February 17, 2025 • 26 mins
Beyoncé snagging the Country Music Album of the Year at the Grammys might sound like a joke, but it's a reality that sparked our deep dive into media manipulation and industry dynamics. How did the Grammy voting process transform from an honor system to one where commercial interests hold sway? With two decades of music and broadcasting experience, I pull back the curtain on what really happens behind the scenes. As we unravel this surprising turn of events, we also tackle the broader implications of media manipulation, including its surprising influence on small farm issues. Join us as we question the integrity of award processes and spotlight the critical need for awareness and critical thinking in a landscape swayed by hidden agendas.
Provoking, isn't it? Social media often amplifies our emotions and sometimes misleads us. Ever wondered how easily misinformation spreads or how Russian hacker farms might play a role? We'll explore these questions and emphasize personal responsibility when sharing information online. Our discussion doesn't stop there; we also focus on understanding and respecting differing viewpoints. How can you stand firm in your beliefs while remaining open to learning from others? We talk about balancing advocacy with openness to foster meaningful discourse, reinforcing the importance of fairness and compromise in today's divided media environment. Prepare to challenge your perspectives and discover new ways to engage responsibly with the world around you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Just Say hey Podcast where we talk about
the things that matter to smallfarms.
Today's kind of a funny one, andyou got to stick with me to see
how I tie this all back in.
But a couple weeks ago theGrammy Awards.
The association behind theGrammy Awards is the National
Academy of Recording Arts andSciences.
Anyway, the Grammy Association,the National Academy, awarded
(00:23):
Beyonce with the Country countrymusic album of the year.
And for those of you that don'tknow me very well, I I, for 20
plus years I worked in the music, entertainment, television,
broadcast news, uh, industries,and that movie.
(00:43):
I did a lot of different thingsbut I was an engineer, producer
, creative guy, technical.
I did a lot of different things, but I was an engineer,
producer, creative guy,technical guy did a lot of
computer stuff.
Anyway, one of my early honorswas being invited to become a
member of the National Academyof Recording Arts and Sciences
and I was a member.
I may still be a member, totell you the truth, I'm just I'm
not sure my wife pays the bills.
I don't know whether she stillpays the dues or not, but I was
(01:06):
a member of the National Academygoing back into geez, the early
1990s.
So you know, I've been a memberfor quite a while and when I
was originally invited it was agreat honor.
It may still be an honor to bea member.
I don't know, I haven't paidattention, don't really care
(01:27):
that much, but I think when yousee something like Beyonce
winning the country music albumof the year, you have to
question that decision a littlebit.
And that brings me into animportant topic that I think we
need to discuss.
We'll have a little bit of funwith the Beyonce thing, but we
got to discuss the manipulationthat happens in media and I
(01:51):
think you should stick aroundfor this, because this is a
really important topic.
So anyway, let's get into it.
Welcome to Just Say hey.
The podcast where we talk aboutwhat matters to small farms,
whether it's business, marketing, agronomy, equipment, livestock
.
If it matters to small farms,we'll probably talk about it
here.
So let's get into it.
So before I get on to, you know, talking about Beyonce winning
(02:14):
the Country Music Album of theYear, I will tell you that I
went in, downloaded and listenedto the entire album of
Beyonce's I think it's calledCowboy Carter and she.
Now, you know they talk aboutwell, willie Nelson's on there
and Post Malone and Dolly Partonand anyway, they talk about
(02:37):
this as a country album and I'velistened to the whole thing.
I can tell you that she has afantastic voice.
She is an incredibly talentedlady.
Never met her, never workedwith her.
The engineers and producers whoput that album together did a
for the genre that it is.
It did a wonderful job.
It ain't country, of course.
In my opinion, country musicshould be George Strait, dave
(02:59):
Stamey and, you know, maybe someWhiskey Miners kind of stuff.
But you know, it's just kind ofmy thinking.
When we talk about how a recordgets to be voted on by the
Academy, here's the way it usedto work when I was originally
invited to become a member, andI believe it's going back quite
(03:22):
a while, but I believe you hadto be invited by a member to
become a member and then you hadto have credit on I believe it
had to be the dust jacket of arecord registered with the
Library of Congress and I thinkthat's how it used to work.
I'm not 100% sure, but I thinkthat's how it used to work.
So my qualifying record was nota very popular one, it was just
(03:46):
a little jazz record and I wasa mastering engineer on that.
So that was my qualificationsto get in.
I and you would kind of pickwhat categories and it was all
(04:08):
on the honor system.
You sort of determined whatcategories you had expertise in,
where you had work experience,where you had creative
experience, knowledge, thingslike that, and you know you
would vote on those things thatyou knew about.
So when the ballot would comeout, it used to be in two stages
(04:29):
.
It would be that you wouldnominate in a category, in
categories where you dosomething about, and then it
would come back and you wouldhave the final nominations and
then you would vote on thosefinal nominations.
So you know, at the end youknow I forget when it was, but
(04:51):
you would I would say it waslike October, november you would
get your final nominations foralbum of the year.
Maybe it might be January, Idon't remember but you'd get
your nominations and you wouldvote on those top picks, so the
top five, and you would vote onthose.
Well, because you had someindustry expertise, it sort of
(05:15):
was a level playing field-ish,not perfect, but it was good
enough.
And I mean every industry hasawards like this.
I mean, whether you're a doctoror you like concrete.
Every industry has awards likethis.
I mean, whether you're a doctoror you lay concrete or you, you
know you do.
There are industry tradeorganizations that get out
awards.
It's fun to do, I guess, butthe Grammys you would.
(05:35):
You would vote in yourcategories because you had
industry expertise, you were anengineer or producer or a
musician, and you know I did alot of that stuff, so we would
vote.
Well, what changed?
And I don't know whether themembership requirements changed
or record companies just figuredit out.
But if you go back intoremember I said your name has to
(05:57):
be on the dust jacket and forthose of you that aren't old
enough to remember a dust jacket, shame on you.
When you open up the cover of aCD or a record album and look
on the back, you would see allthe names of the people who
produced or engineered or playedon the record.
But all of a sudden you hadthis shift because companies
(06:18):
figured out that a Grammy Awardequaled X percentage of a bump
in sales of that record.
So what can we do to giveourselves a better shot of
winning a Grammy?
So they started including morepeople's names on the dust
jacket.
So if you go back to the late1970s and look at the people
(06:40):
listed on the dust jacket of arecord whether it's the actual
big album artwork with all thenames on the back or you go look
on the inside cover when youused to buy physical CDs.
You open it up and you look atall the names on there.
Record companies figured outthat if somebody's name was on
the dust jacket they could passand become a member when they
(07:03):
had accountants and caterers andall kinds of things all of a
sudden being included on thedust jacket.
And I'm sure for the Academy,you know that's a lot more
members, people that work for arecord company and they have
their name on the dust jacket.
(07:24):
Well, that's votes, becauseyou're going to vote for your
project.
In a perfect world, you don't.
And I get we're not in aperfect world, so you get, these
people are going to vote fortheir project.
What does an accountant careabout?
The artistic integrity of anaward?
They want to see the artistthat they worked with.
If they were the accountant onthat project, they wouldn't see
(07:45):
that album win because it makesthem more money.
So you know you had this changein how the awards were being
voted on through a loophole andyou know I was lucky enough.
I worked on severalGrammy-nominated projects, many
(08:08):
of them, multiples of them, andyou know it was cool the
projects that won.
I was never nominatedpersonally for one, I was never
that big in the industry, but Iworked on projects that were.
I think that in today's world,it's important for us to
understand when we're beingmanipulated, and I think, as
(08:54):
small farmers yeah, this byeverything that's going to be
going on in the federalgovernment and the number of
people and reduced budget Ithink it's important for us to
have an understanding and have away to look up whether we're
being manipulated.
And I think this is reallyimportant and you know, I'll
(09:19):
sort of look at it this way,this way.
So when they go to change theUSDA, as small farmers we need
to really really pay attentionto that.
And first let me say there area heck of a lot more small
farmers like me, like maybe,like you than there are big
farmers.
Yet I think if you look at theway the USDA gives out money to
(09:45):
farmers, when the USDA looks atprograms, they look at big farms
first, fair or not?
That's the way I think ithappens.
So you know we need tounderstand this, and I say this
because I think it's not onlyimportant excuse me it's not
(10:06):
only important from us asfarmers looking at our industry,
but it's also important for usas people when we start seeing,
because the USDA is going tocome under fire.
I think you know, like wetalked about before, the SNAP
(10:26):
the Supplemental NutritionAssistance Program takes up a
huge portion of agriculturalspending and this SNAP program
is everything from schoollunches to what used to be
called the food stamp program.
But when it comes down to thethings that actually impact
farmers, I think you're going tosee some shakeup and we need to
(10:48):
know what's real and what's not.
And I think one of the bestthings that we can do to prepare
ourselves is understand whenwe're getting manipulated, when
we're being played.
When you see a social mediapost, for example and this
really came to mind because Ihave an old friend of mine.
(11:08):
She an absolutely sweetheart,she's a good person, great heart
she has been sharing someabsolutely kooky stuff without
looking to see whether it'sfactual or not, and I will tell
you that, no matter who you are,there are people who look up to
(11:30):
you, who respect you, whorespect your opinion on things,
and when you share a post thatis not true or a post that maybe
slants the facts and positionsit in a bad way, I think you are
(11:54):
doing the people that trust,respect and look up to you a
great disservice, and so Iencourage you to understand when
we're getting played.
Now, I'm guilty of this too.
I don't think I'm guilty ofsharing stuff that's untrue or
anything like that, because Itake this stuff seriously.
I take that very seriously.
(12:15):
If you're on social mediawhether it's TikTok or Facebook
or Instagram or whatever and yousee something that really hits
you emotionally hard it reallyjust gets at the core of who you
are that is probably the timeto stop.
Take an extra minute, 60seconds back up, do a quick bit
(12:43):
of research, look up is thistrue, is this false?
Social media algorithms and Idon't want to get too technical
in this, but they reward poststhat drive emotional responses
Social media posts that driveemotional responses, that drive
you to click and share, andstuff like that get rewarded by
(13:06):
the social media algorithms meanthey get shown more.
So when you see something thatreally hits you emotionally and
you react by sharing by you know, liking, commenting, whatever
it is.
However it is, you choose tointeract.
Those get rewarded, get shownto more people because it shows
that number that they canmeasure, and when you do that to
(13:27):
something that is not true orbiased in some way, it gets
rewarded and you are doing thepeople that look up to you a
real disservice.
It really gets to be a badthing.
That's why the Russian hackersand the Russian social
(13:48):
influencers they call themhacker farms.
They're doing what's calledsocial engineering and I think
that we as people have aresponsibility to take an extra
minute on those things that hitus emotionally hard, take an
(14:12):
extra minute to see whetherthat's real or not, whether
that's an important thing, andif it is and it's true and
you've done a little bit ofresearch, then yeah, share it
because it's important.
But you need to verify.
(14:34):
There's too much misinformationand we are bombarded with so
much information that it's hardto know what's real, what's not,
what's being slanted.
And I'll give you a couple ofplaces that I look for this
stuff because I think it'simportant to understand when
(14:56):
you're dealing with whatevernews outlet it is you watch,
whether you watch Fox or youwatch CNN or you watch whatever
it is whatever news organizationor outlet you aligns with your
viewpoints.
If you listen to the show, I'ma fairly conservative guy, but I
think we need to figure outways.
(15:18):
The thing that makes Americagreat is because we don't
penalize minorities.
We try to be fair.
Everybody has some basic andA-level rights as citizens of
this country.
The challenge we have is how dowe do the most good for the
(15:39):
most amount of people withouttrampling on or being dismissive
to minority viewpoints?
This is always a balancing act.
It's always a balancing act andthe thing that I think we need
to guard against is when weallow the viewpoints of a
(16:04):
minority to become the rules, tothe detriment of the most
people.
I think that's when we get intosome sticky or scary situations
.
And again, we have to do themost good for the most amount of
people while not trampling onthe rights, freedoms, privileges
(16:24):
of the minority.
And that minority could be race, could be sexual orientation,
could be political viewpoints,could be jobs, could be any
viewpoint you have that's not inthe majority is a minority
viewpoint.
I mean, that's just thedefinition of it, the definition
(16:48):
of it.
So it's kind of a toughbalancing act and what I think
is happening and this isimportant to me because I see it
happening a lot right now.
We are the media.
We, because we serve socialmedia, we see these things and
(17:09):
we watch them and they getrewarded because we're engaging
with them.
We are rewarding both sides ofthe extreme and what we need to
do is understand that everything, there is compromise, in almost
everything.
There are two sides to almostevery story.
In almost everything.
(17:29):
There are two sides to almostevery story and you need to sit
down and when something hits youemotionally, when it just
really tugs at you or reallyjust gets you mad, that's
probably a great time to stepback and say, okay, what is the
other side of this story?
Now, I'm not saying you have toagree with it.
(17:50):
I'm not trying to change youropinion by doing that.
You're going to clarify yourown opinions on it.
You're going to clarify yourown opinions on what are your
viewpoints on any given topic,especially controversial ones.
Viewpoints on any given topic,especially controversial ones.
You know, if you're going to be, if you're going to stand up
(18:12):
for something, you shouldunderstand both sides, because
it clarifies our own viewpointson things and I think we have
that responsibility in today'sworld, where it's so easy for
misinformation to be rewarded,right, and I'll step back for a
second and say that I know Istarted this whole thing off
(18:36):
with Beyonce and she's acrossover artist and it was a
judgment call by the people whovoted.
Maybe they stacked the deck,maybe they didn't, but we, you
know, because I said I was amember, I used to vote on the
Grammys I understand how thatworks and I understand how the
system can be played and I willsay, you know, that record isn't
(18:56):
, in my opinion, in the countryeither, but it is what it is.
She won the award.
I think we just need tounderstand how that happens and
a little more transparency inthings.
What was it our grandparentsused to tell us?
The best disinfectant issunlight.
I think that responsibilitythat we have in understanding
(19:22):
how we're being manipulated,understanding it, is important.
And I'll kind of say this as wekind of start to tie this all
together there are going to bebe coming up in the weeks,
months, whenever that becomes apriority the USDA.
I think you'll start seeingthat after you start seeing some
(19:43):
of the major like HHS secretary, I don't think you'll see USDA
touched until that confirmationand by the time this podcast is
released.
That confirmation may havealready happened, but I think
that will be one that kind oftriggers some deeper looks into
(20:06):
this kind of stuff.
But we need to as citizens, asfarmers, we need to be
understanding how media tries tomake its point.
And I'll tell you, you know, inmy experience in that business
there's not now, maybe at thehigh levels there is a media
(20:29):
bias.
I know, you know CNN.
I used to do some work forTurner's companies back 100
years ago and I know Ted, Idon't know Ted.
If you look at Ted and Jane,they have political ideologies
(20:50):
and Ted Turner started CNN.
So I think that has swayed tomeet their political ideology.
But news organizations havedemographics because that's how
they make money.
They say do slant things toreward demographics.
If you are a left-leaning youngadult 25 to 54, young adult to
(21:19):
middle-aged adult that'sprobably their demo and probably
targeting it down there.
Probably women 25 to 54 isprobably their demo,
left-leaning women 25 to54,whereas Fox is probably
right-leaning women 2554.
That's probably their primedemo.
News outlets reward demos andthey want to do and say the
(21:41):
things that are going toencourage their demo to watch
more.
But whatever side you're on, ifyou watch CNN, stop for a
little bit, go watch Fox.
You're on.
If you watch CNN, stop for alittle bit, go watch Fox.
Or, better yet, find a newsoutlet that is balanced, that
truly is, and I'll tell you theone I look at, because I think
(22:03):
they do a really good job.
I've never worked for them,don't know much about them,
other than that they rankstories based on bias and part
of their reporting when you lookat their reports, part of their
reporting is aboutunderstanding bias in the news,
(22:25):
and I think this is really,really important.
There's an organization GroundGround News, I think is their
name.
I'll put a link in thedescription.
Check them out.
They basically take stories.
They don't report news.
What they do is they takestories and they have an
independent panel of some sortwhere they rank news outlets
(22:47):
Wall Street Journal, new YorkTimes, new York Post, you know
CNN, fox, msnbc, nbc, all ofthem and they rank their stories
based on.
They rank the networks andoutlets themselves by their
political bias for one side orthe other, and they basically
(23:12):
have a website.
They also have an app, but theyhave a website that when you
look at any given story, they'llshow you which news outlets are
covering it, because it's justas important to understand.
You know, when a news outletcovers something where their
slant is for their demo, butit's also important to
(23:35):
understand what they're notcovering.
What they're not covering isjust as telling as what they do
cover.
So that's one ground.
The other one that I wouldsuggest is and again, I'm not
getting paid by these guys, Idon't know them, I don't have
any affiliation, nothing withthem.
I like their coverage becausepart of their coverage they give
(23:56):
the news story to talk about it.
But what they also report on iswhat outlets are covering and
not covering it to uncover.
So we can uncover bias incertain stories.
And I think that's really,really important for us as we
start to get news on things thatimpact our business and our
(24:19):
lives.
And remember and I'll just kindof close this up here for a
minute and just say don't be asucker, don't share or agree
with something just because yousaw it once.
Take the time, be responsibleand understand both sides.
(24:40):
Understand, not agree with, butunderstand both sides of an
argument.
It will help you clarify yourown viewpoints.
And when you discuss withpeople, the first thing to do,
in my humble opinion, is listenwhen somebody confronts you with
(25:01):
something that you disagreewith, understand why, before you
just respond.
It's easy to pick a side and sayyou know they're wrong or
they're stupid.
It's easy to pick that side andyou'll find plenty of people to
stand beside you saying it.
The hard thing to do, thedifficult thing, but the
(25:23):
responsible thing to do, is picka side but understand what
things that you stand for.
And to understand that, youhave to understand the
opposition, what other peoplethink, what other people say.
So the first part is importantListen, learn and then, when you
(25:48):
speak, say things you reallybelieve in.
Don't just share stuff becauseit pokes at one side or the
other.
It can be fun and but you'redoing your, the people that
trust you, the people that lookup to you and there are people
that look up to almost everybodywhen you say things.
(26:10):
When you share something thatmay not be factually completely
right, or you share somethingthat may not be factually
completely right, or you sharesomething that may have a slant.
One way or the other, you'redoing those people that look up
to you a disservice andultimately, you are reducing the
efficacy of what you stand for.
With that, have a great day,good luck, god bless.
Welcome to Just Say hey Podcast where we talk about
the things that matter to smallfarms.
Today's kind of a funny one, andyou got to stick with me to see
how I tie this all back in.
But a couple weeks ago theGrammy Awards.
The association behind theGrammy Awards is the National
Academy of Recording Arts andSciences.
Anyway, the Grammy Association,the National Academy, awarded
(00:23):
Beyonce with the Country countrymusic album of the year.
And for those of you that don'tknow me very well, I I, for 20
plus years I worked in the music, entertainment, television,
broadcast news, uh, industries,and that movie.
(00:43):
I did a lot of different thingsbut I was an engineer, producer
, creative guy, technical.
I did a lot of different things, but I was an engineer,
producer, creative guy,technical guy did a lot of
computer stuff.
Anyway, one of my early honorswas being invited to become a
member of the National Academyof Recording Arts and Sciences
and I was a member.
I may still be a member, totell you the truth, I'm just I'm
not sure my wife pays the bills.
I don't know whether she stillpays the dues or not, but I was
(01:06):
a member of the National Academygoing back into geez, the early
1990s.
So you know, I've been a memberfor quite a while and when I
was originally invited it was agreat honor.
It may still be an honor to bea member.
I don't know, I haven't paidattention, don't really care
(01:27):
that much, but I think when yousee something like Beyonce
winning the country music albumof the year, you have to
question that decision a littlebit.
And that brings me into animportant topic that I think we
need to discuss.
We'll have a little bit of funwith the Beyonce thing, but we
got to discuss the manipulationthat happens in media and I
(01:51):
think you should stick aroundfor this, because this is a
really important topic.
So anyway, let's get into it.
Welcome to Just Say hey.
The podcast where we talk aboutwhat matters to small farms,
whether it's business, marketing, agronomy, equipment, livestock
.
If it matters to small farms,we'll probably talk about it
here.
So let's get into it.
So before I get on to, you know, talking about Beyonce winning
(02:14):
the Country Music Album of theYear, I will tell you that I
went in, downloaded and listenedto the entire album of
Beyonce's I think it's calledCowboy Carter and she.
Now, you know they talk aboutwell, willie Nelson's on there
and Post Malone and Dolly Partonand anyway, they talk about
(02:37):
this as a country album and I'velistened to the whole thing.
I can tell you that she has afantastic voice.
She is an incredibly talentedlady.
Never met her, never workedwith her.
The engineers and producers whoput that album together did a
for the genre that it is.
It did a wonderful job.
It ain't country, of course.
In my opinion, country musicshould be George Strait, dave
(02:59):
Stamey and, you know, maybe someWhiskey Miners kind of stuff.
But you know, it's just kind ofmy thinking.
When we talk about how a recordgets to be voted on by the
Academy, here's the way it usedto work when I was originally
invited to become a member, andI believe it's going back quite
(03:22):
a while, but I believe you hadto be invited by a member to
become a member and then you hadto have credit on I believe it
had to be the dust jacket of arecord registered with the
Library of Congress and I thinkthat's how it used to work.
I'm not 100% sure, but I thinkthat's how it used to work.
So my qualifying record was nota very popular one, it was just
(03:46):
a little jazz record and I wasa mastering engineer on that.
So that was my qualificationsto get in.
I and you would kind of pickwhat categories and it was all
(04:08):
on the honor system.
You sort of determined whatcategories you had expertise in,
where you had work experience,where you had creative
experience, knowledge, thingslike that, and you know you
would vote on those things thatyou knew about.
So when the ballot would comeout, it used to be in two stages
(04:29):
.
It would be that you wouldnominate in a category, in
categories where you dosomething about, and then it
would come back and you wouldhave the final nominations and
then you would vote on thosefinal nominations.
So you know, at the end youknow I forget when it was, but
(04:51):
you would I would say it waslike October, november you would
get your final nominations foralbum of the year.
Maybe it might be January, Idon't remember but you'd get
your nominations and you wouldvote on those top picks, so the
top five, and you would vote onthose.
Well, because you had someindustry expertise, it sort of
(05:15):
was a level playing field-ish,not perfect, but it was good
enough.
And I mean every industry hasawards like this.
I mean, whether you're a doctoror you like concrete.
Every industry has awards likethis.
I mean, whether you're a doctoror you lay concrete or you, you
know you do.
There are industry tradeorganizations that get out
awards.
It's fun to do, I guess, butthe Grammys you would.
(05:35):
You would vote in yourcategories because you had
industry expertise, you were anengineer or producer or a
musician, and you know I did alot of that stuff, so we would
vote.
Well, what changed?
And I don't know whether themembership requirements changed
or record companies just figuredit out.
But if you go back intoremember I said your name has to
(05:57):
be on the dust jacket and forthose of you that aren't old
enough to remember a dust jacket, shame on you.
When you open up the cover of aCD or a record album and look
on the back, you would see allthe names of the people who
produced or engineered or playedon the record.
But all of a sudden you hadthis shift because companies
(06:18):
figured out that a Grammy Awardequaled X percentage of a bump
in sales of that record.
So what can we do to giveourselves a better shot of
winning a Grammy?
So they started including morepeople's names on the dust
jacket.
So if you go back to the late1970s and look at the people
(06:40):
listed on the dust jacket of arecord whether it's the actual
big album artwork with all thenames on the back or you go look
on the inside cover when youused to buy physical CDs.
You open it up and you look atall the names on there.
Record companies figured outthat if somebody's name was on
the dust jacket they could passand become a member when they
(07:03):
had accountants and caterers andall kinds of things all of a
sudden being included on thedust jacket.
And I'm sure for the Academy,you know that's a lot more
members, people that work for arecord company and they have
their name on the dust jacket.
(07:24):
Well, that's votes, becauseyou're going to vote for your
project.
In a perfect world, you don't.
And I get we're not in aperfect world, so you get, these
people are going to vote fortheir project.
What does an accountant careabout?
The artistic integrity of anaward?
They want to see the artistthat they worked with.
If they were the accountant onthat project, they wouldn't see
(07:45):
that album win because it makesthem more money.
So you know you had this changein how the awards were being
voted on through a loophole andyou know I was lucky enough.
I worked on severalGrammy-nominated projects, many
(08:08):
of them, multiples of them, andyou know it was cool the
projects that won.
I was never nominatedpersonally for one, I was never
that big in the industry, but Iworked on projects that were.
I think that in today's world,it's important for us to
understand when we're beingmanipulated, and I think, as
(08:54):
small farmers yeah, this byeverything that's going to be
going on in the federalgovernment and the number of
people and reduced budget Ithink it's important for us to
have an understanding and have away to look up whether we're
being manipulated.
And I think this is reallyimportant and you know, I'll
(09:19):
sort of look at it this way,this way.
So when they go to change theUSDA, as small farmers we need
to really really pay attentionto that.
And first let me say there area heck of a lot more small
farmers like me, like maybe,like you than there are big
farmers.
Yet I think if you look at theway the USDA gives out money to
(09:45):
farmers, when the USDA looks atprograms, they look at big farms
first, fair or not?
That's the way I think ithappens.
So you know we need tounderstand this, and I say this
because I think it's not onlyimportant excuse me it's not
(10:06):
only important from us asfarmers looking at our industry,
but it's also important for usas people when we start seeing,
because the USDA is going tocome under fire.
I think you know, like wetalked about before, the SNAP
(10:26):
the Supplemental NutritionAssistance Program takes up a
huge portion of agriculturalspending and this SNAP program
is everything from schoollunches to what used to be
called the food stamp program.
But when it comes down to thethings that actually impact
farmers, I think you're going tosee some shakeup and we need to
(10:48):
know what's real and what's not.
And I think one of the bestthings that we can do to prepare
ourselves is understand whenwe're getting manipulated, when
we're being played.
When you see a social mediapost, for example and this
really came to mind because Ihave an old friend of mine.
(11:08):
She an absolutely sweetheart,she's a good person, great heart
she has been sharing someabsolutely kooky stuff without
looking to see whether it'sfactual or not, and I will tell
you that, no matter who you are,there are people who look up to
(11:30):
you, who respect you, whorespect your opinion on things,
and when you share a post thatis not true or a post that maybe
slants the facts and positionsit in a bad way, I think you are
(11:54):
doing the people that trust,respect and look up to you a
great disservice, and so Iencourage you to understand when
we're getting played.
Now, I'm guilty of this too.
I don't think I'm guilty ofsharing stuff that's untrue or
anything like that, because Itake this stuff seriously.
I take that very seriously.
(12:15):
If you're on social mediawhether it's TikTok or Facebook
or Instagram or whatever and yousee something that really hits
you emotionally hard it reallyjust gets at the core of who you
are that is probably the timeto stop.
Take an extra minute, 60seconds back up, do a quick bit
(12:43):
of research, look up is thistrue, is this false?
Social media algorithms and Idon't want to get too technical
in this, but they reward poststhat drive emotional responses
Social media posts that driveemotional responses, that drive
you to click and share, andstuff like that get rewarded by
(13:06):
the social media algorithms meanthey get shown more.
So when you see something thatreally hits you emotionally and
you react by sharing by you know, liking, commenting, whatever
it is.
However it is, you choose tointeract.
Those get rewarded, get shownto more people because it shows
that number that they canmeasure, and when you do that to
(13:27):
something that is not true orbiased in some way, it gets
rewarded and you are doing thepeople that look up to you a
real disservice.
It really gets to be a badthing.
That's why the Russian hackersand the Russian social
(13:48):
influencers they call themhacker farms.
They're doing what's calledsocial engineering and I think
that we as people have aresponsibility to take an extra
minute on those things that hitus emotionally hard, take an
(14:12):
extra minute to see whetherthat's real or not, whether
that's an important thing, andif it is and it's true and
you've done a little bit ofresearch, then yeah, share it
because it's important.
But you need to verify.
(14:34):
There's too much misinformationand we are bombarded with so
much information that it's hardto know what's real, what's not,
what's being slanted.
And I'll give you a couple ofplaces that I look for this
stuff because I think it'simportant to understand when
(14:56):
you're dealing with whatevernews outlet it is you watch,
whether you watch Fox or youwatch CNN or you watch whatever
it is whatever news organizationor outlet you aligns with your
viewpoints.
If you listen to the show, I'ma fairly conservative guy, but I
think we need to figure outways.
(15:18):
The thing that makes Americagreat is because we don't
penalize minorities.
We try to be fair.
Everybody has some basic andA-level rights as citizens of
this country.
The challenge we have is how dowe do the most good for the
(15:39):
most amount of people withouttrampling on or being dismissive
to minority viewpoints?
This is always a balancing act.
It's always a balancing act andthe thing that I think we need
to guard against is when weallow the viewpoints of a
(16:04):
minority to become the rules, tothe detriment of the most
people.
I think that's when we get intosome sticky or scary situations
.
And again, we have to do themost good for the most amount of
people while not trampling onthe rights, freedoms, privileges
(16:24):
of the minority.
And that minority could be race, could be sexual orientation,
could be political viewpoints,could be jobs, could be any
viewpoint you have that's not inthe majority is a minority
viewpoint.
I mean, that's just thedefinition of it, the definition
(16:48):
of it.
So it's kind of a toughbalancing act and what I think
is happening and this isimportant to me because I see it
happening a lot right now.
We are the media.
We, because we serve socialmedia, we see these things and
(17:09):
we watch them and they getrewarded because we're engaging
with them.
We are rewarding both sides ofthe extreme and what we need to
do is understand that everything, there is compromise, in almost
everything.
There are two sides to almostevery story.
In almost everything.
(17:29):
There are two sides to almostevery story and you need to sit
down and when something hits youemotionally, when it just
really tugs at you or reallyjust gets you mad, that's
probably a great time to stepback and say, okay, what is the
other side of this story?
Now, I'm not saying you have toagree with it.
(17:50):
I'm not trying to change youropinion by doing that.
You're going to clarify yourown opinions on it.
You're going to clarify yourown opinions on what are your
viewpoints on any given topic,especially controversial ones.
Viewpoints on any given topic,especially controversial ones.
You know, if you're going to be, if you're going to stand up
(18:12):
for something, you shouldunderstand both sides, because
it clarifies our own viewpointson things and I think we have
that responsibility in today'sworld, where it's so easy for
misinformation to be rewarded,right, and I'll step back for a
second and say that I know Istarted this whole thing off
(18:36):
with Beyonce and she's acrossover artist and it was a
judgment call by the people whovoted.
Maybe they stacked the deck,maybe they didn't, but we, you
know, because I said I was amember, I used to vote on the
Grammys I understand how thatworks and I understand how the
system can be played and I willsay, you know, that record isn't
(18:56):
, in my opinion, in the countryeither, but it is what it is.
She won the award.
I think we just need tounderstand how that happens and
a little more transparency inthings.
What was it our grandparentsused to tell us?
The best disinfectant issunlight.
I think that responsibilitythat we have in understanding
(19:22):
how we're being manipulated,understanding it, is important.
And I'll kind of say this as wekind of start to tie this all
together there are going to bebe coming up in the weeks,
months, whenever that becomes apriority the USDA.
I think you'll start seeingthat after you start seeing some
(19:43):
of the major like HHS secretary, I don't think you'll see USDA
touched until that confirmationand by the time this podcast is
released.
That confirmation may havealready happened, but I think
that will be one that kind oftriggers some deeper looks into
(20:06):
this kind of stuff.
But we need to as citizens, asfarmers, we need to be
understanding how media tries tomake its point.
And I'll tell you, you know, inmy experience in that business
there's not now, maybe at thehigh levels there is a media
(20:29):
bias.
I know, you know CNN.
I used to do some work forTurner's companies back 100
years ago and I know Ted, Idon't know Ted.
If you look at Ted and Jane,they have political ideologies
(20:50):
and Ted Turner started CNN.
So I think that has swayed tomeet their political ideology.
But news organizations havedemographics because that's how
they make money.
They say do slant things toreward demographics.
If you are a left-leaning youngadult 25 to 54, young adult to
(21:19):
middle-aged adult that'sprobably their demo and probably
targeting it down there.
Probably women 25 to 54 isprobably their demo,
left-leaning women 25 to54,whereas Fox is probably
right-leaning women 2554.
That's probably their primedemo.
News outlets reward demos andthey want to do and say the
(21:41):
things that are going toencourage their demo to watch
more.
But whatever side you're on, ifyou watch CNN, stop for a
little bit, go watch Fox.
You're on.
If you watch CNN, stop for alittle bit, go watch Fox.
Or, better yet, find a newsoutlet that is balanced, that
truly is, and I'll tell you theone I look at, because I think
(22:03):
they do a really good job.
I've never worked for them,don't know much about them,
other than that they rankstories based on bias and part
of their reporting when you lookat their reports, part of their
reporting is aboutunderstanding bias in the news,
(22:25):
and I think this is really,really important.
There's an organization GroundGround News, I think is their
name.
I'll put a link in thedescription.
Check them out.
They basically take stories.
They don't report news.
What they do is they takestories and they have an
independent panel of some sortwhere they rank news outlets
(22:47):
Wall Street Journal, new YorkTimes, new York Post, you know
CNN, fox, msnbc, nbc, all ofthem and they rank their stories
based on.
They rank the networks andoutlets themselves by their
political bias for one side orthe other, and they basically
(23:12):
have a website.
They also have an app, but theyhave a website that when you
look at any given story, they'llshow you which news outlets are
covering it, because it's justas important to understand.
You know, when a news outletcovers something where their
slant is for their demo, butit's also important to
(23:35):
understand what they're notcovering.
What they're not covering isjust as telling as what they do
cover.
So that's one ground.
The other one that I wouldsuggest is and again, I'm not
getting paid by these guys, Idon't know them, I don't have
any affiliation, nothing withthem.
I like their coverage becausepart of their coverage they give
(23:56):
the news story to talk about it.
But what they also report on iswhat outlets are covering and
not covering it to uncover.
So we can uncover bias incertain stories.
And I think that's really,really important for us as we
start to get news on things thatimpact our business and our
(24:19):
lives.
And remember and I'll just kindof close this up here for a
minute and just say don't be asucker, don't share or agree
with something just because yousaw it once.
Take the time, be responsibleand understand both sides.
(24:40):
Understand, not agree with, butunderstand both sides of an
argument.
It will help you clarify yourown viewpoints.
And when you discuss withpeople, the first thing to do,
in my humble opinion, is listenwhen somebody confronts you with
(25:01):
something that you disagreewith, understand why, before you
just respond.
It's easy to pick a side and sayyou know they're wrong or
they're stupid.
It's easy to pick that side andyou'll find plenty of people to
stand beside you saying it.
The hard thing to do, thedifficult thing, but the
(25:23):
responsible thing to do, is picka side but understand what
things that you stand for.
And to understand that, youhave to understand the
opposition, what other peoplethink, what other people say.
So the first part is importantListen, learn and then, when you
(25:48):
speak, say things you reallybelieve in.
Don't just share stuff becauseit pokes at one side or the
other.
It can be fun and but you'redoing your, the people that
trust you, the people that lookup to you and there are people
that look up to almost everybodywhen you say things.
(26:10):
When you share something thatmay not be factually completely
right, or you share somethingthat may not be factually
completely right, or you sharesomething that may have a slant.
One way or the other, you'redoing those people that look up
to you a disservice andultimately, you are reducing the
efficacy of what you stand for.
With that, have a great day,good luck, god bless.
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