Transcripts For CSPAN Actors 20240705

Good afternoon and welcome to the National Press club. The place are news happens. My name is emily, im the current president of the National Press club and a d. C. Correspondent for cnbc. Thank you so much for [newline]johnb. ing us. Both of youho are here at the National Press club, walz as on cspan, for our headliners event with actors and producers, chris evans and mark kassen. The founders of a starting point, a nonpartisan videobased visk engagement form. Were happy to accept your questions and ill ask as many as time permits. If youd like to submit a headliners press. Org and put starting point in the subject line. For our cspan and radio audiences, please be aware that in the audience today are members of the general plic so applause or reaction you hear is not necessarily from the working press who are also here today and were so happy to have them. Is now my pleasure to introduce the table. Please stand up when your name is called. Starting on my right, maya, general asiement producer for pbs news hour. Manu, the c. E. O. We have to get through everyone. We can save the applause for the end. Much appreciated. Manu, the c. E. O. For bridge u. S. A. Cheska, the editor in chief for bloomberg government. The president of d. C. Media strategies. The 2009 National Press Club President and the coleader of our headliners team. Then we have lori, the president of Stanton Communications and the colead for our headliner and the organizer of todays event. And to my left, well start with the Senior Vice President for a starting point. Mia, the president of the closeup foundation. The educator ed for politico. National correspondent for reuters. The manager editor of standards and training for axios and the immediate past National Press Club President. And ted johnson, the d. C. Correspondent for deadline. Go ahead and applaud now. [applause] if you spent any time on social media these days, you might be surprised from findings in a recent survey by georgetown universitys stat. While the country is as politically polarized as ever, 94 of voters agreed that, quote, respect for each other is the first step in having a government that works and 89 of voters agreed that civility is the language of respect. Yet Research Also shows that most americans believe that political discourse ins has becs respectful and less factbased. This year, with more than 40 million general z voters eligible to vote in the president ial election, including 8. 3 million firsttime voters, its more critical than ever to ensure that these young adults get the information they need to make the best at the polls. Actor and producer chris evans, best known for his role as captain america. Mark kassen, an emmynominated film maker, playwrite and actor. Long bio. [laughter] and tech entrepreneur is addressing the challenge with the founding in twebt of a starting 2020 of a starting point. To create a bipartisan channel of communication and connectivity between americans and their elected officials with a goal of creating a more informed electoral. This year a starting point is launching an Election Year campaign to prepare young voters with information, resources and engagement opportunities and today were so eager to hear more about a starting point. The latest campaign ando reach z voters. Please join me in a very warm welcome to chris evans and mark kassen. [applause] so i think just to kick things off, we have to start with the one big question is that obviously you two have both had very successful careers in hollywood. Why come to d. C. . Why begin Something Like the starting point . Chris foolishness, i think. True naivety. I think we thought we could help shine a light on certain issues, and create more civic engagement. We each have our own individual social medias. We have our own individual opinions. But that only reaches a certain amount and i think we both feltm creating a mechanism, a platform, where its about engagement. Its about education. Demystifying issues. That more accurately reflects who we are. Because if you have half of the country not voting and not using their voice, how can you ever have a government that understands where were going . So it felt, you know, as much as i like getting on social media and spowght off my own opinions, you realize thats only doing so much. And this felt like a more effective way of using our platform. Mark and to be fair, we didnt mean to do all of this. We had a very i mean, chris originally had a very narrow idea which was chris all right. Mark im a little embarrassed that i dont know the definition of some of these things. Nafta or whatever. Not specifically nafta. And lets get lets from the horses mouths. Lets get republicans and democrats to these things and as we begun talking to them, we realized that it was kind of a unique channel of communication we were opening up. It seemed a shame if we use this to hear more from these folks and then to begin to unpack some of the stuff that we were experiencing for the audience that we had. And i think its important to say, you know, were very conscious that were not reporters or news. We create a platform of information so that people can go to where you all work and really dive deeper. So it started very small and en we couldnt help ourselves. And now we are where we are. Emily i wanted to touch on something you kind of said there. I think it was back in maybe 2009, prepandemic, you got attention for a couple of tweets that were prit cal of certain law make critical of certain lawmakers and as someone who goes on social media a lot for work, thats not uncommon. You see that all the time. But i wanted to kind of get a sense, like, take me through your mindset shift. From someone who is tweeting things like that to someone who is now running this nonpartisan organization. Chris it kind of touches on something both of you said. It is that. That i was someone who was politically involved. I had my own opinions and i considered myself slightly above a dill contaminant. I kind of had not much. Even for someone like me, there were issues id see every day where id say, wait, what is that . I just need to know basic, what is that . You try and google something, very quickly youre in the weeds in terms of, you know, clear partisan perspectives or maybe not even partisan, just above your pay grade. You know . Too complex to process at an entry level. I thought, man, if someone like me is having a hard time learning these basic things, how can we encourage people who may have missed the political boat in their teens and 20s . How can you get them back to the polls . Where is a safe place to say, i dont get it. Give it to me in more digestible bites. That was the impetus for the idea of thinking maybe theres a way we can kind of be the entryway. Emily that was the basic idea. Has this project really evolved like you expected it to in the last four years . What have been the obstacles and surprises . Mark no. Covid. We were supposed to chris remember that . Mark we were supposed to launch at the south by southwest 2020 which was the first major thing to get canceled. Chris we were so devastin. When they canceled it, its before we knew what it was going to be, we were like, this is irresponsibility i cant believe theyre canceling irresponsible. I cant believe theyre canceling it. This is going to ruin the city. Mark to be fair, i said that. [laughter] and, you know, but we were very happy that we didnt go and, however, as we got into it, interestingly enough, because of that, because of that challenge, we were forced to find other ways to communication and people really needed that. So one of the things that ended up happening, chris and i would have been busier during that year and werent, like everybody else, but yet the government and certain other folks really needed to find ways to communicate. So people re more open. They didnt use the app in the way we thought they would. We actually made the app originally that members of congress had and we thought, oh, this will be great. Just upload videos whenever they want. Theyll love to talk to us. Chris there were two apps. The a. S. P. App and we made an enting that they would use it. Mark so much work. Chris i dont think they used it once. [laughter] mark no. And then when they went with their staffers, plairnt they didnt have the mechanism to remind them to do some of those things. What did end up happening because they were happy to talk to us, we ended up doing Video Conferencing and then we ended up developing a platform where we could talk to them and record and that made many other verticals of communication in daily points and explorers and now eventually explainers. None of that would have happened. Or who knows what would have happened. It wasnt intended to be that robust. Now i think the last thing we thought wed be doing, wed be doing inperson events. Weve teamed up with great people like close up who is here and bridge u. S. A. To reach out to their communities, both digitally, virtually and now in person. None of that really was the plan. We thought wed create this thing, we kick back and couldnt wait for the elected officials to upload some videos. Emily talk to me about your relationship with elected officials. Because i know, i understand when you guys were first starting out here, there were a am in of people who thought they were a number of people who felt, chris evans, this is a scam, not going to respond. Mark didnt you think it was chris kaitlin was a coms director for a republican. Republicans were the ones who didnt want to talk to us. It was a real uphill battle. We finally sat down with who she was working with and she was so helpful and so educational for us in terms of the way we approached, the language we were using. So much so that mark was like, should we hire her . We should go get her. Shes great. And shes invaluable. Mark and speak to someone who asked us earlier, they said, you know, you probably dont have that many people that actually tell you what they actually think. And kaylin is a straight shooter. We need that. Chris that helped enormously. Again, once you i think d. C. Specifically among elected officials, theres a real tightknit network that if someone says, this is ok, that spreads. So that was the big mark also to be fair, when we first came to d. C. , the website didnt exist. And to get the elected officials chris tough to say, go look at this. Mark its going to be great. You all im sure, you know, as reporters, letting people feel safe to sit down with you to begin with. Im terrified right now. [laughter] you know, and so these folks were kind enough to sit down with us without having anything to reference, to show that we promise were not going to hurt you. And so over time we eventually convinced them. Emily what was the breakthrough moment . Whens the moment you were chatting with lawmakers, youre telling them the idea, youre explaining the concept and youre finally like, ah, we got something . Chris the third or fourth. The first trip here we were so excited. We had three or four days, we were filming in the senate. It felt real fancy to us. Were like, man, were doing it, were really doing it. Not one republican showed up. Right, this is going to be mark we only had four people scheduled for 17 slots when we got here. Chris i think maybe the third or fourth trip, when not only did we have everyone show up for the plan scheduled, we were trying to squeeze people in, thats when it was like, ok, i think were finally finding momentum and again, thats the site itself is a constantly evolving thing. As most site in general are. You kind of have to read what works with the audience. You counterpunch as you grow. But the good thing that we gained in the process was the goodwill and trust of elected officials and i think thats a hard thing to earn. Mark and they said to us, you know, a lot of folks like you come to d. C. And you tell us what you think. You tell us how we should act. You guys are asking us questions. And again, because were not reporters, were not journalists, we just wanted definitions and answers and then we wanted to put it up as cleanly as possible and over time other people td coworkers. We found, you know, we had a couple republicans were some champions of ours and they told others and the same on both sides and then it didnt matter anymore. Now it doesnt. Quite frankly, this is great. Were the least important thing about our site. We arent necessary to most of it. Which is fantastic. Thats been the goal. Emily we do appreciate you being here. Telling us all about the site. I wanted to ask too, chris, you mentioned that you really dont see a starting point as being a part of the media landscape. I want to see if you can elaborate on that a little bit. Because obviously its kind of in line, im a congressional reporter, i also talk with lawmakers, i also report what they say. I also try and get details about the bigger facts going on. So talk to me about where you see yourself in the media landscape . Chris sure. Mark loves this line. Were not news. Were information. It boils down to sound bites. Emily we at news also like to think of ourselves as information. [laughter] chris were not coming from a place thats drafting long form information predicated on previous events where you can walk away with a theory. Mark we dont have journalists researching things for months and months. Were not vetted like the war correspondents that were sitting next to me. Chris this is, you know, coming from the neophites. To boil it down not just catering to the diminishing Attention Span were all subjected to, but for those trying to find just introductions. Just a basic understanding . Thats who its for. Thats how its slightly separate. Mark and also its context. We kind of try to put context to the news a little bit. And that context happens right now mostly through elected officials directly. And a little bit now by defining some of these things. We do explainers and things like that. That we work with other folks to help create. But i think thats the difference. Again, i think of the things that wave done right, naming the site a starting point. Chris came up with the starting point. I believe i was the a. That. [laughter] i came up with the a. The domain was available. That helped too. But the right name because we dont think that you should end with what we that site says. Hopefully again its demystifying it and its a place people can feel comfortable beginning their journey and then go off on their own and look up things themselves. Emily how are you ablto know ag point . They can know, all right, i read this news article and i dont understand why this person doesnt like this thing that seems really good. How you have been able to kind of reach those folks . Mark it started out because chris is really famous. [laughter] and that helped a little bit. Emily always a plus on capitol hill. Mark that helped. He didnt charge a lot for his tweets for us. That was really useful. Then, this is surprising to me, the elected officials audience. The more they anticipated and the officials found they got feedback for participating in the site, the more their constituents began to Pay Attention to us. Then i say the best thing that weve done is, quite frankly, working with other organizations. That are committed to this for many, many years. Again, a close up being one of. They bridge being another one. This year were going to partner with quite a few different organizations and do some tours and things like that. Those folks that we can provide service to have actually helped us grow our audience a lot. Emily i also wanted to ask, just because i went on the site last night. You guys do have some in depth topics there. I watched the video on e. S. P. Investing and you guys have other things on there like teen therapy, artificial intelligence, gerrymandering, human trafficking. How do you identify these topics and how do you go about really sourcing the information . Mark the first question, and it grows, right . And again, this is where quite frankly when you asked where we plan to go, we didnt think wed be here and i think weve disciplined ourselves as a team to not try you want to be as instantly topical as possible but really we look at the year in terms of the legislative calendar and scott us calendar so scotus calendar. Id be curious to ask you the same question. There are these things that pop up and im going to guess that you have an idea around the time of year that a thing may be news worthy. So we have a very small team. Well prepare, you know, information to gear up for that and then we have folks who are here who spend a lot of time figuring out what elected officials are going to be closest to the topic that will talk to us and we spend a lot of time building that up and then, as youre prepared and certain things come up, you know, we work with other groups to help hold us accountable or send to them when we can. Emily im also guys feel, this is coming as a congressional reporter, lawmakers sometimes, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not intentionally, do give inaccurate information. How do you make sure as youre sitting down with these lawmakers and doing these interviews and posting them to the site that youre not putting something out there thats just simply not accurate . Mark well, i mean, so the starting point, the definitions are all fact checked. We work with fact checkers. However, theres information that comes up every day that comes directly from elected officials, answering a question or defining something. And i think the point is if im one of their constituents, i need to know what they think. It is about hearing directly and taking ourselves out of it. The complaint could be from someone that their words are manipulated, they are not. They say what their opinion is or what they think an issue how they believe it. And quite frankly, most part doo our site for chris spouting things that are wildly that was the big thing at the beginning thinking, how are we going to navigate truth here . It really hasnt been the thing. The main thing at least that weve had to navigate. Mark were not a place for hyperbolic speech. Thats not what our and quite frankly, of the things thats been heartening, youth doesnt wa it. Chris theyre bloodhounds for it too. I feel like young people can really tell. Mark yeah. Emily what do you mean when you say youth are bloodhounds for it . Chris i think young people nowadays are more and more aware, with the proliferation of cial media, thats where most people are getting news these days, i think theyre aware of selective facts and framing information in a way thats deliberately misleading and i think if you do that once, youll probably do it more than once and thats something that a picture starts to become clear. And i think that will mark and again, we have a great te interact with our audience and we hear what people think and what they want more of. Obviously like any of you, if you put anything out there, its a wonderful ground for anyone to plant seeds of not nice things if they want to and have conversations on social media. But the basis has to be pure and we get■n really great feedback from the folks that seem to enjoy the information and so that is as a result, is a healthy mechanism for elected officials to come and speak. Some of the incentives for maybe waxingyperbole are not there. Emily when you ask elected officials to do this, so often when theyre being asked to speak its because theyre with a very targeted audience, they have a very particular message for them but this is just kind of youre speaking in an educational role. Mark maybe thats why for a minute, until someone copies us and does it better, theyll talk to us. But i will say, the one thing, i mean, one of the things i think him that pressed us when we started going to d. C. And this is going to sound so naive, how busy these people are. You know what i mean . A lot goes on here. [laughter] staying elected and voting wed have a vote and then theres a bill and theyre running out. We should have a bunch of outtakes of people leaving like running away from chris evans because they have to go vote on something. The amount of times thats happened is probably maybe only here. And you think, we felt its important to honor the time because whatever theyre doing, you know, its almost embarrassing that they were talking to us. At the time. Now i dont think so. Now i think we are a service and its useful and like i said, we are not unnecessary to the process to them speaking because they want our audience way more than theyre interested in us, which is great. But, yeah, this is they walk really far. Four or five miles a day. They get their steps in. Its crazy. Especially the house. Anyway, sorry. I got distracted. Emily it is a lot. Youd be surprised how many of them get lost too. Youll find one wandering around. Where are you trying to go . Mark literally, its incredible. Emily you touched a little bit on the elections and i think when a lot of us think about the upcoming 2024 election, one thing thats really on our min f misinformation that weve seen out there. And how that is going to drive in 2024. Just brattly here, what broadly here, what are your goals for the upcoming election . Chris so many. Im not sure how many well be able to address just on this si things, specifically one of the sites of a. S. P. Is counterpoints. One of the things thats missing, its not necessarily the what, its the how. We can theres always been extreme perspectives. Theres always been people who are more, you know, who are ready for a fight more than other people. But civil discussions, disgreaments, the way disagreements, the way we speak to each other is emily can you talk about what counterpoint looks like on the site . Chris sure. It was an idea we had initially where two elected officials with opposing perspectives on an issue would each have a chance to go back and forth but it was filmed in way where they would film their initial opinion and then the other person would, in their own due time, theyd watch the original elected official, then they would respond. And this would go back and forth two or three times. Mark we made a very complicated expensive app because we knew theyd want to do this on sundays and things like that. [laughter] apparently we were wrong. Chris mark and i are running down hallways. But just in an effort to, look, its not even when you watch it. Its almost irrelevant whether you agree or disagree with the opinions. What i think most people take away from when you watch it is, man, that was nice. Watching people speak to each other in a way that at least it feels like i think sometimes thats what breeds allegiance almost more than what youre saying. Its how youre saying it. Because you believe that this person is a listener, they have respect, they understand, that he respect the institution. Mark i believe you have a better chance of hearing the information. Chris yeah. Mark if its not about oneupsmanship in terms of the one upsmanship in terms of winning the conversation, then perhaps the counterpoint, which is why we dont call it a debate, the■; counterpoint is of service to the person trying to understand or figure out what they may or may not agree with. Because oftentimes theyre not that far apart. Sometimes people are, sometimes they arent. You kind of want to hear the information. In terms of the goals for the election, overall i think, you know, one in five youth that didnt vote in the last election didnt vote because they didnt feel informed enough. I think if we can at least create place between our election hub which has a ton of resources that are localized, to tell people almost everything they■1 need to know about, you know, their polling places and issues and things like that, so you kind of make it easier for them to vote, easier for them to register, and then not feel silly about what they dont know. So theres a place for them to begin to engage. That may be is the service that we can provide and then in addition wet things. Were going to partner with other organizations to help find other ways well be doing throughout the year to find other verse■ cals. Emily you mentioned partners with other organizations. Youll both be at the white house tomorrow. Great organization to partner with if you want to get attention. And youre mattering wit meeting with dozens of High School Students to engage with them ahead of the election. You laid out the lay of the land on youth voters. But i guess im just trying to rt of get even a better sense. Why do you think that a lot of youth voters feel like theyre not educateed . Theyre online. They have all these resources. They arguably have more resources than any other youth in the history of forever. What is it do you think that leads them to feel like they cant vote because they dont know enough . Chris i think its the nature of being a teenager, isnt it . 20s, you just dont i consider myself part of polics now but not so much in my 20s. It wasnt on my landscape. Thats understandable. Its understandable. But, look, were the american story is one of constant social awakening. Always. As a result thats the youth. Theyre the tip of the spear. So even though older folks are the ones voting and a lot of ways theyre maybe the rutter, i know im mixing metaphors, i went nautical. But the youth is the bow. Theyre where were going. So the more you can is the bow the front . It is . Ok. [laughter] whew. Mark theyre going to get splashed a lot. Its hard to know. Chris but you need their involvement. You need their engagement. Theyre the ones that are more emblet attic of, you know, where were going blem attic of where were going emblematic of where were going. Eight million new genz voters this year. Thats a big number. Mark it was a minute ago when i was a firsttime voter and i was always interested in this stuff. I had other things that were important to me like did jenny like me . Emily did she . Mark still working on it. [laughter] or whatever it was. And i think now theres more information on those oth right . So theres more things for younger folks to be distracted by as well. And again, thats a part of growing. want to do. If we can use whatever it is we have to create a place where this could be in addition to that, you know, were not trying to judge folks from how they want to spend their time or where they want to swipe through stuff, you know chris or just the day you wake up and say, i should be more involved. The first time you say, i should know this stuff. We all have that moment when year young. Theres discussion at a party and you say, i didnt know a single thing they were talking about. Mark and how does it affect me . I need to know a few things if i want to get involved. Emily and obviously i think for both genz and anyone at this point, if youre trying to find out about these things, you do hit a lot of misinformation out there. Theres a ton. How are you guys thinking about i know youve created this safe space on the internet for information, but is there also a role for a starting point to play in sort of combating some of that misinformation in other areas . Mark i dont know. Like i said, we have an extremely hard, overworked team of a handful of people. So to not break them, i dont know we can give everybody that job as well. But i think we look to branch out in other subjects. Were finding our ways to involve experts that we never did before and theres some subject mats that are we found matters that we found that its maybe not best to have elected officials be the ones to break it down because that we realize maybe makes information too hot. Its possible, its very challenging to do that. Weve branched out that way. Were going to branch out into other subjects. A natural progression in talking about a. I. Brings people to ask those questions about other things in technology. Were going to continue to gr82w in that way. I think well figure out, you know, how far we can go based on eventually weve done this ourselves, well bring in partners, well bring in Financial Partners and see how far that goes and who we continue to work with. But i think, i mean, we thought baby steps. I feel like theyre at least toddler steps at this point. Well see how much we can were very, very, very conscious that were not you. And youre held to a very high bar and we dont want to trip a wear that we a wire that we cant handle. Were in a good lane right now, well grow as fast as we can. Emily i will say as a reporter, when everyone has so much of a demand for their attention, we are told often, write short, write concise, write in a way that folks can really ingest it quickly which means i cant spend several paragraphs reminding everyone that the senate is controlled by democrats but you need 60 votes. So it seems like it does have a bit of an element you guys get into some of those basic when it comes to the basics of the structure of government . Can. Mark oh, yeah. That was one thing we never even thought about. Explainer series. Chris those explainers are great. Mark people really love them. Theyre breaking down again, chris and i get almost no credit in it. We shouldnt. We deserve no credit. Meaning, we have a team of folks that really think about ways and go through a process to communicate. I think one of the things we bring to the table is, you know, we are story tellers. So we try to revisit what were doing and help work with the team as if we with a if they were any kinds of team of story tellers. They work really hard to break things down in a digestible manner. Thats something well grow on. Because people love them. This, a starting point to be its own thing. That you dont want it to be a thing that you guys are at the center of. Can i just ask why . Whats your thought behind that . Chris i think one of the reasons is ive made my opinions known so vocally that you dont want someone at face value to think were pushing something. The nature of the site is bipartisan. The nature of the site is informationbased and not my opinion. Im not an expert. Im not a journalist. I have no write to be in this arena other than as a voter. As an american who wants to just play on the one string i have which is my voice, as we all should. I think, i mean, a lot of the things that i think turn people away from politics, aside from the fact that certain issues are complex, we just dont think it works. We think, you know, forget policy. Structural things. Things like term limits. Things that build the mechanism of politics, people become frustrated with. But voting changes that too. Voting, voting, voting. Its such an important thing. So any sort of mark also gerrymandering gets repeated over and over and over again until it doesnt mean anything. You need a place to define that so people get reminded when they see it, oh, actually that is gerrymandering. Chris just creating engagement. Creating a new generation of voters that care. That realize that that simple thing, voting, federal or state level, makes a difference. Mark thats our thing too. You were asking what were doing in the coming year. Partnering with the National State legislators association. Thats been fantastic. One of the things, this is for me, you know, and this is not national statistic, but i tell you, maybe half or more of the issues that get discussed boil down to some kind of a states rights thing. And i am shocked that i never thought about that until recently. Right . So now we have and so now we work directly with state legislators. Emily you two can send up questions. Mark we work with the legislators and the state legislators, in a time where, what, 3100 counties and 2,000 of them dont have a local newspaper, state legislators really need a voice in talking about their backyard. And their backyard now also affects their country. Because its the way a lot of things are going. So that is something that were actively doing and reaching out to talk to those folks to help be of service to their community. Emily youre working with the national down still of state legislators. Are there any specific states youre honing in on . Mark absolutely not. Emily i also did want to talk a bit because i think it kind of goes with our discussion about young voters, is the discussion about civic education. Im a former education reporter. Ive written about how a new federal emphasis on math and reading scores meant less emphasis on civics and history. Only 13 of eighth graders are proficient in history and only 22 of them were proficient in civics. Given the back drop, the fact that so many basics arent even picked up at the age where theyre supposed to, how do you really approach young people about learning about their government when theres that lackf basic structure of it . Mark partner with professionals. Chris yeah. Find the people that do it better than you and partner with them. Again, we dont pretend to have all the answers. We surely dont. So its a matter of finding people who are in that arena, who understand how to reach those people and the best mechanism, theyve done all the trial and error. Mark close up, you know, theyve been around for 50 years. Were lucky enough to connect with them, to not just guide us, but to also, you know, help provide things that can be of service to their mission. That way its not about what the big mistake would be suddenly that we sit around and decide what the youth should be learning. Thats just plot it not it. But there are people who are committed in that space so we use whatever it is we have to draw attention to and feed the organizations like what manu is doing with bridge and colleges and what theyre doing at closeup and others. Emily youre not going to show up in a classroom one day, but youre partnering mark we did plan on it. Chris that was the original plan. Before covid happened. We were so excited to launch and all the inperson things we could do. There are ways you can lean on things like celebrity, just to get some temporary eye balls and then hopefully get speech excited and turn on a few light bulbs. Mark spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down. Chris there we go. Am i the shoeinger . Or did i just hear that the way i wanted to . Emily as far as explaining the media and journalism, i think the media landscape of today is radically different than what it was even a couple decades ago. And i think theres just so many more people calling themselves journalists and news organizations, but more of a need to be able to really parse through and understand and categorize some of what is being written. Mark were very careful not to were not here to pick apart what other people are doing. We choose to participate in a way that we can and we use our voice, a. S. P. One of the things im most proud of it is the tone and the voice of a. S. P. Again, theeam if we went away tomorrow, their subservians is beyond us. Theres a north star. Were committed to that. But really not our place to take apart how other people are doing it. Emily is there having an explainer of how the media works or something that helps folks get their foot in the door in terms of being able to understand the vast concepts no . Mark i dont know if i know how it works. Chris yeah, i was going to safe. I dont even know if i can speak to how. Theres no denying, im sure everyone in this room is held to certain journalistic standards, the integrity of the job you guys do. Im sure you see how its completely perverted through social media, you know, click bait things, these people who are calling themselves journalists on a daily basis and thats unfortunate where a lot of young people do get news. Mark on the other side of it, i think 200 counties have no newspaper at all. Not even a daily newspaper. No newspaper. You can easily go back to a boss hog [indiscernible] dukes of hazard. I think, gosh, you know, its tough for the business of media. We definitely see that. But i could go through 10 stories, five stories off the top of my head, in the last two months of mass firings, of papers going down, of and theyre all people trying to figure out how to speak to an audience in a way that pays for the people to do all of that work. And so i dont i think were at an interesting everythings in flux, right . Emily you talked about partners. If you ever want to partner, i know this organization that does a lot with journalists. Mark your cookie was slightly better than the a. S. Pmpt cook a. S. P. Cookie. Emily we have a couple questions here from the audience. One, how are you funding this . And do you have various public support . How do folks can folks support you . Mark we have selffunded it to this point. We are now partnering with other folks and we are now working with we are beginning to work with other Financial Partners. Its tricky, especially in the beginning, because part of the original part of the site is we dont know where this information is coming from and who is paying for it. So somehow the solution was, chris well just do it ourselves. Mark as its grown and to achieve our mission and to grow, we will now take ont its trick. Were a not for profit. Emily ill say, we have some time for a couple of questions from the audience. I think there are staffers around you can pass your card to. Never mind. Ok. You guys obviously have the hollywood background and a lot of ties and connections to hollywood. So what do your celeb peers think of what youre doing and you have seen momentum build inside hollywood and the west coast for helping out with these initiatives . Chris thats always been this kind of ace up our sleeve of when do we make those hollywood calls . When do i have to start saying, hey, will you come do this . There it is. Mark soon. Chris again, the first thing hollywoods just like d. C. Theyre going to be timid until they know what theyre stepping into. But now after a few years, i think we have something to point to and we can say, listen, this is truly bipartisan. Its informationbased. Its driven in an academic manner so hopefully, yeah. Mark weve gotten a lot of good feedback from our peers. People do respect it because they recognize theyre tricky waters to navigate. Chris some actors steer clear. Some actors i know its not even worth a phone call. But there are other buddies who would jump in in a heart beat. Mark and its in the servitude of the mission that a. S. P. Has. There are different folks that can bring attention to Different Things and areas or open up conversations in pockets around the country. I think thats going to be a really interesting thing to play with. But its got to be specific and not a gimmick. You know. And so were figuring that out as we go. Emily when you say open up the conversation in pockets of the country, is there a particular spot that you guys have in mind for where mark no. Theres lots of different places where people are from. Chris the tail might wag the dog. Depending on who would be interested in doing it, you could say to them, what are you interested in . Whats your passion . What do you want to talk about . Emily i know that we are thank you. I was about to say, i know we are almost out of time and now i feel guilty since everyone passed up their questions doing it. I will ask just one more quick question. Theres a table of genz in the back if you want to chat with them. Chris oh, great. Hey, genz table. Mark you put them in the back. You should work your way up. Emily how do you currently sustain engagement . Just given that everything moves as quickly as it does. Like, im thinking, you know, you talk about news cycles in d. C. And its surprising that it was just what, like last week, a week ago, we were talking about a shutdown and now its on a tax bill but also immigration but also ukraine. How do you really kind of keep up and make sure that people are staying informed when the news in realtime moves so quickly . Chris when theres an influx of information, thats a good thing. Even though it makes a lot more work, were coming into an Election Year. Its like owning a snow plow before a blizzard. Its a good time to have this sort of a site. Theres no shortage i think of information. Its just, you know, a lot more work for the other folks. Mark and we cant do everything. Thats one of the reasons why we will grow. Because there is the need and we do feel a sense of responsibility and theres this we have this team, theres a yearning desire to take the thing that we built, which works and were very proud of, and throw more at it. So, yes, we dont we cant hit everything. I think thats kind of the discipline weve had to learn which is, if we dont have the resources to deal with that one, Something Else will be there and well do the things that we do. So we try to bring the most service we can to things we cover and not worry too much about what we cant do yet. Emily sure. I know that we do have to wrap a little early today. I was told around 1 45 which i think were about there. But before i ask the final question, i have to take a moment to thank the organizers of todays event. Headliners coteam leaders as well as lori for being todays headliners coordinator, thats much appreciated. Also special shoutout to our coordinator, Club Membership director, and of course our Club Executive director. Thank you all for participating in our discussion and the last thing before the last question, it is my honor to present you both with the National Press club mug. We give it to everyone, all the famous folks who have talked on this stage. Mark oh, i thought we had to fight for it. Emily thank you so much for being here. [applause]■w mark and let us just say, its an honor to be your inaugural guest. We feel very special. We like to set the bar nice and low. You can only go up from here. Emily i did want to ask this one final question for you guys. Youve spent a lot of time now in d. C. You are spent a lot of time talking to lawmakers. Have either of you guys ever thought about running for office . On a time you know, there was a time. Being here, you realize how much goes into it and im tired. [laughter] i dont know. I dont think so. I think theres better ways to be a part of the World Without having to do the work that goes with being an elected official. Mark agreed. In the beginning, this place is amazing and leek, people like hollywood, people come here with dreams of doing things. We got to see people who g then reelected so weve watched them kind of grow into their roles and most of them, he would always ask, chris did most and ive done some of, all of the initial interviews, we took ourselves out of them. We would always ask them, what inspired them to get into politics and what inspired them about politics and a lot of them would have these great local stories. Some wrong that was done to somebody. It was super inspirational. Chris it was beautiful. Mark maybe someday. Then you get into it and then theres always these other things. Oh, this is a nightmare. Ill end with this. I know theres a lot of cynicism around governments and media. And i think its important that, you know, you all are doing great work to hold each other accountable. But at the end of the day end of the day, i feel very inspired as a result of this journey and i have an insane amount of respect for the people who choose to serve and who choose to cover those who serve. Its a very challenging thing and people really a lot yes. You can judge whatever their motivations you think they are. But theres a lot. Its a long way of answering no because i have too much respect for those who do and i dont know i could be down for that. Chris you said that really well. Being in d. C. For those two years of building this site in 2018 and 2019, being somewhat political adjacent, being somewhat media adjacent, you have so much we developed so much, we already had respect, but it just grew exponentially to see how hard it is to do what the elected officials do, what you guys do. And thank you, thank you so much forgiving yourself to this. Its good work. Emily thank you so much for being here. Thank you all. And with that, we are adjourned. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Today, Veterans Affairs officials testify on data privacy and the use of artificial intelligence. Watch the house Veterans Affairs subcommittee live at 3 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan2, cspan now, our free mobile video app, or online at cspan. Org. For cspans voices 2024, were asking voters across the country, what issue is most important to you in this election and why . The most important issue this political season is immigration. Economics and the deficit. I think that homelessness is an issue that needs to be addressed. We invite to you share your voice by going to our website, cspan. Org campaign2024. Select to record and record a 30second video telling us your issue and why. Cspans voices 2024, be a part of the conversation