In this episode, Curtis Houck, managing editor at NewsBusters, shares his journey into journalism, influenced by significant events like the 2000 presidential election and 9/11. He discusses his role in covering media bias and the evolution of the White House press briefing. Curtis also opens up about personal struggles with loneliness and mental health, offering advice for younger individuals and emphasizing the importance of kindness and self-care. The Karol Markowicz Show is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Wednesday & Friday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
People who have listened to this show for a while
know that one of my things is that I'm actually
really worried about people turning to AI to replace actual relationships.
Friendship rates are down, people aren't dating, they aren't getting married.
(00:27):
All of this is concerning to me. And having this
AI outlet that people have now it's worrisome. I think
it's a real problem and it could lead us in
a really bad direction. There was a clip that circulated
on X of Mark Zuckerberg talking about just this issue
about how AI could replicate friendships, and he was kind
(00:52):
of talking about it in a positive way, about how
it can combat loneliness. Let's roll the clip and I'll
discuss it.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
The personalization loop kicks in and the AI just starts
to get to know you better and better. I think
that will just be really compelling. You know, one thing,
just from working on social media for a long time
is there's the stat that I think is crazy. The
(01:20):
average American, I think has I think it's fewer than
three friends, three people if they'd consider friends, and the
average person has demand for meaningfully more. I think it's
like fifteen friends or something, right. I guess there's probably
some point where you're like, all right, I'm just too busy.
I can't deal with more people. But the average person
wants more connectivity connection than they have. So you know,
(01:45):
there's a lot of questions that people ask of stuff
like Okay, is this going to replace kind of in
person connections or real life connections, And my default is
that the answer to that is probably no. I think
it it it, you know, I think that there are
all these things that are better about kind of physical
connections when you can have them, But the reality is
(02:08):
that people just don't have the connection and they feel
more alone a lot of the time than they would like.
So I think that a lot of these things that
today there might be a little bit of a stigma around.
I would guess that over time we will find the
vocabulary as a society to be able to articulate why
(02:30):
that is valuable and why the people who are doing
these things are like why they are rational for doing
it and like and how it is adding value for
their for their lives. But but also I think that
the field is very early, So I mean, it's like
I think, you know, they're a handful of companies and stuff.
We are doing virtual therapist, and you know, there's like virtual
girlfriend type stuff. But it's it's very early.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So I get what you're saying that people are hungry
for friendship. They're not getting it. Here's outlet for those people.
People want to have fifteen friends, he says, but they
only have three. Maybe maybe they have three, maybe they don't.
Maybe they have fewer than that, so maybe they could
turn to AI for that need that they have. But no, no,
(03:17):
you can't. If you have three friends and you add AI,
you still only have three friends. The AI is something
you spend your time doing, like scrolling. I mean, we
don't say Instagram is your friend because you spend two
hours on at a night before bed scrolling videos. The
AI could feel like a friend sometimes, but it's not
(03:38):
because a friend can take in your mail when you're away,
or remind you of a funny experience you had in high school,
or make you laugh by saying something ridiculous, or go
on vacation with you. This idea that oh AI will
soon do all these things too, that still won't make
AI your friend. AI will not be sad when you die.
(03:59):
AI I will not miss you when you're gone. You
get no actual feeling, no reciprocation. You get just the
simulation of feeling and know people are lonely and this
feels like, well, it's something. But just like online dating
is only useful when it translates to real life dating,
AI can never become something real. And every minute you
(04:22):
spend talking to let's be serious here yourself alone in
your room is a minute you don't spend out there
in our big, amazing, beautiful world with real people who
exist even when you're not typing anything to let them
know what you'd like them to say. It's important to
tell your children real is better. Real is the only
(04:44):
thing there is. Thanks for listening. Coming up next and
interview with Curtis Helck. Join us after the break. Welcome
back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. My guest
today is Curtis Helk. Curtis is managing editor at NewsBusters. Hi, Curtis,
thanks with you. I'm so glad to talk to you.
(05:07):
I love NewsBusters. How did you get into this world?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:12):
So, I think my first kind of peak was actually
when I was nine years old. I was in third grade,
and it was that was in peak, yeah, two thousand
presidential election. And you know, just as a little kid,
the notion that my parents explains that there'd be an
election and then then there would be a president when
you wake up the.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Next morning, and then there wasn't. Right as a kid,
you're like, you know kind of what you deal with that.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
So my teacher, uh, missus Luck and Ball. You know,
we all have those teachers who really change our lives,
and she did. My third grade teacher, she set me
on a special assignment. The American Presidency exhibit at the
Smithsonian had just opened, and she sent me on a
project to cover pick four or five presidents. And so
I picked these really obscure presidents like most.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Do you remember who?
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yes, I did Gerald Ford, John Tyler. I think I
did Chester, Arthur or Garfield.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
But then I did take FDR as like the more
well known president. And so that was kind of got
piqued my interests but really set me on the course.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Carol was.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
The next year was nine to eleven. My birthday is
nine to eleven. Actually, wow, So I turned ten years
old on that day and I think, like a lot
of people, even adults who probably didn't pay attention to
the news very much until then. I know, my wife
has said that was when my father in law got cable, because.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I didn't have a TV, and not until people.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Were I mean some people were news junkies and they
were really.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Invested in cable even then in its semi infancy, but
that really changed things.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And my dad.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
I'm from Leicester, Pennsylvania, and so a couple hours outside
of New York, but far enough down. My dad who
did search and rescue on the side looking for lost children,
Alzheimer's patients, that kind of thing in the wilderness. He
actually was sent up to Staten Island to go through
debrief that was hauled over and he and his friends
(07:17):
were there for a few days looking for remains and
personal artifacts.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
So between those two events.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
That really got me interested in the news, wanting to
watch the news how it's made. I started actually reading
NewsBusters in probably middle school at this point, so I'm
a big fan of the work that I now do
well before that.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
So so that was probably two four, two thousand and five.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, it's funny because that two thousand election is also
what radicalized me. I looked at a little back of
the envelope Matt as we were talking. Though I was
not ten at the time, I was in my early twenties,
and I sought out other Republicans after that happened, because
(08:05):
to me, it seemed very obvious that al Gore was
trying to steal the election. I was a conservative, but
I didn't care about parties or whatever. But I felt
like I needed to go find people to talk to
about this because I thought I was losing my mind.
I was like, this is the most obvious thing ever.
George W. Bush won and they're trying to steal it.
So yeah, that was the moment for me too. And
(08:27):
then obviously nine to eleven, almost a year later, was
also a big, huge event in my life. I was
in New York at the time and I didn't have
a TV, and I watched it all happen on the
early blogs. I watched it on instapundit for example, early
early internet. So yeah, it's interesting. Do you go back
(08:47):
to Pennsylvania a lot?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, my wife and I My wife is from there too.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Actually we met down here in the DC area, but
she's from Lynnetts, Pennsylvania. So we both go up fair amount,
probably once a month, once every six weeks. Most of
our family is still there, cousins, aunts, uncles, her sister's
in New Jersey, but my brother's there. Yeah, we're a
(09:15):
lot of our family is still there. We hope to
one day move back there, but right now working here
in DC, and my wife works at a museum in
DC as well, So that feel too kind of limits
you a little bit Topaci's in terms of your options.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So yeah, it's a great place.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Do you have a beat at NewsBusters or do you
cover all kinds of stuff?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
So in my almost eleven years, I've covered all kinds
of things. Primarily it started out as the evening newscasts
ABCCBSMEC because that's the basis for a lot of our
studies that listeners may see. And I also covered everything
into cable. I then watch Chris Matthews every night once
(10:00):
they became managing editor.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
That was something.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Yeah, and and so towards the end of the last
Obama year with Josh Ernest, I started taking interest in
the White House Press briefing because there would be moments
when reporters would ask about certain things that were in
the news that weren't then being covered on the broadcast
at which repair was covering them on Fox but nobody
else was, and so that got me interested. I'm like,
(10:24):
why should watch these on a daily basis? So with
the advent, then if the Trumpet first Trump administration and
Sean Spicer, I started watching every day. I started watching
and consuming that every day before even Jim Acosta really
made himself known to the country. So I've been on
that beat ever since, and that's my main project. You know,
(10:49):
knowing who the reporters are in the room.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
It's fun.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
I've been told by different people over the years that
people in the room definitely care about what I tweet.
Ye they noticed when I tweek their question and when
I write about them, and they wanted they want to
be noticed. And I think I probably, unfortunately, maybe to
their detriment with their bosses, it helps probably humanize conservative
(11:14):
media a little bit.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
That I'm a guy who's called balls and strikes before.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Yeah, absolutely that there are certain moments, there are certain single,
singular days, like at least in the Biden administration, where
you know, I would watch a press briefing in the
press would do their jobs for that forty five minutes
to an hour that the questions from Fox news to
the New York Post were exactly the same and just
(11:39):
as tough as those from ABC, CBS, NBC, and so
I think it's helped the NewsBusters readership see too the
way the biased media work as well, that it's not
that for some of them it is entirely partisan and
they see the world completely differently than us. But I
think it's shown that it least for some of them,
(12:00):
it is a conscious choice. It is a conscious choice
to engage in what they cover and don't cover on
a daily basis. So I found that particularly rewarding, and
to in my tweeting just tweet the know who the
reporter's name is. And I think people appreciate that versus
just reporters right right.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, again, everybody wants to recognition what does the average
American normy, you know, who doesn't follow this the way
that we do not know or misunderstand about the White
House briefing room.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Yeah, that's that's pretty that's a good question. I would
say that there's definitely a process too. I think Americans
have learned a lot more with the AP situation in
the in the role that the AP plays kind of
as the gatekeeper for when briefings end.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
And you were talking about the ap situation, just so
like a fill in my listeners, it's it's when they
refuse to say Gulf of America and they.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And remove them from impoval.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
From the press pool.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Right, but they still participate in the White House press briefing.
But you know, because traditions said so, they always start
the questioning, so they set the agenda and then it
usually goes to the front row. But what Caroline has
done is go around the room. And I think that's
something that I don't I probably don't think a lot
(13:22):
of people may have considered or thought about. Right, there
was kind of this unofficial way of doing things for
a long time, but now it's completely changed where Caroline,
you know, and Kaylee did this too, and Sarah did
as well on the first arm nization. Yes, obviously you're
gonna get to the big TV, but there's a lot
of people in there. There's there's dozens of people that
(13:43):
cover the White House day in and day out too,
and they've got plenty of valid questions too about all
kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
So they sometimes have more listeners, followers, you know, viewers
than the major networks at this point, right.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah, Yeah, the New York Posts, Daily Wire for sure.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah, a few others. They definitely have more readers. The
Daily Caller, so yeah, bringers, The Caller, Mary Margaret, the
Daily Wire, Stephen Nelson at the New York Post.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
They do incredible jobs representing.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Their viewers and readers, which number, you know, at minimum
equal to number, if not greater than some of these
broadcast networks on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah, So why should it be only the broadcast networks
that get the questions? And I think Americans understand that
there is a new kind of media that has emerged.
It's not even that new anymore. Right, It's like podcasts
and I wouldn't say blogs and that type of things.
It's been at this point, you know, a decade plus.
(14:43):
It's not like it just came out last month. So
it's interesting that they're getting a chance to actually ask
the questions and get to a different conversation than the
news media might want to have.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Yeah, they can still coordinate their questions and stack their questions.
My boss, Tim Graham was the White House correspondent for
World Magazine the first few years of the Bush administration
under Ari Fleischer, and he saw that up close too,
that reporters could clearly were lining up their questions and
considering what each other was saying. That to the point
(15:19):
it almost seemed like it was scripted ahead of time.
So you know what we see now is, you know,
reporters can still ask their questions, Caroline still calls on them.
It's not completely being shut out. It's just that she's
mixing in different viewpoints. And I think to the misnomer
that people might have too, is the conservative reporters thus
(15:42):
far are asking tough questions. You know, Sager and Jetty
who you speak the Daily Caller Now he's on his
own independent breaking points with Crystal Ball, former MSNBC host.
He asked about Thomas Massey when President Trump called for
Thomas Massey to be primaried a few weeks ago, and
you know, he pointed out all of these things. Thomas
(16:04):
Massey is in support of and locks up with the president,
but not on spent a spending bill. So why call
for him to be primary? You know, that's probably not
a question Carolyn Lovett wanted to be asked, but.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
He asked any softballs, Yeah, exactly, or Mary Margaret.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Last week, the Daily Wire asked about Hey, so the
Supreme Court draft.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Opinion, Dobb's opinion leak.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Is the Justice Department interested in this because there's still
no answer these many years later?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It's interesting.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Yeah, and so you know, liberal media, legacy media may
think this is a very niche issue or not, but
it's not. It matters to a huge.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Their voice is heard generally in that room. Yeah, Mary
Margaret's been on the show. She's fantastic, And yeah, I
love that she asked that what would you be doing
if it wasn't this, If there was, what would be
the plan be for Curtis?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Actually weather was is something that I that was my
two That was my other track that I was interested
in meteorology.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
I there's a picture.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Of sane job like Fox. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yeah, my mom has a picture of me in my
playpen watching the Weather Channel, the weather on the eighths
the nineties graphics. I mean, people can probably hear this
and they're see it in their heads like that just
just completely you know, it sucked me in and so
I always just again it's part of I guess curiosity
(17:35):
about the world around me and extreme weather, how nature
can do this or do that on a dime, is
just just fascinated me. Math has been a little hard
for me growing up, still is. But so that would
be a little difficult because I very quickly learned, you know,
(17:56):
involves chemistry and physics, and he got a new geometry
and all these things.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yeah, that's too much.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
I try to put that to the wayside a little
bit once I got deeper media in college.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, media it is.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Markowitch Show. What do you worry about?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Elf?
Speaker 4 (18:18):
I think always my greatest fear is being alone. You
know this, Carol, And this is something.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
That I I talk about.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
It still my pin thread on Twitter talking about my
battles with depression and suicide. And it's coming upon ten
years since that really first came up. I think that's
one of my greatest fears.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
I think I think we all want.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
To be accepted, and I don't necessarily always care what
people think about me, but just knowing that I have friends,
I've always been one of those people that just has
a lot of like acquaintance.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
I just know a lot of people.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
But in terms of like world yeah, but in terms
of like close close friends, you know, it's tight or die.
It's all That's always been a struggle for me over
the years. So that's something that.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
I think in the background my mind, it's always something
that I really really worry about.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Credit therapy, you know, the Lord, and a lot of
different circumstances God moments in my life over the years.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
But that is probably.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Something that you know, when I'm like having a really
bad day or really struggling, that's something that that that
hits me.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
That thread was so powerful. I think you gave voice
to what a lot of people feel and that comment
about you know, having close friends. It is an issue
that I feel like comes up on this show a lot.
I have people write into me a lot about how
to make friends or how to get closer to people.
It's tough, it's really tough, and it's it's getting tougher
with the phones and the fact that we're you know,
(19:49):
kind of a part. But it's so good that you
are aware of it and see it as a problem.
Whereas that I feel like I hear from a lot
of people who are like, I don't have close friends.
That's fine with me. It's good that you're like, you know, invested.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
In it, name it in putting your putting a finger
on it.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Yeah, And that's one of the things about COVID that
just continually aggravates me. The social isolation that created it
exacerbated it. It was already there, but it just made
that even worse. And it's just the epidemic of loneliness
in this country.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
That's right, And I just think where we have to
like identify it and do something about it, otherwise it
will obviously spiral. What advice would you give a sixteen
year old Curtis help.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
That it's going to borrow a Dana Perino book. It's
going to be okay book title, It's going to be okay.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
I in high school I struggled a lot with acceptance.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I was kind of a drama queen, drama lama of sorts.
And I think I worried too about friendship. That kind
of that point that I was just talking about that
really continued to grow and that it wasn't just that.
I realized it wasn't just me years later, so I
would tell myself, it's not just you that you're struggling,
(21:20):
or just because you're struggling to make friends at this
high school. You know, you go to the next high
school north of you, and you'll make lifelong friends.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Yeah, you know, I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Almost like how I met your mother's situation. My wife
was living her life. You know, we briefly. I ran
track for a few years. She was a D one athlete,
but we were at the same meets. I didn't even
know it, team football games. Our teams played each other.
She was there, I didn't even know it. So I
think I would tell myself that, yeah, that everything's going
to be okay, and that, like you're, the insecurities and
(21:56):
struggles that you see in yourself and others are valid,
and that your hard work.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Will pay off.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
It's because, as your band director tells you, and it
is true, someone is always watching you in the best
way possible.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Love that How did you and your wife meet?
Speaker 3 (22:16):
We met online? We met online through uh yeah, through
Hinge during COVID, And.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
All the people have successful stories in places like Hinge.
Because a lot of what I hear is not success.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah yeah, she's uh yeah, that's her friend made it
for her. I a few months earlier. I'd been on
doing that for years and years and years, all sorts
of struggles and you'll learn a lot about people.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
And by doing that for a while, yeah, like I did.
But that's that's how we met, and we have a
lot of the same friends. We learned.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Her parents know even more people, which is crazy. So
they're about twenty minutes apart from each other. So so yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
It's yeah, you definitely have how I met your mother situation.
Would love to like see how you guys actually, you know,
just walked by each other at the meets or you know,
saw each other at the football games, but didn't really
realize it at the time. Do you have mutual friends
or anything back in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Or yeah, we do?
Speaker 1 (23:20):
You do?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
I knew some of her friends at Penn I met
a friend of hers at Penn State. One of her
teammates from track went to Penn State, and yeah, it's
it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I knew a person from this thing.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
And that's just what makes you know, just life so
beautiful it is, and particularly our area I just think
is really special, Like stir is such a very special place.
It's a really good place to raise a family. Fortunately,
a lot of people from out of state have moved in,
so we kind of have that problem. Yeah, but like
(23:58):
they want to get rid of Maryland, New Jersey, New York,
we're fleeing higher taxes, but bringing our policies with that issue.
By and large, it's still amazing place, outstanding schools. No,
that's why all my family's still there and my brother's there.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
I love it. I'll have to visit. I don't think
I've ever been to Lancaster. It's is it homage country?
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Yes, that is homage country.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
But the misconception Carolly people have is that it's not
all farmland.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
There is a Leicester city.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
With you know, an art scene, a lot of restaurants,
and then Lyditts. Pennsylvania is famous, always comes up in
one of those best small town America blogs that people
bring up to.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
All Right, I had Selena Zito on the show, so
I also have a Pittsburgh trip in my future. But
I don't think those two are anywhere near each other.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Right, No, I was gonna say that I.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Feel like about as far away.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Like.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
The one thing Selena and I would have in common
is talking about the grind of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, you know,
just time on the pl she takes the back roads
so exactly it's the best reason to avoid it because
the company is just so much better.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
But yeah, it's uh wait.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, Well I've loved this conversation. I've loved getting to
know you a little bit and us here with your
best tip for my listeners on how they can improve
their lives.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah. I think.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Do something nice for someone, or reach out to someone
you haven't reached out to in a while. I think
that is just so important.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I try to do that.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
It's always something like I wish other people did for me,
Like to just hear from someone that you had to
hear phone in a while. I think it's just really powerful.
And do one nice thing for yourself every day, whether
it's you know, go to Barnes and Noble once a
month or something.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah, just touch her books, yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Yeah, Or go to Starbucks and get that seven dollar
drink once in a while. I think I've learned through
my mental health journey that coping mechanisms are just so invaluable.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
They are literally life saving.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Just so just do one nice thing for yourself, and
first for yourself and for someone else.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Love it. He is Curtis Holp. Check him out at NewsBusters.
He has such an amazing x feed. He really covers
so many different things. Thank you so much for coming on, Curtis,
Thanks Errol, thanks so much for joining us on the
Carol Marco which show. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
People who have listened to this show for a while
know that one of my things is that I'm actually
really worried about people turning to AI to replace actual relationships.
Friendship rates are down, people aren't dating, they aren't getting married.
(00:27):
All of this is concerning to me. And having this
AI outlet that people have now it's worrisome. I think
it's a real problem and it could lead us in
a really bad direction. There was a clip that circulated
on X of Mark Zuckerberg talking about just this issue
about how AI could replicate friendships, and he was kind
(00:52):
of talking about it in a positive way, about how
it can combat loneliness. Let's roll the clip and I'll
discuss it.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
The personalization loop kicks in and the AI just starts
to get to know you better and better. I think
that will just be really compelling. You know, one thing,
just from working on social media for a long time
is there's the stat that I think is crazy. The
(01:20):
average American, I think has I think it's fewer than
three friends, three people if they'd consider friends, and the
average person has demand for meaningfully more. I think it's
like fifteen friends or something, right. I guess there's probably
some point where you're like, all right, I'm just too busy.
I can't deal with more people. But the average person
wants more connectivity connection than they have. So you know,
(01:45):
there's a lot of questions that people ask of stuff
like Okay, is this going to replace kind of in
person connections or real life connections, And my default is
that the answer to that is probably no. I think
it it it, you know, I think that there are
all these things that are better about kind of physical
connections when you can have them, But the reality is
(02:08):
that people just don't have the connection and they feel
more alone a lot of the time than they would like.
So I think that a lot of these things that
today there might be a little bit of a stigma around.
I would guess that over time we will find the
vocabulary as a society to be able to articulate why
(02:30):
that is valuable and why the people who are doing
these things are like why they are rational for doing
it and like and how it is adding value for
their for their lives. But but also I think that
the field is very early, So I mean, it's like
I think, you know, they're a handful of companies and stuff.
We are doing virtual therapist, and you know, there's like virtual
girlfriend type stuff. But it's it's very early.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So I get what you're saying that people are hungry
for friendship. They're not getting it. Here's outlet for those people.
People want to have fifteen friends, he says, but they
only have three. Maybe maybe they have three, maybe they don't.
Maybe they have fewer than that, so maybe they could
turn to AI for that need that they have. But no, no,
(03:17):
you can't. If you have three friends and you add AI,
you still only have three friends. The AI is something
you spend your time doing, like scrolling. I mean, we
don't say Instagram is your friend because you spend two
hours on at a night before bed scrolling videos. The
AI could feel like a friend sometimes, but it's not
(03:38):
because a friend can take in your mail when you're away,
or remind you of a funny experience you had in high school,
or make you laugh by saying something ridiculous, or go
on vacation with you. This idea that oh AI will
soon do all these things too, that still won't make
AI your friend. AI will not be sad when you die.
(03:59):
AI I will not miss you when you're gone. You
get no actual feeling, no reciprocation. You get just the
simulation of feeling and know people are lonely and this
feels like, well, it's something. But just like online dating
is only useful when it translates to real life dating,
AI can never become something real. And every minute you
(04:22):
spend talking to let's be serious here yourself alone in
your room is a minute you don't spend out there
in our big, amazing, beautiful world with real people who
exist even when you're not typing anything to let them
know what you'd like them to say. It's important to
tell your children real is better. Real is the only
(04:44):
thing there is. Thanks for listening. Coming up next and
interview with Curtis Helck. Join us after the break. Welcome
back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. My guest
today is Curtis Helk. Curtis is managing editor at NewsBusters. Hi, Curtis,
thanks with you. I'm so glad to talk to you.
(05:07):
I love NewsBusters. How did you get into this world?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:12):
So, I think my first kind of peak was actually
when I was nine years old. I was in third grade,
and it was that was in peak, yeah, two thousand
presidential election. And you know, just as a little kid,
the notion that my parents explains that there'd be an
election and then then there would be a president when
you wake up the.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Next morning, and then there wasn't. Right as a kid,
you're like, you know kind of what you deal with that.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
So my teacher, uh, missus Luck and Ball. You know,
we all have those teachers who really change our lives,
and she did. My third grade teacher, she set me
on a special assignment. The American Presidency exhibit at the
Smithsonian had just opened, and she sent me on a
project to cover pick four or five presidents. And so
I picked these really obscure presidents like most.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Do you remember who?
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yes, I did Gerald Ford, John Tyler. I think I
did Chester, Arthur or Garfield.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
But then I did take FDR as like the more
well known president. And so that was kind of got
piqued my interests but really set me on the course.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Carol was.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
The next year was nine to eleven. My birthday is
nine to eleven. Actually, wow, So I turned ten years
old on that day and I think, like a lot
of people, even adults who probably didn't pay attention to
the news very much until then. I know, my wife
has said that was when my father in law got cable, because.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I didn't have a TV, and not until people.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Were I mean some people were news junkies and they
were really.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Invested in cable even then in its semi infancy, but
that really changed things.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And my dad.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
I'm from Leicester, Pennsylvania, and so a couple hours outside
of New York, but far enough down. My dad who
did search and rescue on the side looking for lost children,
Alzheimer's patients, that kind of thing in the wilderness. He
actually was sent up to Staten Island to go through
debrief that was hauled over and he and his friends
(07:17):
were there for a few days looking for remains and
personal artifacts.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
So between those two events.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
That really got me interested in the news, wanting to
watch the news how it's made. I started actually reading
NewsBusters in probably middle school at this point, so I'm
a big fan of the work that I now do
well before that.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
So so that was probably two four, two thousand and five.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, it's funny because that two thousand election is also
what radicalized me. I looked at a little back of
the envelope Matt as we were talking. Though I was
not ten at the time, I was in my early twenties,
and I sought out other Republicans after that happened, because
(08:05):
to me, it seemed very obvious that al Gore was
trying to steal the election. I was a conservative, but
I didn't care about parties or whatever. But I felt
like I needed to go find people to talk to
about this because I thought I was losing my mind.
I was like, this is the most obvious thing ever.
George W. Bush won and they're trying to steal it.
So yeah, that was the moment for me too. And
(08:27):
then obviously nine to eleven, almost a year later, was
also a big, huge event in my life. I was
in New York at the time and I didn't have
a TV, and I watched it all happen on the
early blogs. I watched it on instapundit for example, early
early internet. So yeah, it's interesting. Do you go back
(08:47):
to Pennsylvania a lot?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, my wife and I My wife is from there too.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Actually we met down here in the DC area, but
she's from Lynnetts, Pennsylvania. So we both go up fair amount,
probably once a month, once every six weeks. Most of
our family is still there, cousins, aunts, uncles, her sister's
in New Jersey, but my brother's there. Yeah, we're a
(09:15):
lot of our family is still there. We hope to
one day move back there, but right now working here
in DC, and my wife works at a museum in
DC as well, So that feel too kind of limits
you a little bit Topaci's in terms of your options.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So yeah, it's a great place.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Do you have a beat at NewsBusters or do you
cover all kinds of stuff?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
So in my almost eleven years, I've covered all kinds
of things. Primarily it started out as the evening newscasts
ABCCBSMEC because that's the basis for a lot of our
studies that listeners may see. And I also covered everything
into cable. I then watch Chris Matthews every night once
(10:00):
they became managing editor.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
That was something.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Yeah, and and so towards the end of the last
Obama year with Josh Ernest, I started taking interest in
the White House Press briefing because there would be moments
when reporters would ask about certain things that were in
the news that weren't then being covered on the broadcast
at which repair was covering them on Fox but nobody
else was, and so that got me interested. I'm like,
(10:24):
why should watch these on a daily basis? So with
the advent, then if the Trumpet first Trump administration and
Sean Spicer, I started watching every day. I started watching
and consuming that every day before even Jim Acosta really
made himself known to the country. So I've been on
that beat ever since, and that's my main project. You know,
(10:49):
knowing who the reporters are in the room.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
It's fun.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
I've been told by different people over the years that
people in the room definitely care about what I tweet.
Ye they noticed when I tweek their question and when
I write about them, and they wanted they want to
be noticed. And I think I probably, unfortunately, maybe to
their detriment with their bosses, it helps probably humanize conservative
(11:14):
media a little bit.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
That I'm a guy who's called balls and strikes before.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Yeah, absolutely that there are certain moments, there are certain single,
singular days, like at least in the Biden administration, where
you know, I would watch a press briefing in the
press would do their jobs for that forty five minutes
to an hour that the questions from Fox news to
the New York Post were exactly the same and just
(11:39):
as tough as those from ABC, CBS, NBC, and so
I think it's helped the NewsBusters readership see too the
way the biased media work as well, that it's not
that for some of them it is entirely partisan and
they see the world completely differently than us. But I
think it's shown that it least for some of them,
(12:00):
it is a conscious choice. It is a conscious choice
to engage in what they cover and don't cover on
a daily basis. So I found that particularly rewarding, and
to in my tweeting just tweet the know who the
reporter's name is. And I think people appreciate that versus
just reporters right right.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, again, everybody wants to recognition what does the average
American normy, you know, who doesn't follow this the way
that we do not know or misunderstand about the White
House briefing room.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Yeah, that's that's pretty that's a good question. I would
say that there's definitely a process too. I think Americans
have learned a lot more with the AP situation in
the in the role that the AP plays kind of
as the gatekeeper for when briefings end.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
And you were talking about the ap situation, just so
like a fill in my listeners, it's it's when they
refuse to say Gulf of America and they.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And remove them from impoval.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
From the press pool.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Right, but they still participate in the White House press briefing.
But you know, because traditions said so, they always start
the questioning, so they set the agenda and then it
usually goes to the front row. But what Caroline has
done is go around the room. And I think that's
something that I don't I probably don't think a lot
(13:22):
of people may have considered or thought about. Right, there
was kind of this unofficial way of doing things for
a long time, but now it's completely changed where Caroline,
you know, and Kaylee did this too, and Sarah did
as well on the first arm nization. Yes, obviously you're
gonna get to the big TV, but there's a lot
of people in there. There's there's dozens of people that
(13:43):
cover the White House day in and day out too,
and they've got plenty of valid questions too about all
kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
So they sometimes have more listeners, followers, you know, viewers
than the major networks at this point, right.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah, Yeah, the New York Posts, Daily Wire for sure.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah, a few others. They definitely have more readers. The
Daily Caller, so yeah, bringers, The Caller, Mary Margaret, the
Daily Wire, Stephen Nelson at the New York Post.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
They do incredible jobs representing.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Their viewers and readers, which number, you know, at minimum
equal to number, if not greater than some of these
broadcast networks on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah, So why should it be only the broadcast networks
that get the questions? And I think Americans understand that
there is a new kind of media that has emerged.
It's not even that new anymore. Right, It's like podcasts
and I wouldn't say blogs and that type of things.
It's been at this point, you know, a decade plus.
(14:43):
It's not like it just came out last month. So
it's interesting that they're getting a chance to actually ask
the questions and get to a different conversation than the
news media might want to have.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Yeah, they can still coordinate their questions and stack their questions.
My boss, Tim Graham was the White House correspondent for
World Magazine the first few years of the Bush administration
under Ari Fleischer, and he saw that up close too,
that reporters could clearly were lining up their questions and
considering what each other was saying. That to the point
(15:19):
it almost seemed like it was scripted ahead of time.
So you know what we see now is, you know,
reporters can still ask their questions, Caroline still calls on them.
It's not completely being shut out. It's just that she's
mixing in different viewpoints. And I think to the misnomer
that people might have too, is the conservative reporters thus
(15:42):
far are asking tough questions. You know, Sager and Jetty
who you speak the Daily Caller Now he's on his
own independent breaking points with Crystal Ball, former MSNBC host.
He asked about Thomas Massey when President Trump called for
Thomas Massey to be primaried a few weeks ago, and
you know, he pointed out all of these things. Thomas
(16:04):
Massey is in support of and locks up with the president,
but not on spent a spending bill. So why call
for him to be primary? You know, that's probably not
a question Carolyn Lovett wanted to be asked, but.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
He asked any softballs, Yeah, exactly, or Mary Margaret.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Last week, the Daily Wire asked about Hey, so the
Supreme Court draft.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Opinion, Dobb's opinion leak.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Is the Justice Department interested in this because there's still
no answer these many years later?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It's interesting.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Yeah, and so you know, liberal media, legacy media may
think this is a very niche issue or not, but
it's not. It matters to a huge.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Their voice is heard generally in that room. Yeah, Mary
Margaret's been on the show. She's fantastic, And yeah, I
love that she asked that what would you be doing
if it wasn't this, If there was, what would be
the plan be for Curtis?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Actually weather was is something that I that was my
two That was my other track that I was interested
in meteorology.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
I there's a picture.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Of sane job like Fox. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yeah, my mom has a picture of me in my
playpen watching the Weather Channel, the weather on the eighths
the nineties graphics. I mean, people can probably hear this
and they're see it in their heads like that just
just completely you know, it sucked me in and so
I always just again it's part of I guess curiosity
(17:35):
about the world around me and extreme weather, how nature
can do this or do that on a dime, is
just just fascinated me. Math has been a little hard
for me growing up, still is. But so that would
be a little difficult because I very quickly learned, you know,
(17:56):
involves chemistry and physics, and he got a new geometry
and all these things.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yeah, that's too much.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
I try to put that to the wayside a little
bit once I got deeper media in college.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, media it is.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Markowitch Show. What do you worry about?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Elf?
Speaker 4 (18:18):
I think always my greatest fear is being alone. You
know this, Carol, And this is something.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
That I I talk about.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
It still my pin thread on Twitter talking about my
battles with depression and suicide. And it's coming upon ten
years since that really first came up. I think that's
one of my greatest fears.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
I think I think we all want.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
To be accepted, and I don't necessarily always care what
people think about me, but just knowing that I have friends,
I've always been one of those people that just has
a lot of like acquaintance.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
I just know a lot of people.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
But in terms of like world yeah, but in terms
of like close close friends, you know, it's tight or die.
It's all That's always been a struggle for me over
the years. So that's something that.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
I think in the background my mind, it's always something
that I really really worry about.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Credit therapy, you know, the Lord, and a lot of
different circumstances God moments in my life over the years.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
But that is probably.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Something that you know, when I'm like having a really
bad day or really struggling, that's something that that that
hits me.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
That thread was so powerful. I think you gave voice
to what a lot of people feel and that comment
about you know, having close friends. It is an issue
that I feel like comes up on this show a lot.
I have people write into me a lot about how
to make friends or how to get closer to people.
It's tough, it's really tough, and it's it's getting tougher
with the phones and the fact that we're you know,
(19:49):
kind of a part. But it's so good that you
are aware of it and see it as a problem.
Whereas that I feel like I hear from a lot
of people who are like, I don't have close friends.
That's fine with me. It's good that you're like, you know, invested.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
In it, name it in putting your putting a finger
on it.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Yeah, And that's one of the things about COVID that
just continually aggravates me. The social isolation that created it
exacerbated it. It was already there, but it just made
that even worse. And it's just the epidemic of loneliness
in this country.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
That's right, And I just think where we have to
like identify it and do something about it, otherwise it
will obviously spiral. What advice would you give a sixteen
year old Curtis help.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
That it's going to borrow a Dana Perino book. It's
going to be okay book title, It's going to be okay.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
I in high school I struggled a lot with acceptance.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I was kind of a drama queen, drama lama of sorts.
And I think I worried too about friendship. That kind
of that point that I was just talking about that
really continued to grow and that it wasn't just that.
I realized it wasn't just me years later, so I
would tell myself, it's not just you that you're struggling,
(21:20):
or just because you're struggling to make friends at this
high school. You know, you go to the next high
school north of you, and you'll make lifelong friends.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Yeah, you know, I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Almost like how I met your mother's situation. My wife
was living her life. You know, we briefly. I ran
track for a few years. She was a D one athlete,
but we were at the same meets. I didn't even
know it, team football games. Our teams played each other.
She was there, I didn't even know it. So I
think I would tell myself that, yeah, that everything's going
to be okay, and that, like you're, the insecurities and
(21:56):
struggles that you see in yourself and others are valid,
and that your hard work.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Will pay off.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
It's because, as your band director tells you, and it
is true, someone is always watching you in the best
way possible.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Love that How did you and your wife meet?
Speaker 3 (22:16):
We met online? We met online through uh yeah, through
Hinge during COVID, And.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
All the people have successful stories in places like Hinge.
Because a lot of what I hear is not success.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah yeah, she's uh yeah, that's her friend made it
for her. I a few months earlier. I'd been on
doing that for years and years and years, all sorts
of struggles and you'll learn a lot about people.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
And by doing that for a while, yeah, like I did.
But that's that's how we met, and we have a
lot of the same friends. We learned.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Her parents know even more people, which is crazy. So
they're about twenty minutes apart from each other. So so yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
It's yeah, you definitely have how I met your mother situation.
Would love to like see how you guys actually, you know,
just walked by each other at the meets or you know,
saw each other at the football games, but didn't really
realize it at the time. Do you have mutual friends
or anything back in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Or yeah, we do?
Speaker 1 (23:20):
You do?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
I knew some of her friends at Penn I met
a friend of hers at Penn State. One of her
teammates from track went to Penn State, and yeah, it's
it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I knew a person from this thing.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
And that's just what makes you know, just life so
beautiful it is, and particularly our area I just think
is really special, Like stir is such a very special place.
It's a really good place to raise a family. Fortunately,
a lot of people from out of state have moved in,
so we kind of have that problem. Yeah, but like
(23:58):
they want to get rid of Maryland, New Jersey, New York,
we're fleeing higher taxes, but bringing our policies with that issue.
By and large, it's still amazing place, outstanding schools. No,
that's why all my family's still there and my brother's there.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
I love it. I'll have to visit. I don't think
I've ever been to Lancaster. It's is it homage country?
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Yes, that is homage country.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
But the misconception Carolly people have is that it's not
all farmland.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
There is a Leicester city.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
With you know, an art scene, a lot of restaurants,
and then Lyditts. Pennsylvania is famous, always comes up in
one of those best small town America blogs that people
bring up to.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
All Right, I had Selena Zito on the show, so
I also have a Pittsburgh trip in my future. But
I don't think those two are anywhere near each other.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Right, No, I was gonna say that I.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Feel like about as far away.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Like.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
The one thing Selena and I would have in common
is talking about the grind of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, you know,
just time on the pl she takes the back roads
so exactly it's the best reason to avoid it because
the company is just so much better.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
But yeah, it's uh wait.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, Well I've loved this conversation. I've loved getting to
know you a little bit and us here with your
best tip for my listeners on how they can improve
their lives.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah. I think.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Do something nice for someone, or reach out to someone
you haven't reached out to in a while. I think
that is just so important.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I try to do that.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
It's always something like I wish other people did for me,
Like to just hear from someone that you had to
hear phone in a while. I think it's just really powerful.
And do one nice thing for yourself every day, whether
it's you know, go to Barnes and Noble once a
month or something.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah, just touch her books, yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Yeah, Or go to Starbucks and get that seven dollar
drink once in a while. I think I've learned through
my mental health journey that coping mechanisms are just so invaluable.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
They are literally life saving.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Just so just do one nice thing for yourself, and
first for yourself and for someone else.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Love it. He is Curtis Holp. Check him out at NewsBusters.
He has such an amazing x feed. He really covers
so many different things. Thank you so much for coming on, Curtis,
Thanks Errol, thanks so much for joining us on the
Carol Marco which show. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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