The News is Coming from Under the Desk… on TikTok (live from On Air Fest)

Mar 6, 2025

V Spehar is a dynamic social media content creator known for their engaging TikTok channel, Under the Desk News, where they deliver news in a relatable format to millions. In this discussion, V dives into the friction between traditional journalism and new media influencers, sharing insights on their recent conflict with NPR. They explore how platforms like TikTok are reshaping news consumption and trust, and emphasize the importance of personal storytelling in news reporting. The conversation highlights the evolving landscape of media and the role of audience connection.

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ANECDOTE

Newsfluencer Incident

V Spehar criticized NPR for calling them a "newsfluencer" after an interview.
They felt misrepresented and their words were "Frankensteined" to fit a narrative.

INSIGHT

Shifting News Landscape

Traditional news outlets' trust is declining while social media news consumption and trust are rising.
It's crucial for traditional journalists to understand how social media journalists, like V Spehar, operate.

ANECDOTE

TikTok Ban Discussion

V Spehar discussed the TikTok ban, arguing its media portrayal is biased and inaccurate.
They highlighted the ban's potential economic and community impact, emphasizing TikTok's diverse user base.

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As trust in traditional journalism plummets, social media content creator V Spehar of Under the Desk News is ascendant, with over 3.4 million TikTok followers. But recently, V found themself in a public dustup with NPR over, in part, how the outlet had classified V in an interview. In this special episode of Question Everything–largely recorded live at On Air Fest–Brian and V take the stage to explore the tensions between traditional and non-traditional journalism, and what the two can learn from each other.

Since talking off the cuff live on stage doesn’t always result in the most precise utterances, here are a few additional corrections and clarifications we didn’t address directly in the episode:

While live on stage, V said that TikTok is owned “mostly by the richest man in Philadelphia, Mr. Jeffrey Yass.” In fact, Yass’ personal share in TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, is 7%, worth roughly $21 billion.

Regarding the stat in the Under the Desk News video stating “every school in America gets about 20 percent of their total school budget from the federal government,” in reality, public schools may get as little as 0% or as much as 75% of their funding from federal sources, depending on the district.

The Pew Research referenced in the conversation shows that 1 in 5 Americans get their news from online news influencers, and 54% of Americans get their news at least sometimes from social media.

In on of the Under the Desk News TikTok videos we played, when V's talking about possible effects on taxes as a result of cutting the Department of Education, they said "I don't know a whole lot of people who can afford for their mortgage to go up 20%." However, we'd like to clarify that a 20% rise in property tax does not necessarily mean a 20% rise in mortgage.

And lastly: Senator Tammy Duckworth has fought for about a dozen federal employees fired from the Veteran’s Crisis Line to get their jobs back, and not employees solely from her state, Illinois.

We reached out to V’s father to confirm their conversation about the possible effects of cuts to the Department of Education, but he didn’t want to comment.

“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.

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