About Will Potter.
Will Potter is a thought leader and award-winning investigative journalist whose work has focused on social justice and environmental movements, and attacks on civil rights post-9/11.
It all started when two FBI agents knocked on my door.
They told me that unless I helped them by spying on protest groups, I would be placed on a “domestic terrorist list.” This wasn’t long after 9/11. “Terrorist” had just become the most dangerous word in the world. The FBI threatened I would lose my job as a newspaper reporter at The Chicago Tribune.
I never considered becoming an FBI informant, but the agents’ threats left me terrified. When that fear subsided, I became obsessed. Obsessed with uncovering civil liberties and human rights abuses committed in the name of fighting “terrorism.” And obsessed with using my reporting to make a change.
A recent headline about my work summed it up: “The FBI Has Only Itself to Blame for Creating a Will Potter.”
I love the sentiment, but I think there has been an influence on my life more dominant than the FBI or any government agency: punk rock.
I grew up immersed in the hardcore punk scene, and the culture—its spirit of defiance and its emphasis on DIY (do-it-yourself) ethics—has had a profound impact on my approach to journalism.
““Will Potter is one of the few people on the planet Earth who truly understands what it means to grow up punk and try to channel all of that unbridled youth energy into something positive and worthwhile as you grow older.””
It’s the reason why, after my editors refused to publish stories about FBI abuses and the “Green Scare,” I started my own news service, booked my own speaking events, and traveled the world sounding the alarm. I’m now a TED Senior Fellow, and have spoken before Congress and the Council of Europe, but that came after a lot of smelly punk shows.
You can blame punk rock as the reason my career has been a bit unconventional, to put it mildly. It has motivated me to surround myself with people who inspire, and only make things that 13-year-old me would be proud of. That’s included books, documentaries, university courses, TED talks, zines, law journal articles, and of course 7” records.
In hindsight I can see the connection between these two worlds, journalism and punk rock, and why both have felt like home. At their core, they are each about bearing witness to the world, both the joy and the darkness, and finding the courage to speak truth to power.
Stories from the Front Lines
Today my life as a journalist, author, and lecturer is focused on civil liberties abuses post-9/11, particularly the political repression of protest movements. I believe in what muckraker J.B. Martin called “stories de abajo”—stories from below. In my work I counter false narratives of people in power by bearing witness to those on the front lines who are fighting for a better world.
