Chicago’s “Pro-Labor” Media Outlet Hard Lens Media Faces Legal Scrutiny Over Unpaid Labor and Retaliation UPDATED

Hard Lens Media’s Progressive Brand vs. Alleged Labor Exploitation

(Editors Note: New developments regarding this story can be viewed clicking this mid-page jump)

Hard Lens Media (HLM) is a Chicago-based independent news outlet known for championing progressive causes and labor rights on-air. The network often highlights workers’ struggles – even advocating for a higher minimum wage – and portrays itself as a pro-labor, community-oriented platform. However, former volunteers and collaborators allege a stark contradiction between HLM’s public image and its internal practices. Over a two-year period (2021–2023), HLM relied on unpaid volunteer staff to produce its content, notably for an affiliated program called Chicago Corner.

Volunteers like Jerry Vasilatos, Edward Heller and Kira Macoun logged hundreds of hours of work without compensation. In fact, records show roughly 956 hours of labor contributed by Vasilatos alone over two years with no wages paid. During that time, Hard Lens Media provided no financial support to these workers despite benefitting from their efforts. This alleged exploitation directly contradicts the outlet’s progressive, pro-worker ethos and has now become the center of multiple legal disputes.

Wage Complaint Filed with Illinois Department of Labor

In mid-2023, after parting ways with HLM, Jerry Vasilatos – managing partner of the newly formed Chicago Corner LLC – filed a wage theft complaint with the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL). The complaint (Wage Claim No. 23-0002688) asserts that Hard Lens Media, a for-profit corporation, violated labor laws by using unpaid labor and misclassifying “volunteers” for work who should have been identified and compensated as employees. Under Illinois and federal law, for-profit businesses generally cannot legally utilize volunteer labor in lieu of paid employees. Vasilatos’ filing detailed how he and colleagues Edward Heller and Kira Macoun received no pay despite regularly hosting and producing content for HLM’s Chicago Corner channel. He also discovered that HLM had been withholding tip revenue donated by viewers: HLM’s owners set up a crypto wallet to collect viewer tips on the Chicago Corner Rokfin streaming platform, and even after selling the channel to the new Chicago Corner LLC cooperative in March 2023, HLM refused to relinquish access to those funds. Approximately $100 in tips (accrued in late 2022 through mid-2023) was never turned over; HLM’s principals claimed the funds were “lost” and blocked efforts to transfer the account to the new owners.

Vasilatos reported that HLM’s co-founder, Daniel Luepker, had promised in a 2022 staff meeting that all Rokfin tip revenue from Chicago Corner would go to the show’s hosts – only to later keep those viewer contributions for HLM’s own accounts. In his IDOL complaint, Vasilatos characterized the retained tips as stolen wages and a clear violation of Illinois minimum wage laws. He notes that Mr. Luepker effectively admitted to this on a public livestream, boasting about retaining tip money that rightfully belonged to the content creators. Such admissions, Vasilatos argues, corroborate his claims of wage theft and retaliation for speaking out.

Defamation and Copyright Lawsuits by Volunteers

The fallout from this labor dispute has escalated into multiple lawsuits. Public court records confirm that Chicago Corner, LLC (the cooperative formed by Vasilatos and former HLM volunteers Edward Heller and Kira Macoun) filed a lawsuit against Hard Lens Media in January 2024. The case, now in U.S. District Court (N.D. Illinois), centers on copyright and trademark claims (Cause: 17 U.S.C. §101). According to filings, the Chicago Corner team alleges HLM improperly used content and intellectual property that rightfully belong to Chicago Corner LLC, likely stemming from HLM’s December 2023 broadcast that featured Chicago Corner’s materials without permission.

The suit may also involve a dispute over the Chicago Corner brand itself, which the former volunteers acquired from HLM. (Indeed, Hard Lens Media’s now dismissed counterclaim filings acknowledge that Vasilatos secured a trademark for the Chicago Corner LLC artwork branding to assert ownership over videos created during the collaboration. HLM claims a Copyright Claims Board proceeding on this issue was dismissed on a technicality, and the matter moved to federal court.)

In addition, defamation litigation is underway. Jerry Vasilatos personally filed a libel/slander suit against Hard Lens Media, Inc. in late 2024, following a particularly inflammatory segment HLM aired about him. This state-court action (filed in Cook County, IL) accuses HLM of making false and damaging statements – essentially retaliation after Vasilatos blew the whistle on the wage issue. The trigger was a December 23, 2023 HLM YouTube video titled “EXPOSED – Chicago Corner and Jerry Vasilatos”, in which HLM’s hosts Kit Cabello and Daniel Luepker publicly attacked Vasilatos and the Chicago Corner team. That video – posted just days after HLM learned of the labor complaint – allegedly contained numerous falsehoods and personal smears against Vasilatos.

In a contemporaneous statement, Vasilatos described the EXPOSED broadcast as a “defamatory video” loaded with retaliatory false claims. He argues that HLM used its platform to punish and discredit him for reporting labor violations, rather than address the substance of the allegations. The defamation suit seeks to hold HLM accountable for reputational harm caused by that broadcast (which was viewed as an intimidation tactic to deter other workers from speaking out).

(Court filings in these cases illustrate the depth of the feud: Hard Lens Media’s response in the federal case even includes a counterclaim of “tortious interference,” accusing Vasilatos and Chicago Corner of trying to “bankrupt” HLM by alerting platforms like YouTube and Rokfin about HLM’s misconduct. HLM alleges the former volunteers sought removal of HLM videos and channels – for example, by filing copyright takedowns of the defamatory “Exposed” segment – which HLM frames as a malicious attack on its business. This underscores how a workplace dispute over fair compensation spiraled into a multi-front legal battle.)

Retaliatory Social Media Campaign and Harassment

Beyond the courtroom, Hard Lens Media stands accused of waging a public harassment campaign against its former volunteers via social media and broadcasting platforms. In the wake of the IDOL wage complaint, HLM’s official Twitter (X) account engaged in “week-long threads” targeting Vasilatos, misrepresenting the facts of the wage dispute and attacking his character. These posts sought to paint Vasilatos as a vexatious agitator – despite his claims being backed by extensive documented correspondence and labor law provisions. Observers noted that HLM’s tone on Twitter became increasingly inflammatory: instead of addressing whether the company failed to pay workers, HLM’s tweets focused on denigrating the Chicago Corner team and dismissing the labor violations as “made-up” or frivolous.

The December 23, 2023 “EXPOSED” video exemplified HLM’s use of its media platform for personal attacks. In that livestream, HLM’s hosts reportedly divulged private communications with Vasilatos and made unsubstantiated allegations against him under the guise of “exposing” the situation. Chicago Corner’s crew perceived this as a blatant misuse of HLM’s audience reach to harass and intimidate a whistleblower. Following the video, Vasilatos and his colleagues reported an uptick in online harassment from some of HLM’s supporters – including trolling, livestream commentary disruptions when Chicago Corner broadcasted and a plethora of alarming ableist comments (Mr. Vasilatos is an amputee).

While HLM’s GoFundMe page accuses Vasilatos of doxing and stalking them, it’s worth noting that no evidence of Vasilatos engaging in such behavior has been made public, whereas HLM’s own content has overtly targeted him (even labeling him as a “disgruntled maniac” in a Tweet posted by HLM friend Jimmy Dore according to Chicago Corner).

This one-sided smear campaign has raised concern in Chicago’s independent media circles: if a supposedly progressive outlet can unleash its fanbase on former contributors for raising labor concerns, what chilling effect might that have on others speaking out?

Fundraiser Defense Campaign – Misrepresenting the Facts?

Hard Lens Media has launched a public legal defense campaign via GoFundMe, which local journalists may want to scrutinize for potential misrepresentations. Branded as “Help Defend Free Speech and Fair Use From a Movie Director,” the fundraiser portrays HLM as the victim of an “unfair” crusade.

In its original description, HLM referred to Jerry Vasilatos – an independent filmmaker by trade – as “a serial litigator” and claims he and unnamed “proxies” have been “stalking, threatening, stealing, doxing, defaming” HLM for two years. It further alleged that Vasilatos is trying to “sue [HLM] for $500,000 and take our YouTube channels after failing to build their own”.

These incendiary claims are not only unsubstantiated in the fundraising pitch, but they also starkly contradict the documented timeline of events. In reality, Vasilatos and his colleagues built up the Chicago Corner channel from scratch under HLM’s umbrella, growing it from a few hundred subscribers to over 1,600 before conflicts arose. Far from “failing to build their own” channel, they arguably succeeded – which is precisely why they sought ownership and a fair share of revenue from their work. Moreover, HLM’s original GoFundMe narrative that “we have been forced into silence for 2.5 years” and are now fighting a grand battle for free speech is misleading. In truth, HLM was anything but silent: it was actively using its platforms to lambaste the former volunteers (the EXPOSED video, social media rants, etc.). The legal actions Vasilatos initiated are not about censoring HLM’s speech or “undoing fair use,” as the fundraiser suggests, but about addressing specific harms – defamation and alleged misuse of intellectual property – and recovering wages. HLM’s plea that the lawsuit could “destroy YouTube” if the ex-volunteers prevail is a dramatic exaggeration. What’s actually at stake is a much more local and concrete issue: whether a media company can treat workers as unpaid “volunteers” in a for-profit enterprise and then retaliate against those workers for seeking redress. Notably, HLM’s own court filings acknowledge key facts that the GoFundMe glosses over. For instance, HLM admits that multiple legal venues have been involved – including a federal lawsuit and even a Copyright Claims Board proceeding that was dismissed on procedural grounds. And while HLM frames those cases as baseless harassment, the core issues (ownership of content, right to wages) remain unresolved in court. By casting the plaintiff as a “serial litigator” and implying bad faith, HLM’s fundraising pitch potentially libels Vasilatos anew, given that no court has ruled in HLM’s favor on the merits. Such public characterization could itself become evidence in the ongoing defamation case.

The newly produced defamatory video that HLM published to launch the GoFundMe page on April 26th, 2025 has since been removed with the explanation "We have been advised to make our video temporarily private on the advice of our lawyer. Due to pending action from the opposing council. We will have more information soon." The inflammatory GoFundMe rhetoric was also revised by HLM on May 5th, 2025, with the explanation “We had to make changes to this donation page, we can't say what, however please help us in this fight so that this nightmare will end” but not before the page had already raised over $8,000 from its supporters off of the previous libelous narrative.

(Editor’s Note: On July 2, 2025, Hard Lens Media restored its defamatory narrative to fundraise for its legal defense , as screen shotted below. This developing story has been updated at: https://www.chicagosentinels.com/p/gofundme-lets-lies-raise-money)

The Broader Implications for Digital Media and Labor

The dispute between Hard Lens Media, Inc. and Chicago Corner LLC transcends a mere personal conflict, offering a critical lens into the evolving landscape of digital media, labor rights, and intellectual property. This case highlights the urgent need for clearer legal frameworks and ethical guidelines governing collaborations in the burgeoning creator economy. It underscores the vulnerabilities of "volunteer" contributors in for-profit ventures, the complexities of intellectual property ownership in shared digital spaces, and the potential for online platforms to become battlegrounds for legal and reputational warfare. Media coverage of this developing story will contribute to a broader public discourse on worker protections, content ownership, and responsible conduct in the independent digital media sphere. This story serves as a cautionary tale and a call to action for creators, platforms, and policymakers alike.

(Public Court Documents regarding the disputes between Chicago Corner, LLC and Hard Lens Media, Inc. as well as supporting documents can be viewed online at at:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JzLnAksc9pXoTU5c1QqwO9vc_5gmbopS)