EXPOSED: Hard Lens Media and Daniel Luepker

You saw the infamous December 23rd Hard Lens Media hit piece.

https://youtu.be/7gBAbMwVQCg?si=-PBFMd4r2yc6F-pS

What better way to celebrate HLM's Birthday than to share the phone call with founder Daniel Luepker that contributed to Chicago Corner's request to restructure as a worker owned co-op. Compare the call exactly as it unfolded with Daniel's 12/23 recollections, and ask yourself if anything in the Hard Lens Media hit piece was real, or just Daniel's blind rage at being reported for violating Illinois Minimum Wage laws and stealing Rokfin tip revenue that was promised to Jerry, Ed and Kira at a staff meeting in 2022? Why wouldn't Daniel respond to Rokfin's request for authorization to attach Chicago Corner's crypto wallet to collect revenue after the sales transition? Why did Daniel claim to Rokfin that the threshhold funds had disappeared into the ether while bragging in his December 23rd video that he had withdrawn the funds before disconnecting the wallet set up by HLM? Who did Daniel share information with regarding the department of labor complaint sent to him a day before the Chicago Corner doppleganger live chat incident? Why would Daniel claim everyone did things behind his back requesting the co-op restructuring, when in this very phone call, you will HEAR Daniel very clearly defining Kit as the point person everyone should speak with since he was "done" with Chicago Corner?

There was no "coup". Only the disturbed ramblings of a paranoid and delusional malcontent getting payback by abusing the trust of HLM's audience for the good work they have done in the past, to weaponize their viewers against the Chicago Corner team in retaliation for a legitimate labor complaint and theft of tip wages.

The details of the labor complaint have been shared numerous times on YouTube and Twitter, ignored by the indie media cliques that have turned the promise of a responsible indie media space into a schoolyard of self-serving clout goblins spending more time gossiping about each other and rallying online lynch mobs against their buddies' "enemies" than acting like responsible and grown up professionals. No investigative indie media personality outside of Warren Dearman and Shane Coughlin took any time to weigh the facts on the other side of Daniel and Kit's expose in which they made themselves the story, and the victims of a "censorship" campaign triggered by their own smear piece. The truth is in this video, and this link as to what Daniel's agenda was actually about:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jej6lF1Be7IOXGDXcItB1pagoPz1F3cL/view

Hard Lens Media has advocated for worker owned co-ops, a $25 minimum wage, and worker rights publicly, but there is a different story behind the scenes. An internal dispute has now forced our hand disclosing contractor agreements not aligned with state labor laws, use of interns as free labor with intentions to use them for field work without carrying any liability insurance, expectations that volunteers invested in helping with the channel's growth then owed the company responsibilities that routinely crossed over into what paid work should be, while operating as a corporation in violation of state minimum wage labor laws.

99 Perspectives and Hard Lens Media liked to project they are the TYT of the Midwest with their studio that they lost, because they also lost sight of prioritizing the things that make an organization strong and stable, the people aligned with them who woke up and realized they weren't ever seen as valued partners, but "keys" to be used in Daniel's predatory "Rules for Rulers" ideology.

https://www.youtube.com/live/f1vecsGCSw4?si=ADk88U0_IgtvbMm4

It's disappointing to see Daniel's vendetta and defamatory video of December 23rd didn't only smear the people who once believed in the organization, it violated their rights and privacy under Illinois Whistleblower protection laws. It demonstrated a clear disrespect for the value they all once brought to his operation. The copyright strikes against HLM's channel were completely legitimate in the wake of the December 23rd hit piece, because none of us any longer owe them any right to utilize the programming we produced as volunteers, unpaid, that became assets we had to buy from them to continue serving our audience with a vested interest in our time and labor. Use of Chicago Corner video in the hit piece wasn't "fair use", because slander is not free speech and the other copyright strikes were for programs we wholly produced, shot, wrote and edited before we had to "buy them back" as assets from HLM.

It's regrettable we've been forced to air this video in what should have remained a private business matter. But in the immortal words of Roger Skaer, "if you stay down here, and you never fuck around, you'll never find out".

Daniel Luepker
Hard Lens Media
Kit Cabello
INN

#danielluepker #hardlensmedia #kitcabello #hlm #chicago #jimmydore #receipts #cloutgoblins #slander #defamation #indienewsnetwork