By: Jacob Christner
Dear journalism students,
I admit that I am not a journalist myself. In fact, I am a Pundit…The Pundit’s Pundit to be exact. The title is a call out to today’s pundits who build their on screen, or online, opinions based off how many clicks they can generate. They are too fearful to get criticism from online mobs, or too fearful to listen to a contrasting opinion that might start a real dialogue.
The same has happened to journalism.
The title of this letter is an ode to an old school journalist by the name of Frank Reynolds. When President Reagan was shot, his press secretary James Brady was shot also. The initial report from all three networks was that Brady had died, and when Reynolds found out it wasn’t true, he went off on the air.
“LET’S GET IT NAILED DOWN…LET’S GET IT RIGHT”
Numerous mainstream media outlets, all with varying philosophies and narratives, all prove we’re not getting it right.
People are more fueled by emotion than ever. A huge subset of people root for the assassination of the leader of the free world, no matter which party, which would cause a worldwide meltdown. Physical assaults, threats, and doxxing occurs when we bring up the truths we all learned in grade school. A global virus was used for blame and not solutions. What is supposed to bring us together keeps tearing us apart.
Ask yourselves these questions. Why are journalists held hostage by millions of Twitter feeds that average about eighty followers? Why are journalists held hostage by the QWERTY keyboard mob…a mob that keeps adding more letters or symbols depending on which special interest group shells out the cash? How did the simple knowledge of how the immune system works become the enemy? How did victimhood become a currency? Why is wealth evil instead of teaching everyone how money works?
Most of all…why does Donald Trump anger people?
I think I know why.
Donald Trump is the loud, arrogant caricature of every establishment politician and journalist that had the ability to hide their true selves till eight years ago. He arrogance is louder, his lies are louder. They are angry and aren’t even trying to hide their true intentions. That’s not just the opposing party…it’s his party also.
One party hates him because he brought a voter bloc back they didn’t want to have to win over again, and the other hates him because it’s 2023 and he runs a 1986 campaign.
I make these points because it’s up to all of you to bring journalism back, and you have to do it by creating your own independent source. Ben Shapiro did his job with Daily Wire, Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian did theirs with Young Turks, Bari Weiss left the New York Times to create FP(Free Press). It’s the way to go. New York Times is dead, Washington Post died in darkness, CNN’s got one foot in the grave, and even FOX can’t get ad revenue that isn’t assisted living facilities, gold, or reverse mortgages.
You are all the future because of one word.
Truth. Not YOUR truth, not social media’s truth.
Truth.
You will get that truth in two ways.
- A little extra elbow grease.
- Allow dialogue with EVERYONE
Number two is important. I’m not talking about violent radicals because they are usually found on Craigslist and paid by a really wealthy radical we rarely see. I’m saying the everyday people, wealthy or poor, liberal or conservative, that have to contribute to this society through paying taxes, sending their kids to schools, dealing with local government, etc.
Again, Twitter isn’t real life.
And as far as Trump goes, if you want to get him, you can’t have a dog in the fight, and you certainly can’t hate him. He feeds off that emotion better than anyone else. You have to understand what he is and how his mind works. First step is understanding he’s a human being…a narcissistic human being, an arrogant human being, but still a human being. CNN and MSNBC treats him like a cartoonish 80s WWF bad guy, and FOX and Breitbart treats him like the second coming of Jesus.
He’s human. Start there and work your way up. You will make a lot more headway.
Sincerely,
The Pundit’s Pundit
