 2019. Despite the fact that Hannah-Jones is described as a “domestic correspondent” for the New York Times Magazine in her bio, she published just a single article in 2023 – a review of two children’s books. Before that, you have to go all the way back to June of 2020 to find an article with her byline on it in the “paper of record.”

“Nikole is still a full-time New York Times employee,” a New York Times spokesperson told me.

He pointed to her various projects that grew out of The 1619 Project, including a Hulu series that aired almost a year ago on Hulu, for which she just won an Emmy. She also has other gigs too – as the founder of Howard University’s Center for Journalism & Democracy.

I asked Collins and NBC News if he was still a full-time employee of the media outlet, and neither responded to multiple requests for comment.

Unlike Hannah-Jones’ singular written opportunities at the Times, Collins has another potential platform – television. There was a time when he was a semi-regular presence on NBC’s liberal cable news channel, MSNBC. But he’s not doing much more “pundit-ing” than writing these days. He’s appeared on the network once in January, once in December, twice in November, twice in October, and zero times in September (according to TV Eyes).

Back in September, Collins posted on Bluesky – an even more pretentious, insider social platform the journalistic “elite” – that he was considering “leaving journalism early next year.” It’s unclear if that’s still the plan.

Or perhaps Collins and Hannah-Jones are more like journalistic ambassadors for their outlets, than actual journalists. They represent the “brand” – and bring a sort of cache, exerting “influence” rather than churning out actual content. If that’s the case, this feels like a more successful proposition for the Times, as Hannah-Jones has not only developed a devoted following, but is winning awards for her organization in the process.  

As an aside, if there’s a third journalism “star” that fits the mold of this group, it would be The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz, a mainstay on social media and both a documenter of and participant in influencer culture. But Lorenz is different from Collins and Hannah-Jones – she’s very busy doing actual work too! She’s churned out 10 articles over the past 45 days for her employer. Sure, the social presence may be a headache for her bosses, but she does the work too.

So, as we enter the third week of January, when will Ben Collins and Nikole Hannah-Jones file a piece for their respective media outlets? Only time will tell. But one thing is clear – for these journalism “stars,” it’s a good gig, if you can land it, I suppose.

Earlier this month, Collins posted once again on his Bluesky account “We're going through a big fascist dogfight right now, as we speak, and the supposed adults in the room are doing some sort of decade-long presidential handoff instead of pushing back,” he wrote. “It is okay to acknowledge it. It is okay to feel it. They will mock you for noticing, but it is okay to feel it.”

I have no idea what he’s talking about – does anyone who doesn’t spend every waking minute on social media? But perhaps he could turn it into an article, for the outlet that pays him, and explain it in further detail. You know, like his job?

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