Talk about the new book the death of american journalism and how to revive it. A couple housekeeping notes. Post a question at any point in the discussion just click on the q mandate icon at the bottom of the screen and in the chat column a link from purchasing copies of free the press. He serves as the senior White House Correspondent for playboy and hosts the podcast just ask the question that features conversations about Current Events and popculture. During thee Trump Presidency he became then story on an occasion or two. Among them press secretary sarah huckabeeia sanders and sebastia. They even tried to suspend in 2019 for they blocked the move and for having violated the constitutional due processn rights. In free the press he combines a history of n the change in u. S. News media in decades with tales of his own experienced individuals. He describes the disappearance of many news organizations, the spirit of bias and news reporting andnm tension between the government and the estate and also offers at the end some ideas for reviving the vibrant free press in this country. Publishers weekly called Freedom Press a study of what ails the American Press and by the vivid memories of the good old days. I want to hear all about those good old days. This evening will be zachary who may notice the same last name because he is brians son and hess a writer, director and executive producer of the podcast. Brianna zachary, the floor is yours. Appreciate it. Zach, thank you for doing this. I will start off and talk about the good old days because im old, but the story Everyone Wants to know is who was the first president you could imagine and as the story goes i was in the upstairs upper brass and back in those days you could bang on y the door at least heln thomas did and Sam Donaldson who was kind enough to write the intro for the book to bang on the door and say get out here to speak to us. I turned to leave and tripped and fell on the floor because ive always been graceful. I looked up and who was standing over me but the president of the unitedel states. Ronald reagan looked down at me. That was my introduction to the dc president ial politics. Thee federal government state ad local governments have all destroyed the free press and through dismantling a lot of the guardrails in place to make sure that we were fair and free but if you talk to someone on the left into the right and middle, everybody says theres something wrong with the press i want to find out how long and how far away are we from fixing things and is there a specific legislation that needs to be passed. The fairness doctrine we need to make it applicable across the internet and broadcasting. They also said it couldnt do television we need to make sure its protected. Local newspapers and Community Newspapers hardly exist any more. We need to cure that by supporting local and Community Newspapers. Those Public Notice ads are a big part of the budget for many newspapers and also let people know whats going on in their community. I just wanted to clarify for people listening if they are not aware of the doctrine and what it entails. The Truman Administration made it possible and necessary that if you had a subject of controversy that you had to provide both sides of the story you had to make sure if you said the war was inevitable, you also hady. To say someone on the othr side. What happens when the Reagan Administration got rid of the doctrine it created new silos. It stopped being information but became entertainment and we seized telling s people what thy need to know and started telling them h what they wanted to hear. Thats why i say that Good Journalism and capitalism are incompatible and tethered together. To the point before the fairness doctrine was repealed. It made them it was for tv and radio. Newspapers had other problems. Newspapers have long had a far greater problems and newspapers have hadad a problem of televisn and radio and the internet taking away their audience. Once radio opened up that shortenedrs the news cycle. Newspapers used to be great places to go for information. One of the great copies is from 1865 and its abraham lincolns new York Observer with the news account of abraham lincolns assassination and a lot of history books ive read. The thing about newspapers that are still great is its the same today w as it was in 1865. What we are doing here now is it can be changed, erased, deep fakes but by the way, one of the things that let christianity spread is that the bible was printed, the best thing ever printed for hundreds of years. The same source of material helped the United States become a little bit more civilized and at the beginning when the congress got together for one of its first things was to subsidize newspapers and allow them to transport newspapers to the u. S. Mail. It helped us become an informed educated electorate. So with the fairness doctrine date is try to codify intellivision the principles and presets that had gone into the newspaper that were thought of for a long time. There were never repercussions because those people did and because they did, everybody kind of hopped on the bandwagon. Both sides is a fine edge to walk. Im not going to report, when i report about men going to space im not goingbo to have somebody sitting by my side telling me the flat Earth Society version of it. And to have people tell me january 6th was asu walk in the park. It was an insurrection and dangerous and shouldnt be repeated. I wont repeat the lives but for reasonable people and facts whee the facts are vetted, reasonable opinions can differ and we need to air those. I do want to take a quick step back. I want to know why, you dont need to obviously you know this and i dont mind sharing it with you. Ive been a reporter since i started in high School Working for the jefferson reporter in louisville kentucky. I went to college at the university of missouri. I worked at the kingdom daily sun gazette and my first job after leaving college and getting married and having the oldest son is sitting here with me. I traveled quite b a bit and hae done quite a bit. In laredo texas there were 100,000 people and i think one or two in spanish. There were three or four television stations that did news, several radio stations and the last year or year before theres 300,000 people. Theres one newspaper andev one television station. Theres a few of us left who know what it was like in the good old days and i felt like it was my responsibility to pass on to others what journalism really was and what i grew up believing it to be and what we can make it once again so thats the short story. So to that point, can you elaborate on its obvious the lack of ownership and institutional knowledge. Butha why does it specifically matter that somebody has 30 or 40 Years Experience, why does it matter more than hiring somebody directly . I hope im still learning after all the time spent doing this. You need to make yourself aware of o whats going on in the City Managers Office for the county clerks office. They know how to get information and how to talk to people. A lot of people and its evident several times when i walked into the white house. Its their first job out of college and we need to have more experience. Youre going to be taken advantage of the elitism and they talk about in journalism exists because we hire people who are straight out of college. Maybe they got their masters degree but they never had to cover a High School Sporting event or a pta meeting. You dont have the experience and how to get information from a variety of people and what binds us together is when all thats left is National News its divisive by its very nature democrats, republicans, communists, feeling you know whatia socialism is or capitalim is. Its one of those things we were warned about back in the 50s during the mccarthy era. The speaker is talking about if we dont catch this now we are going to be taken over by slogans and propaganda. Every one of us once our streets paved and make sure the streetlights work. Why cant we get milk at the local Grocery Store and why cant i get clean water. Most of the Major National stories were giving birth in a Community Newsroom and thats why youve got to have that Community Journalism. There is more than a million people. When i first lived here there was a daily paper and two weekly newspapers or three and the Washington Post covered as well as radio and television. Today there is none of that. The Washington Post scaled back on coverage. Ou when he bought the Washington Post scaled back the coverage and killed the weekly newspaper that they ran, so thats the problem. If you dont have reporters on the ground, theres that ability to gather news and to be tied into your community. We are not a part of the, community. We are called the enemy of the people but we are not. There just arent enough of us doing the job and so also when you have boardrooms controlling things and boardrooms are usually on these venture capitalists that own two or 300 newspapers thatss never supposd to happen. There was legislation introduced in the 80s to limit the ownership. No the stronger newspapers survive. Therere needs to be diversity of ownership if they are going to have diversity of ideas and we dont have that. It teaches you whats going on in the world. Iveel told many reporters that have worked for me i said this is what i think. What do you know, i barely care what i think. How to gather facts is the important thing. Journalism is printing stuff snthat is and propaganda and is and pr. Even in high school sports. Its about bringing of information people want buried how dotu you see that being fixd in the future . Obviously you need the cooperation between the government t and the corporatios through legislation. You have to create more competitive companies. At the same time thats not the cureall. And then fox news and created the craft that we have to deal with today. But theres more that needs to be done. I went to jail four times, remember walking out holding my young son. Walking outt of jail and having to spend time there because i kept the source confidential. Theres others that have done that and you shouldnt have to do that. You shouldnt have to use the act to go after reporters as president s have done. We need to start at the ground level and support through subsidies and tax breaks. You have to support Community Journalism. Thats where it all begins. If we dont support Community Journalism,ha we are done. Its that simple an if we dont understand that, then god help us. The Founding Fathers understood that quite well. While less controversial in speech its more controversial because it takes actual government working againstt itself because the government doesnt want to be held accountable ando those that do, how many people voted to impeach donald trump in the Republican Party were not running, its hard to survive in a divisive environment and we need to make it less divisive. They help bind communities together. How many times have parents cut pictures out of Community Newspapers because their kid was in it . How many times havee you said whats going on, go to the newspaper . Thats how they would approach them. I am ado car salesman in the ar. Theres a way of bringing a Community Together and weve got to do that. Elwhen the communities together, you are less likely to kill your neighbor or go after your neighbor or accuse them of being antiamerican ifha you also shad your kids are on the same team or youve worked together to get a road paved, all the things that bring a Community Togethere or part of the Community Newspaper experience. As you know i ran two of those for more than a dozen years. Many television stations are behind the times. To call yourself a journalist at the very least, you need a copy editorou. Those are the opinions and it should be labeled. The newspapers and television and radio stations and those on the internet have not learned yet that it is a Great Unifying force. Today a newspaper isnt just a newspaper. Its a radio station, its a live stream. I can go live with this and i have. So can a television and onewspaper reporter. What we need is context and depth and not just the stuff that goes on right now. How many times when i was a kid you would look at the scores, who scored this and that and we dont get that anymore. You have to search for it and nobody wants to sit around and search for 30 minutes if you knew. Its a onestop shop and thats the bottom line. Today the newspaper has to be the one stop shop for everything. If newspapers took thatt attitue and hired people instead of firing them and were willing to take a smaller percentage of profit they are so shortsighted. They like maximum profit, minimum time. Im going to come back to that. What i want to do right now is talk about the book and not only is it prescribed with the state righter now and remedies and solutions but also how to do journalism so one of the things throughout build a good narrative and kind of teach how to be a journalist. One of the things you talk about whatbu is the purpose and why ds that make you a good reporter and who said that . He was very cogent and on point about the problems of journalism and politics 100 years ago. Its ruining independent journalism. He used to be the rewords in the business came out of the freedom of expression and the simple fact of the matter is theres nothing easier on earth van to fool a reporter. He had wonderful anecdotes about that but my personal anecdote working as the general i thought thats where i would spend my life because i had grown up reading the newspaper as one of the tophe ten in the country and where i was inspired and aspire to be. They never wanted to see anybody as the patriarch of the family and nobody, not the lowest guys on the totem pole so i went upstairs to figure out what i did wrong and they said he will see you now. A beautiful office and it dawned on me k slowly over a few minuts i would be asked about my family and new members. Are you the one that posted that noticece . How did you know that because nothingmy happens in my newspapr that i dont know about. As he talked about the paper with hl mencken and said something i will never forget. Hes a burst or of balloons when they need to be burst. That is how i left it and so i always took it as inspiration to burst balloons and what he meant by that is poke holes in the bs and politicians are full of it and its your job as a reporter to go after the fact. One e of my early mentors one of myam dear friends today. To challenge their policy and utterances so the American Public gets to know the truth and then it has to do with the fact so thats always stuck with me. When you point out someones full of it it doesnt mean you are automatically friends to the guy. I had as much problem on either side. Itsin those things to burst the balloon and only i can fix the problem. Stay in your lane your stuff is either facts, newst or opinion. How many Years Experience did he have . Too. Ten or 12 and then come back and i will value your opinion but you dont have enough to know one. Thats where you need to solid management but when you are paying people it used to be five Years Experience to go anywhere and now they are hiring it straight out of school and after five years when you need a raise and you are making more money they boot b you out and hire another person whos cheap. Its harder to burst those balloons. Its something we touched on a little bit early on in the conversationk. I want to hear you talk about how your idea for solving the news deserts. You have to subsidize community journalists. Theres no other way to do it. Lowinterest loans and thats why one of the things i also propose is a Blue Ribbon Commission and get leaders in the industry. Everybody needs facts and news. Jamie cosponsored the last bill for the national, to different people you will never find but they agreed on free speech and supporting it. If we can pay out, we can bailout the small newspapers and i think that should be our priority. We are getting close to the time weve got to field some other questions. Go for it whatever youve got. What will be your first step changing the relationship between the people and the press. People are goingre to make mistakes. Its the best news we had at the time that we printed it we need to understand that. If you cant do that you are in deep trouble. Next question. This one comes from an audience member patricia and asks what do you consider the best question youve ever asked . Are you free saturday night, when i asked. Professionally and i think the bestst question, i dont know thats actually a great question. The question that had the most impact was the one i asked to september 203rd. They said win, lose or draw we accept the peaceful transition of power and that shows the insurrection. What is your impression and our reporters more buttoned up and does that keep them from posing questions to the leaders. They are afraid of losing access more than anything else and they are younger and less experienced. One thing i always tell young reporters when i have them working for me you dont work for the government, the people that work for you hold them accountable at the feet to the fire, truth to power, i will back you a thousand you never have to worry, go after them. If youre afraid youre going to get fired or lose access because youre doing your job, t