My latest TV spots, and all the Internet chatter over Nicki Minaj's husband's house arrest
My national media blitz includes appearances on newscasts in Chicago and Detroit.
Hello to all my subscribers,
Legal Affairs and Trials with Meghann Cuniff received unprecedented attention through my reporting on rapper Tory Lanez’s sentencing for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, as well as actor Danny Masterson’s sentencing for rape and the letters his That ‘70s Show co-stars Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis wrote to the judge.
News organizations around the world cited my article on Kutcher’s and Kunis’ letters, including The New York Times, CNN, Los Angeles Times, the Daily Mail, The Independent, New Zealand Herald, HuffPost, Yahoo News, Insider, Entertainment Weekly, Page Six and The Daily Beast, and I heard from old friends and classmates who saw my name all over the Internet.
Then on Wednesday night, I tweeted a screenshot of Los Angeles-based U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald’s order placing federal probationer Kenneth Petty on house arrest for “up to 120 days” after he was recorded on video “making threatening remarks toward a specific individual while in the company of someone with a criminal record.” As many of my social media followers know, Petty is the husband of superstar rapper Nicki Minaj, and the “specific individual” is Offset, the superstar rapper who is the husband of superstar rapper Cardi B.
Petty is on probation out of the Central District of California for failing to register as a sex offender. I posted about Judge Fitzgerald’s order on the website formerly known as X, and the first tweet in the thread is up to roughly 41,000 likes and 17.1 million impressions as of Saturday afternoon. A later tweet specifying that the judge and probation officer did not need an outside complaint to act on the video, (a.k.a Offest and Cardi did not snitch) has almost 6,200 likes and 1.3 million impressions.
The hip-hop blogs had another field day, and so did the Meghann Thee Reporter stans. I’ve received a few unkind messages, but it’s overall been nothing more than Internet talk.
It’s all part of a media blitz that began after Lanez’s sentencing in August with features in GQ and The 19th News.
On Sept. 8, I appeared on Fox 2 Detroit’s “The Noon” with Maurielle Lue to discuss Motown legend Smokey Robinson’s civil trial in Los Angeles. (The video is posted above!) I also discussed Lanez’s personal criticism of me, and this was before he called me a “googly eyed bitch” during his final court appearance last week.
Also on Sept. 8, I joined Tony Ortega of The Underground Bunker to discuss Masterson’s trials, conviction and sentencing.
Ortega is a former editor of The Village Voice in New York City who has been reporting on Scientology since 1995. I enjoyed getting to know him during Masterson’s two trials, and I’m grateful for his support as I work to build my own independent Substack operation through paid subscriptions
I also was honored to join Mysonne “the General” and Tamika Mallory on their “Street Politicians” podcast. We discussed Lanez’s shooting of Megan Thee Stallion, and we also had a deeper discussion about race relations, media representation and police violence.
I also was happy to wake up early to join my friends on CBS Chicago for a live discussion about Masterson’s sentencing.
I had several appearances related to Lanez’s Aug. 7 and Aug. 8 sentencing, including a visit with my friend and Los Angeles journalism colleague Kate Cagle of Spectrum News 1 SoCal and a spot on Scripps News.
I also had a great discussion with my friend and neighbor, one-woman powerhouse House Inhabit , about how we deal with insults and incessant online harassment from so-called “trolls,” including my experiences covering Lanez’s case.
On Wednesday night, I appeared on LiveNOW from Fox to discuss Lanez’s transport to prison. I also discussed the differences in the judges’ approaches to sentencing Lanez and Masterson, and Masterson’s wife, Bijou Phillips, filing for divorce.
I recorded two podcasts on Thursday that should be available soon.
Meanwhile, my YouTube channel has other recent TV appearances, including ABC News’ “Nightline”, BBC News and another spot on LiveNOW from Fox. It also has recordings of my live streams from courthouses and my office, and it has videos from courthouse press conferences and other activities like disbarred “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” lawyer Tom Girardi’s courthouse entrances and exits.
You can support me by not only watching my videos (or listening to them), but subscribing to the channel. The more subscribers I have, the better my chances are in the YouTube algorithm, and the higher my advertising revenue rate is.
You also can support my work by purchasing a subscription to Legal Affairs and Trials with Meghann Cuniff.
This is big. My Substack subscribers are my lifeblood, and I’m working to build my website into a hub for everything I do. As you can see, my website does not have advertisements. I am entirely dependent on paid subscriptions to make this work.
Right now, my paid subscribers account for less than 10% of my total subscribers, which is below Substack’s average. If you believe my work is above average, you can let me know by purchasing a subscription for $8 a month or $80 a year.
Paid subscribers have access to the full paywalled archives. All my work is scheduled to paywall after one month after publication, including all coverage of Lanez’s and Masterson’s cases and the Los Angeles federal corruption cases.
If you’d like to donate generally, I’m on Venmo (MeghannCuniff), CashApp ($MeghannCuniff) and Zelle (meghanncuniff@gmail.com).
In other news, I’ve added a “Notes” tab on the homepage where you’ll find short posts sharing court documents, videos and other news. I want to turn my Substack Notes into what my Twitter page is now, because, as I said, my Substack subscribers are my lifeblood.
If you are accustomed to reading my work through email, remember that I sometimes update articles on my website and those updates don’t transfer to the emails, so be sure to look at articles through the website for developments and additional media if you’ve already read the email.
I’m also building my Instagram presence, so if you’re on Instagram, consider following me on there, too.
I’ll be back next week with an article about character letters at sentencing, in relation to Kutcher’s and Kunis’ letters for Masterson. I’ll also share my new podcast appearances as soon as I can.
Thank you for supporting my work!
-meghann