Some people spend their whole lives hoping to go viral on social media. While Klein College of Media and Communication alumnus Jason Peters, KLN ’17 (he/him), always thought that would be cool, he knows that the number of likes and views aren’t all that matters.
On February 3, 2022, Peters posted something a little cheesy on the Twitter account for the website he founded, the Philly Plain Dealer. He posted “breaking” news about what looked like a collapsed cheese shelf at his local Acme grocery store. The tweet ended up going viral as people seized the opportunity to make puns about all of the de-brie and share Peters’ light-hearted news post.
We talked to Peters in November 2020, before he officially launched Philly Plain Dealer, and jumped at the chance to speak with him again about his other recent successes and his now legend-dairy tweet.
What have you been up to?
The question “what am I doing?” has always been a very loaded question because I stay interested in projects by having other projects. It’s just how I function. Like, I’m very scatterbrained, so there’s always a lot going on at once.
The main thing that’s changed or that I’ve been up to is I am now the main podcast producer for HOT 97 up in New York City. I’m their podcast guy. That’s what I’m doing full-time now, as well as running the Philly Plain Dealer, creating the 2100 podcast, which is my show. I’m working on a fifth-year anniversary deluxe edition of my book, Life of a Giant. I still do freelance journalism for the Metro Newspaper, Green Philly, Grid Magazine, and more recently with The Daily Beast.
I’m working on more longform writing in the background, as well. Like, movie scripts and stuff like that. I’m also doing, like, the cheese tweet, just stuff that pops up by happenstance. I have to manage this cheese tweet situation and that’s going to take a couple hours of my day that I didn’t account for at the beginning of the week.
Tell me about this “cheese tweet.”
A younger me would be more excited about going viral but I’m at the point where I’ve had stuff go viral numerous times. I have a clip of Carson Wentz taking a Dallas Cowboys fan’s hat off, that got, like, a million views. I have protest footage that’s been seen by millions of [people].
The cheese tweet was just a throwaway tweet at the grocery store in the middle of the day before I went to the bank. I saw a funny thing, I came up with a funny idea, I threw it out there. But, once it starts getting into, like, half a million impressions and verified accounts are sharing it and I can’t even read all of the comments; once it gets to that level, this is definitely the biggest tweet I’ve ever had. But, that’s so hollow. Who cares?
Technically, the hope is that every tweet is going to go viral. But that’s not why I posted the cheese tweet.
What is the Philly Plain Dealer?
The Philly Plain Dealer was a small, student-run, far-left outlet in the 1970s. They had balls, and that’s who we’re named after.
The Plain Dealer was originally supposed to be a place where I published the stuff I couldn’t get published. Now, I can get stuff published so my focus is more on mentoring young writers, letting other writers build a portfolio on the site and build a relationship through me to other outlets. They can start a freelance career of their own and become a reputable journalist on their own, because there’s not a lot of places to do that.
Why did you decide to create it?
Yeah, I don’t really care about me very much, you know? I’ve accomplished more than I ever have expected to already, so, now it’s about bringing people up with me and making sure that the people around me have the tools to succeed with what I know. When I see someone trying to be a writer or trying to be creative, I can kind of steer them on the right path. I don’t want anything from them, because most of the people in this industry are transactional. They want something from somebody. Me, I’m trying to build stuff and give it away.
What other work have you done?
The things I’ve done in my career that matter the most to me are not anything like the Carson Wentz video or stuff going viral. It’s stuff like my podcast where I’ve gotten to create the things that would not be created otherwise. I got to talk to the mayors of Niagara Falls, Canada and Niagara Falls, New York and ask them the same questions and compare and contrast between two countries. I got to interview artists I’ve looked up to my whole life. These people that I’m a fan of I’ve gotten to have as a part of my projects.
And stuff like the journalism I did about the homeless encampment. I did research on Fentanyl, all the stuff I did with Billy Penn about the Pennsylvania Mortgage Assistance Program. Things like that, that – not directly because of me – but helped people get housing, helped people get mortgage assistance and uplifted things that I think matter.
That’s why I do this. I don’t do this for cheese tweet impressions. I do this to try to impact something and then hope that I’m putting out some sort of positivity in the world.
What were you involved in while you were a student at Temple University?
I could not be in clubs because I had to work full time at the local bar, the Draught Horse. The reason I came to Temple was because it’s in the city. There are more opportunities in media in the cities.
Studying abroad in London, that was a defining moment for me as a person, as well as my career. I got to do an internship with a production company that had contracts with Sony and Sundance and I really was respected by my coworkers there and I really respected them.
[Associate Professor Sherri Hope Culver] was my study abroad teacher and she really, like, gave me confidence to stick with what I do and believed in me. That went a long, long way for a young man with not a lot of prospects. She was instrumental in my graduating.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I’ve done work that helps people, but it is often overwhelming. You think that good journalism is the thing that will, like, change stuff. But the reality is that we are just like, a slap on the wrist that can be pushed away. So now, like, if I really want to change things, how do I do it? Journalism is a part of my Swiss army knife of [stuff] I’ve got going on.
What is next from you?
I would like to sell this movie script that I’ve been working on for a couple years. Um, all I’ll say is that I wrote a movie about a dolphin in a car. Other than that, I’m building a podcast network at HOT 97. There will be a fifth season of 2100. The Plain Dealer will continue to publish articles and keep growing. My journalism will continue, and I will attempt to shine light on things that are not being talked about in Philadelphia, and eventually in New York, when I move.
I am also giving away a thousand books in a year. I tweet out, “give me books” and then people drop books off at my house, and then I tweet, “who needs books?” and the people come to my house, and they take the books. I’ve given away 917 in 11 months. I’m doing that because it’s important to give back or just to be a member of a community and put your money where your mouth is and try to change it.
Responses were edited slightly for length and clarity