News theyd be getting however now just a few months into this pandemic according to pew research here in the United States numbers of majority feel that the us news media has handled coverage of this pandemic rather well in fact 69 percent to be exact in fact the percentage of those who say the media was exaggerating the threat of the virus has dropped from 62 percent in march to 48 percent in april that includes a decline in the portion saying the media have greatly exaggerated the risk as well from 37 percent to 24 percent. But these numbers do not mean the u. S. News media has been beyond reproach in their tactics nor have they seen the upswing in profits either as the Washington Post reports people are consuming news like never before but spikes in readership are coming alongside huge drops in the advertising revenue a New York Times count estimated 36000 media workers have experienced furloughs pay cuts or even layoffs from vice to buzz feed to corks the conde nast there have been massive layoffs in the business of news both in print and on line since the start of this pandemic and that has only been in the 1st few months my friends and of course just because we are in a state of emergency that hasnt stopped the by a part of the partisanship battles between liberal and conservative news outlets from blaming trump and blaming cuomo blaming obama blaming dr blaming china blaming just about everybody else on and on and on and on how many talking heads and news that authorial is have we now seen and read that laid the blame on the leadership of one side while excusing away the failures their own side played in the deaths of now over 90000 u. S. Citizens so today lets examine the good the bad and even the censorship that weve seen from the u. S. News media during the covert 1000 pandemic as we start watching the homes. Whats going on in a city streets. That are so lets see this is this you always see a. Great city desolate systemic dissent says so which. Brings up the old. Welcome when watching the harks i am tyrone and im mr cross and joining us today to discuss the state of the news media in the age of covert 19 are 2 books or no stranger to news media criticism both in the giving and receiving the host of r. T. Americas eat the press Steve Malzberg an investigative journalist cohost of arties boom bust mr reality check himself. Thank you both for coming on today guys. Thanks for having me so i want to start lets start with just looking at the coverage across the board of the spread of them except for steve what do you feel has been the best and worst aspects of the u. S. News medias handling of this outbreak steve you can go 1st. Wow the best and worst aspect i think you know you hit it on the head when you talked about that the partisanship the blame game the fake news by omission which which ill throw in has been its been unavoidable and its been consistent so i think while the coverage i think it depends who youre watching and i think that that poll would you probably get to in a little bit will show that theres a party line disagreement on how much they trust the media and how good a job they think theyre doing i mean you got. A sin maybe murder that was committed in new york state by Governor Cuomo has orders to take sick patients have put them in Nursing Homes and the Mainstream Media really couldnt care about that now the more conservative media is harping on that where is the Mainstream Media is going after trump for every you know everything he does and everything he says so you hit it right on the head in your introduction so i dont think you could say notwithstanding what the people think in my opinion i dont think theyve done a good job covering just the facts i think everything it everything is slanted. Bring your thoughts yeah i think i think its true that everything is slanted looks from the left or the right doesnt matter that covering stories from a partisan viewpoint is not journalism theres plenty of space out there for there to be actual journalists who are just focusing on the facts of whats happening where this thing came from what you know whats happening under the law whether or not civil rights are being violated whether or not you know these these governors orders are even constitutional there are so many questions out there and the problem is that number one media is not really asking those questions theyre played this constant game yes they want to jump on everything try. Doesnt trump give them lots of things to jump on every day they want to criticize anything they dont like at the same time theyre not being sincere i dont think in terms of just looking at whats happening in terms of the virus itself it spread there are there are massive things guys that are that are taking place right now the talk of Contact Tracing apps that would be tracking everyone in the country the idea that states when putting this into place the fact that were looking at a new health care version of the patriot act and hardly anyone is talking about these issues that will affect all of our lives not just today and tomorrow but for the next generation. Can i throw in real quick and i should but the Washington Post today to what ben is just said is touting how great hong kong and and south korea have been how their models you know what they do if theyre infected people they take come out to government facilities to quarantine mass quarantine this has been talked about by w. H. O. Talk across was really the only one playing the w. H. O. Official who said that we may have to go into peoples homes and take them away now today the Washington Post is laying the groundwork i dont be very careful and right on target. And feed this ones for you as well in terms of partnership partisanship in News Coverage pew also notes that while 2 thirds of democrats 66 percent say the media. Coverage has been largely accurate just about 3 in 10 republicans 31 percent actually agree steve that this poll reflects what youre hearing from conservatives about the news in the Media Coverage on the ground and given how divided the political and pundit class is in this country is that even possible in todays day and age not to be considered bias regardless of how you present a story. No its always going to be you know thats a good point theres always going to be somebody on the other side with a different opinion because everything is presented in a political spectrum its so hard to escape it again if you watch the clinical news stations and channels theres no way to get away from it if you read the newspapers the Washington Post the New York Times theres no way to escape it if you watch fox to a lesser extent but still in all theres no way to escape it the land is out there and you know its its its inescapable and its going to be able to watch it and say wait a minute you know enough already with this lets talk about that x. X. X. When you have assigned to when you have a foul who one day says we can never shake hands again what the media ignore is that he said if you want to have casual sex and hook up on line if the 2 partners aware. I think thats up to them well shouldnt that discredits she should that they need a big big issue you never hear about it so my point is everything is presented in a prism and nobody is presenting 100 percent straight news anymore i think its very different ive begun to say was there so that prison prison that you speak of whether its troop or both sides whether its conservative media they have their prism and liberal media has their prism as well but i want to ask you one of the interesting aspects in this coverage surrounding this pandemic is what many are viewing as you know various social media subs are shipped by Companies Like you tube and facebook of any videos interviews or alternative news reports the contradictory even raise questions about the official medical or government response to this virus your own coverage of that as you mentioned earlier with of the Contact Tracing bill thats coming down the pipeline and the funding of the war on lab in china and possible american dollars that have been going into the place before all this happened ben is this a dangerous we are walking when it comes to press freedoms or is any possible misinformation in a Public Health crisis a potential danger to the public and needs to be policed in some fashion while you feel. So why obviously i have a pretty clear point of view on this because as you mentioned ive had 2 stories that have been censored by facebook heres the problem with it is that both of these stories one is about the lab receiving u. S. Funding that is an absolute fact it has been proven time and time again i put up lots of proof for it the other one is about this bill thats on its way down the problem is that the socalled Fact Checkers who have fact checked these stories in one case it was political fact and the reporter writes in the story he didnt bother to fact check the story he literally says the 15 minutes report that swan presented which we did not fact check the why are you doing a fact check if youre not going to actually watch the report in fact check it the other one is on the left that was done by a usa today story that never even looked at our report they simply look at the Facebook Post someone else put up saying Obama Administration gave 3700000. 00 of the lab and then declared that any Story Associated with this was false and heres the problem with this guys it is critically important Fact Checking organizations like snopes and political fact and usa today are being given the authority on facebook to fact check information when your story as in my case is labeled as being false news or partly false Facebook Says number one you have no recourse to appeal that and to say to someone heres proof as to why its not wrong the 2nd thing is and this is also critically important not only do you not have that but Facebook Says we can take action against your page and if you go back and correct the information it does not change the fact that we will still take action against your page now as a journalist you guys know for instance a few months ago the w. H. O. Said dont wear face masks a few weeks later they said do wear face masks a journalist reporting what the w. H. O. Said before and then again later as with all journalistic stories you find that new information comes along you have to have the ability to present information as you find it and then to continue. To build on that the idea that a journalist can not get anything wrong with in fact you know Washington PostNew York Times fox news c. N. N. Everybody gets stuff wrong and then they run retractions if its wrong but in this case it is a very clear effort to say if you put up something we dont like well we will declare it fake news and then well remove you from the platform and by the way one of the point on that the reporters who were doing the stuff i also did a report about one of the socalled Fact Checkers for face book was actually an employee at the wu han lab who was receiving money there so how is that person then going back and checking journalists and deciding whether journalists are accurate of what theyre reporting theres a huge conflict of interest there most definitely and according to the New York Times the chief economist and indeed dot com said new listings for jobs in media and communications have fallen 35 percent in the 60 days before april the 3rd with the massive layoffs and these major losses and job openings what do you think the future of news media will look like africa with 19. Well if its addressed to me i think its going to its going to look a lot different a lot of these newspapers and print media that are feeling the hardest effects right now of layoffs and closing and firing etc pay cuts they were going down anyway they were a dying industry anyway and anybody who says we need to prop them up because of the virus thats just thats false and thats our thats going money down had a dark hole so they were they were going out anyway because of the the new way of the news media however as you point out its beyond the newspapers its the digital its its you know the people you would never think would be affected its the buzz feeds in and its kind of the nested suits its everybody and that a lot of that has to do with that word ties ing but some of it doesnt have to do with that protesting or lack thereof because of the virus a lot of publications a lot of folks platforms are saying ok maybe we could take it then. Edge of this in do more with less and do it under the guise of the coronavirus and use that as an excuse im not saying that everybody is doing that im just saying thats main i think Going Forward youre going to see a much different media a much tighter media and a much needed doing much more its more that much much less in general thats kind of very injurious is it not better when youre see theres news or shrink and shrink and shrink. It is dangerous and its dangerous to see them shrink it by the way one of the biggest reasons why Online Publications and websites and newspapers that are online are dying is because i know i say it all the Time Facebook and google because facebook and google between the 2 of them control about 95 percent of the ad market on the internet thats an insane thought to think that 2 companies completely dominate the entire ad market but they do and so if you dont use google to sell your ads for you and youre not getting revenue through facebook and theyre controlling that space then you cant survive out there as an individual you know a website that says ill just go out and sell advertising it doesnt work that way or thats one of the the biggest problems right now about it most definitely doesnt ban steve i want to thank you both coming for having this great discussion with us pleasure as always have you both on. Thank you guys. Are going to break remember that you could also start watching orks on demand for the brand new portable t. V. Which is available on smartphones through google play on the web store were searching portable t. V. Or you can stream us to your t. V. By downloading the portable t. V. Up on apple t. V. And online and portable t v coming up we examined the valuing of black communities across the United States with dr gray area office fascinating book you know your price valuing black lives and property of americas black city state through watching. To mean. To. Shoot. We go to work you straight home to. Join me every thursday on the alex im unsure when ill be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business im show business ill see you then. You notice in your restaurant that they blow up patrons are consuming anything the solution according to the policy makers would be to make the blow up consumers bigger like and inject more you know helium or oxygen into the blow up and then also mouth improve the situation theyre not taking into consideration theyre dead still lifeless that they they cant consume just like the moneys velocity number shows us that for now a couple of decades has been dying and recently the money velocity is now pretty much 0. Black americans seem to always get the short end of the stick from Ballot Access issues and Voting Rights the rights to health care and housing americas model seems to be white is right black get back the devaluation of black innovation and contributions to American Progress all well documented but one thing we dont talk about enough is the consistent the valuation of black property rid of course in white supremacy. Know your price valuing black lives and property in America Black cities delve deeper into the historical bias and present the implications of the values in black communities joining us now is author and written fellow andre perry. Andre thank you for coming on with us today i want to say that your book explores the multifaceted and generational issues associated with black property in black communities being ultimately shut out of the Economic Growth and value we see in their white counterparts what are some reasons for this and how is this devaluation reflected today. Yeah 1st of all thank you for having me on the devaluation devaluation of the complicated but yet easily understandable issue particularly when it comes to housing one of the studies in the in the book was i looked at housing prices in black majority cities where their share the black population and the greater than 50 percent and i compare them to how the cards in neighborhoods where the the prices of homes or their black population was less than one percent and i control for education stronger and walkability all those things the zillow metric so i could get an apples to apples comparison of home price what i found thats down that hole in black neighborhoods or devalued by 23 percent bottom 48 out of her home accumulatively that amounts to about 156000000000 in last equity now we know that people use the equity to lift themselves up that that money should go toward folks to start a business or to send their kids to college it could have funded actually more than a 1000000 College Degrees based on the average price of a college to a Public College to royston it could have funded more than 4000000. 00 start up businesses but that money is essentially extracted by the perception of the neighborhood that reduces the value now certainly that occurred in appraisals that occurred in lending practices in the kurds and Real Estate Agent behavior and the overall economy as well but its clear that if you can from our re