Rags to Riches? 

When asked about the Shane mythology, Gavin McInnes, co-founder of Vice and friend since age 12, tells a different story.  According to McInnes, Shane lied about selling coke and being in a gang.  While Shane told Charlie Rose, Spike Jonze, The Guardian and Joe Rogan that he left home at age 13, McInnes informed me that Smith simply went from living with his mother to living with his father. 

Now, trusting Gavin wholesale might be a one-way ticket over the coo-coo’s nest but, just as his bio indicates, he is more than just a rude lunatic who keeps getting beat up.  I fact-checked the gang affiliation by comparing it to the historical crime data and it leads me to side with the lunatic.  For Shane to have known a dozen dead gang members in Canada’s capital, he would have had to associate with every gang member that died over the course several years.  I also can’t find anyone who can verify Shane’s story— people fall silent. 

What fictional home did he run away from?  His last name makes for a challenging family tree but his brother is a “Senior Consultant specializing in Virtualization with Top Secret Security Clearance”, his father was a lead programmer and his mother worked in legal.  Upper-middle class Canadians from a sleepy government town. 

‘Bullshitter Shane’ on ‘Making Shit Up For Content’

In the 2002 book Vice Guide to Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll (2002) Shane described how when Vice needed a story he would “just make something up.”  Take a story he heard and inject himself first-person. 

Bullshit detection with “Bullshitter Shane”

Engineering an Ego

People love to write about Vice but few people do their homework.  Gavin McInnes, ‘Inventor of Hipsters’, and 13-year public face of Vice, explained in his book that Shane wasn’t there for the beginning.  Shane was hired a year after he and Suroosh began the company. “[ Shane] was a great salesman, and he did it beautifully until taking over the magazine’s editorial content…”

“I always sensed Shane resented my being the star of the show and wanted to be there himself one day.” —  Gavin McInnes in How to Piss in Public

Why would Shane treat his past like a choose-you-own-adventure book?  I think it’s for sympathy and attention.  Someone in pursuit of money is only interesting if they’ve escaped the helplessness of true poverty.  These fictions might be in response to the textured past of McInnes and fellow co-founder Suroosh Alvi.  McInnes fought skinheads, and Suroosh kicked a nasty drug addiction. 

Today, Suroosh is the sober one.  The quieter, stylish, “golden-goose ear” and “super nice boss” of Vice. “ Employees who have issues with alcohol or drugs are sometimes helped personally by Suroosh”.  Despite being complicit in Shane’s misinformation, Suroosh is probably the only Vice founder worth listening to.  I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that he’s a major reason Vice hasn’t self-destructed. 

Shane Smith Via: Lisgar Collegiate 83’-84’, 84’-85’, 85’-86’ and 86’-87’. 

“I’ll tell you what — I grew up poor.  I grew up dirt poor … I’m just a regular dude from butt-fuck nowhere.” —  Shane Smith to Joe Rogan 2013. 

SHANE SMITH’S HIGH SCHOOL: Lisgar Collegiate, Ottawa, Canada. 

Shane’s status in the media is not unusual.  He attended Lisgar Collegiate (1983–87 from ages 13–17) — Lisgar is currently and historically one of the highest ranking public schools in Canada and the best ranked school in Ottawa.  Media alumni including Peter Jennings (ABC Reporter 1964–2005), Adrienne Clarkson (CBC, Governor General of Canada 1999–2005), and Shelagh Rogers (CBC 1980-).  Shane’s later academic record is confusing.  The New York Times, CNBC, and his own LinkedIn profile say he graduated from Political Economy at Carleton (a Masters program) but the chronology does not make sense with his travels through europe and his BA in PoliSci. 

Did Shane write for Reuters while in Bosnia?  I spoke with Reuters’ chief spokesman and was told there is no definitive answer regarding Shane’s employment. “ I have checked… I’ve spoken to the full-time archivist, and he has no records that could confirm or deny…” I asked the spokesman if ‘no records’ are typical and, for example, if his own records of employment would be on file “I know there was a record from me because I appear in the credit of a book…”.  Lisa Gabrielle, former Vice writer who documented Vice in 1999, said “Shane had been traveling in Greece and Hungary” not reporting in Bosnia. 

While most journalists “speak truth to power”.  Shane distorts truth to obtain power.  It’s a political strategy of control…