Independent journalist Mehdi Hasan is bringing a new vision for journalism with his media company, Zeteo. Founded in 2024, his company seeks to develop an authentic voice through enterprise reporting methods.
Mehdi Hasan has been a journalist for over 20 years. He has worked as a producer for Al-Jazeera English, Channel 4 and the Huffington Post, where he served as political director.
Now, he is taking a direction similar to other legacy-affiliated anchors-turned independents like Don Lemon, who have forged new, nontraditional paths for themselves. This quiet exodus from newsrooms is paralleled by growing opportunities for freelancers, who are taking advantage of digital tools that provide new ways to reach audiences.
Hasan founded Zeteo on the slogan of “a bias toward democracy and human rights,” branding the company’s identity as a service mission.
Most notable is its visual-interactive focus.
Zeteo presents audiences with full-length documentaries, “Ask The Editor” episodes where hosts answer live questions and “Mehdi Unfiltered,” a show more reminiscent of a traditional news segment. These offer diversified options in a market where legacy news organizations struggle to attract subscribers and outlets like The Washington Post downsize content offerings.
Alternative media has long been a challenge for legacy news organizations, as consumers increasingly seek out personalization, interactivity and exposure to perspectives that aren’t communicated in the mainstream.
However, Zeteo gains appeal in suiting its delivery style to this new trend.
“Beyond Israelism,” a series featured on the platform, balances professional flair and personability. Hosted by activist Simmone Zimmerman, it centers on an intergenerational reckoning with the state of Israel, inviting scholars of both Palestinian and Jewish identity to share personal narratives.
Uniquely, Zimmerman builds trust in the way that a YouTuber or social media creator does: by being vulnerable with an audience. She does not position herself as an expert, but is willing to arrive at negotiated meanings through dialogue with her guests and viewers.
Zeteo also integrates itself into a network of independents and the tools of amateur content creation—positioning itself as a contrast to the gatekeeping often involved in newsroom routines.
For one, it is a product of Substack, an interface similar to Medium where audiences can follow their preferred creators or sources and interact with content. This positioning immediately distinguishes Zeteo from other news outlets that often separate traditional production processes from those of the tools used by amateur, non-journalistic actors with whom they compete for attention.
Zeteo ultimately rebuilds trust in journalism by holding journalistic practices themselves up to critique, portraying them as flexible and interpretative, rather than rigid principles.
In an episode of “Ask The Editor,” attention is drawn to the way in which journalists covered responses to the death of ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of federal immigration officers. Episode host Prem Thakker argues that, in this case, the principle of balance was distorted to laud GOP members who called for an investigation as breaking with party ranks.
This keeps with a theoretical perspective that holds balance, instead of developing the full picture, which can distort impressions, giving confirmation to viewpoints that don’t deserve to be validated. In Thakker’s view, too much pomp is given to what should be a moral instinct: to condemn cruelty.
Derived from the ancient Greek word for “seeking out” and “striving,” Zeteo ultimately aims to mirror the tireless inquiry employed by the giants of philosophy. It proclaims its core values as journalistic accountability, service, and transparency — engaging a quest for truth that doesn’t stop at all sides of the story coverage, but interrogates conditional patterns of thinking.
