From Lawyer To Viral Journalist: Aaron Parnas Redefines News In The Digital Age

Aaron Parnas, a lawyer-turned-journalist and viral TikTok content creator, has gained recognition for his sharp political real-time news coverage. In a short period of time, he’s gained millions of followers who look to him for honest, up-to-the-minute political news. 

Initially known for his legal expertise, Parnas transitioned into journalism, using social media and digital platforms to break down complex political issues for a wide audience. His journey highlights the power of independent journalism in the digital age, as he leverages his background in law to provide insightful commentary and fact-based reporting. 

With a growing following, Aaron Parnas continues to shape conversations on current events, demonstrating how modern journalists can blend the news with social media influence to inform and engage the public. 

Parnas, well known and trusted on social media, especially TikTok, offers a unique approach to reporting political news. He got his start in law but transitioned into journalism in 2022 and hasn't looked back since.

"What drew me into [journalism] was back in 2022. I had graduated law school about 18 months prior and was a practicing attorney, but then Russia invaded Ukraine, and I had family in Ukraine at the time and felt as though what I was hearing from family on the ground wasn't necessarily what the media was portraying here," Parnas told The Blast exclusively.

"Either it wasn't fully accurate, or it was just much slower than what I was hearing. I figured there was a void that needed to be filled."

That's when Parnas started growing his TikTok page with news that he was hearing from people on the ground in Ukraine. He noticed that he would report something and about an hour later he would see that news on CNN. He kept that focus and added more "generic current events, political, legal news," and said, "the rest is history."

Parnas told The Blast that he "wouldn't necessarily have been able to do it without my legal background" when discussing his transition into journalism.

"I think it's really helped me to be able to take these really complex stories and topics and put them succinctly into a 60-70 second kind of hit on TikTok or elsewhere," he said.

"I think a lot of people, especially my age, I'm 25, they don't necessarily have the attention span or the want to listen to an hour-long broadcast nowadays, so I think being able to take these complex topics and easily digest them for people, I wouldn't necessarily have been able to do that without my legal background."

Parnas said he's really come to love the work he's doing and moving into it full time "became an easy choice" for him.

For many TikTokers, it might appear that Parnas grew his account overnight, but that's not exactly how this all happened.

"Up until the election, I had a steady growth. I think I ended up around half a million followers by election time, but what a lot of people don't know is when I first started doing this work back in 2022, my account then grew from nothing to about a million followers in a week around the Ukraine stuff and after about six months of doing consistent Ukraine focused content, the account was actually banned for a number of reasons," he told The Blast.

"Primarily because of smash reporting from Russian trolls and TikTok didn't have a great content moderation system back then, so that was it and was banned and I could never get it back."

Parnas then started over again and rebuilt his page and in about 18 months, gained around half a million followers. He said it was "a very slow growth," but after the election, the page took off and he gained nearly 3 million followers since.

"If I had to attribute it to anything, it's really because a lot of people took a break post-election," he said. "I kind of put my foot on the gas pedal and did it even more. So, I think there was just a void, people wanted information and I was giving it to them."

Parnas is so dedicated to his mission to deliver honest, up-to-the-minute news updates that he even filmed a video in an airplane bathroom once while on his way to his honeymoon.

"I made a video on the plane, on my way to my honeymoon, about the French government collapsing in terms of no confidence vote and them calling for new elections," he said. "And it got seven million views in about 48 hours. It was literally made in the bathroom of the plane, like 30,000 feet in the air."

As TikTok becomes more and more influential than traditional news outlets, many are getting all of their news on the platform, and Parnas doesn't think that's going to shift, even if TikTok gets banned.

"It's very difficult for me to think of a genuine platform that's just news. There is no news platform anymore. Like CNN, MSNBC are big media companies. I don't consider them to be news anymore. It's more like opinion with a sprinkle of news," Parnas said.

"And a lot of folks, at least from what I've heard, don't want to have to sit and watch an hour of talking heads talk about the news. They just want to hear the facts and be able to make their decisions for themselves, but that's just not the case anymore so I think TikTok and all these other social media platforms have really given rise to that new form. I say new form of media, but it's really not. It's really just bringing traditional news back to relevancy."

When asked if he could change anything about the media industry, Parnas said he wishes he could change the "gatekeeping."

"I would really love to end the gatekeeping. I think there is so much gatekeeping when it comes to traditional media or these big media companies versus independent. I think there needs to be more collaboration between the two. I think we're all looking for the same goal," he explained. "I think more collaboration is really important in a time like this because I think ultimately when you gatekeep news and when you gatekeep content, the people that suffer, the public when they're not informed, then misinformation spreads and everything that is antithetical to our being as journalists kind of grows."

Parnas explained that a big goal for him is to "bring back the Walter Cronkite age in news."

"To get back to an era where people are actually excited to learn about what's happening in our world, whether the good, the bad, or the ugly, and just learn the facts," he told The Blast. "I want to do away with the opinion media of the 21st century in a way and really get back to the facts and get people educated and excited about the news again. So, whatever I can do to do that, I will. This was never a goal of mine, but now that I have the platform, I'm going to continue doing it."

For anyone who's an aspiring journalist or content creator, he advises to "just jump in."

"Just do it. It was scary for me at first, because you're going to get criticized and people are going to nitpick and it's not easy to be out there. But I think the moment you start doing it and get comfortable in that world, everything else will kind of fall into place," he shared. "It really will just become easier and you'll grow. So I would just say the biggest advice is just jump in."

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