I Nailed The Christmas Tree Crooked To The Base
And I smashed my thumb when I did it.
I nailed the Christmas tree crooked to its base. It’s tilted about ten degrees instead of standing straight. It is the first time that the home I live in has a real tree, so coming home to the smell of a Douglas fir – the crisp, forest-y sweet citrus that hangs in the air while you walk in the woods the day after rain – has been a new experience to me.
As I nailed the tree to the base last week, I smashed my thumb with the hammer. It is still bruised but getting better. Up until that moment, I was quite confident in my hammer-swinging that I paid no attention to the tilt I was giving the tree. It could have also been karma because I had just finished making a blasphemous joke about the hammering of nails and that being the last thing someone heard many, many years ago. So far, the six-inch nails seem to hold and the tree is secure, so I think it’ll be fine. Still, there’s no excuse: I know to check my work, just like I do in my reporting, so next year, I’ll swing the hammer with more intention and care. Or just get a different type of base (and not make jokes like that?)
The tree was twelve dollars from Costco, and I don’t have a membership but my friend let me use his to get in. It was a rat race in there.
For half of the cost of my tree, you can have a membership of sorts to Inadvertent. However, you don’t have to wait in terribly long lines (you are always first), you don’t have to fight for parking (Substack has no cars), your free samples are just the full product and not samples, and while I don’t have pizza to give you, I could plan a social at a pizza parlor for new paid subscribers sometime next year.
From today until January 26th, all new monthly subscriptions are six dollars. If all current free subscribers pledged six dollars, Inadvertent would be a part-time operation for an editor and myself. I recognize that it is almost impossible that all of you who open this email are compelled to upgrade your subscription, so here are some smaller goalposts that I am aiming for:
Doubling the amount of paid subscribers means I can pay an editor on a freelance basis to work their magic on my writing. It means the writing and reporting will be clearer, more cohesive and overall, a better read. This is the lowest bar I am aiming for.
With triple the amount of paid subscribers (just about 100), I can pay other reporters for any of their work published on Inadvertent, so long as the article does not surpass 800 words. You may have already seen some of Abraham Márquez’s bylines on Inadvertent, I would love to compensate him and other writers for their labor. This would bring more voices to the project (so it’s not just me yapping at you).
With 120 paid subscribers, it becomes possible to commission work from a graphic designer to make the reporting (and the publication itself) stand out. Right now, I am just limited to my own photography and my mediocre Canva skills.
So, those are some short-term goals, and if you’re still on the fence, here are a bunch of reasons why Inadvertent already deserves your six dollars each month:
The No Secret Police Database ensures we know precisely who is a cop at the Santa Ana Police Department. More agencies’ records are being processed to be added to the database.
A breaking story about the city of Glendale’s contract with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) forced Glendale to stop holding people taken by ICE in its city jail. Inadvertent published before the LA Times and an editor there refused to make any mention of mine and Jayrol San Jose’s work. Also our visuals were much better than the LA Times’ piece. Just this morning, Prison Policy Initiative included this article in their 2025 list of “favorite journalism about the criminal legal system.”
Reporting on surveillance technology (Flock or other automated license plate reader systems).
Consistent pressure on city officials to release otherwise-confidential records.
SAPD’s withholding of ICE data (the impact of this story led to proposed policy changes that were struck down by pressure from Trump-appointed US Attorney Bilal Essayli).
A silly cease and desist from the Santa Ana Police Officer’s Association’s (SAPOA) attorney Michael McGill and the subsequent statement that the association put out because I asked some cops some questions. Strange coming from an attorney who was sued for fraud and malpractice at his now-defunct former law firm, and a police association president that had some concerning allegations against him.
A de facto ban on my reporting in the Santa Ana community’s largest Facebook group ran by the mayor’s biggest booster.
The list goes on, but I want to wrap this up.
Inadvertent was started as a way to have complete autonomy in my reporting. Just over a year ago on October 3, 2024, I set out to create space in local news for journalism that holds power to account. I do not come from a traditional newsroom, but that is partly, and sometimes precisely, why you might read Inadvertent. This type of reporting had largely been missing in the local presses for years now. What started as a simple newsletter with just over one hundred subscribers has grown into an outlet that does not pull its punches, and has never been funded by the SAPOA (I am referring to the OC Independent having received at least $10,000 in seed funding from the cop association) or other special interest groups. Inadvertent is beholden only to the truth.
Lastly, I want to share that a couple of months ago, I interviewed for a position with the Orange County Register’s investigative team. I did so as a last ditch effort to find some stability within the journalism industry and perhaps get some experience within a traditional newsroom. I did not receive a callback, but I feel I dodged a bullet that took aim at everything that I have built so far. The hedge fund-owned paper has an exclusivity directive that would have prevented me from reporting on anything that I currently report on unless it was to be published on the Register. It means I would have had to let go of: this project, the newsroom I co-founded, my freelance work with other outlets, the award-winning production team I co-founded and only write what the OC Register would have me write. All for only $24-$28 an hour.
Frankly, it felt like a betrayal to you and myself. I know my worth. And I don’t think I would have flourished in a place that is owned by venture capitalists.
So, support local independent journalism. Support this project. Become a paid subscriber and send a tip my way.
See you in 2026. Thank you.
multi-award winning journalist, documentary photographer, producer
I am happy to support local independent journalism. I am proud to Support this Community project. So I Became a paid subscriber! Proud of you Ben for dodging those bullets! You got this ⚖️🎁