Early in high school, two students acted on what they saw as a need for independent, uncensored reporting by starting their own publication — one that they called the Brutus Journal.
As freshmen, now seniors Alan Cai and Ryan Heshmati created momentum for their site by spreading the word among their classmates, prompting many writers to join over the years.
The Brutus Journal is named after the pen name of the anti-federalist papers that advocated for the Bill of Rights. Heshmati and Cai appreciated honoring the free exchange of ideas through the name.
Currently, the Brutus Journal has published over 450 articles on their website, with viewership reaching a height of 27,000 unique users. They currently have five other members of the team, most from SHS, who contribute to writing in addition to section roles: a head of science, a social media manager, a graphic artist and a tech development lead.
Before founding the Brutus Journal, Cai remembered having his writing removed from the New York Times Guest Essay section and parts of Wikipedia.
“The problem with a lot of what I was sending over was that the New York Times didn’t like what I was saying, and they refused to publish a lot of it,” Cai said.
Heshmati said that big news organizations often have the same issue in their ranks: overly controlling what gets published and providing only a small space for truly independent thought.
“When you have a bloated organization, often what you put down on paper gets so mangled in the editing of 60 different layers of editors that it’s no longer your voice,” Heshmati said.
The Brutus Journal works to publish pieces with different perspectives on big issues that aren’t as polarized as mainstream reporting. Mainstream media editorials take stark extremes with what they report over realistic opinions that readers may have, Heshmati said.
In other words, as politics becomes increasingly polarizing, with more readers flocking to the ends of the spectrum instead of moderation, the Brutus Journal prioritizes a healthy back-and-forth.
“We did some opinion pieces where we took exact opposing sides, but we were still doing it in a way that was rooted in fact,” Heshmati said. “But if you read a lot of the opinion pieces that come out from both sides of the aisle, they go so far away from reality.”
The team specifically pointed out their political diversity, with writers on both sides of the political spectrum willing to engage in productive discussion. Their editing process includes making little to no change to content, only editing out grammatical errors.
Some of the political pieces the team has published include: a review of Trump’s potential tariffs and their impact on inflation, election reactions (including why Harris may have lost) and a critique of the progressive tax system.
The team has even received a “Letter to the Editors,” where an external reader wrote a competing piece that conflicted with the ideas in one of the published articles.
“We got a student who wrote a letter to the editor who disagreed with me, and we were super ecstatic about that,” Heshmati said. “I thanked him. I actually invited him to write for the Journal. We published his letter to the editor — that’s the foundation of who we are.”
Outside of politics, the Journal also publishes cultural and scientific articles. For culture, articles on shortsighted investment, Jake Paul’s defeat of Mike Tyson, and even pickleball provide uniquely opinionated takes. In science, technical articles covering asteroid mining, forests in Ireland, and NASA’s recruitment of Elon Musk highlight the unique interests of students and allow them to write on these interests.
To expand their outreach and technological spread, the team has also developed an app, which they have available for download on the App Store. The app, paired with social media advertising and person-to-person connection, has expanded their readership base immensely.
Since both Cai and Heshmati are seniors, they’re looking to transfer the reins of the paper to anyone passionate about writing for the Brutus Journal.
“If you’re interested in participating in this journal, Ryan and I are going to be graduating this year, so, if you have any interest in taking over the Brutus Journal or just writing for the Brutus Journal, please let me know,” Cai said.
Cai emphasizes taking the initiative in responding to concerns with day-to-day life, regardless of how daunting the task may seem.
“You always have to think big and try to see where you can reach and be ambitious — identify areas of influence so that you can push everything to new boundaries,” Cai said.
Taking action on such concerns, Heshmati and Cai say, will ultimately ensure that reporting stays independent and uncompromised.
“I wanted to make sure that my voice was preserved and that of other students who wanted to write,” Heshmati said.
