September 17, 2025 • 21 mins
René and Shawn look into the changes in local news, how we consume the news, and what we think will be the future.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to another curveball production back at Studio B for
Barka and we are excited because well not excited. We
had a tough day today because we went to our
last Twins game.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yes, our last Twins game, not the last game for
the Twins, however, given that they sold off half the team,
because that's what it's felt like.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
But did for to day. That was your second game
in twenty four hours.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Indeed, I was fortunate enough to finally go good on
Dad's birthday present from February. We finally found a weekend
that was going to work and no one was going
to be at the cabin and we had a lovely time.
It was cooler last night today, in spite of it
being mid to late September, it was warm and soupy.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
But we were kind of ready for that because Renee
and I like to, because we're old, watch the local
news in the morning and specifically the weather.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
My mom thinks we say that we're old too much. Oh,
we're not old. We're not going to give it up,
she says, Okay, let it go fair enough.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well we're not going to because it's but we Yeah,
So what we like to do is is in the morning,
turn on the TV when we're at Renee. She's actually
got an old fashioned antenna and we can't get the
local we catch we catch the local news straight out
the sky like it was meant to be.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
We do and then my brother will vouch for this.
Oh boy, we could really have some trouble going forward.
But he was like, really, I mean, the antenna is
good enough for you. And I'm like, well, I have Netflix.
And he's like, doesn't it bother you that you don't
get all these other channels? And I said, well, one,
I don't really watch any of the other channels, but
they're on my TV. And he's like, what do you mean.
(01:58):
I'm like, well, Sean has all those channel at my house, right,
but true story, I don't really watch them unless we
happen to be watching a show together, which is anyway,
That's not what this podcast is about.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Back to the local news.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
It's the it's the allergy medicine, right.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
But what we what we had a conversation about amongst
ourselves was just where local news is at and you know,
how is it is it still being consumed?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Is so relevant?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Right? You know?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I mean I think in true story in the purest
of fashion. I happened to be scrolling on my phone
and saw a little shake up in our local news media, which,
as most of you know, we're in the Minneapolis Saint
Paul market, and I noticed that with our television stations
(02:51):
there was quite a bit of shake up. They let
a meteorologist go, and that's really the rabbit hole that
started this, right and then come to find out that
that is the NBC station. The CBS station announced that
they were going down to a sole anchor for their
five and ten pm broadcast, which was kind of big
news because a married couple has co anchored that broadcast
(03:14):
for many, many years, and they're moving the wife to
the four o'clock where they're going to do a full
hour news broadcast with in depth interviews and things like that.
But the husband, Frank VASSLERO, he's going to anchor the
five and ten o'clock news all by himself. And this
is definitely a cost saving measure. And it just started,
(03:35):
like you said, it got us thinking, what is going on.
What's the relevance of local news media. There's certainly a
lot in the news lately, so how are people consuming
it and are they like you and I and that
a lot of news is consumed on our on our
digital devices.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, I mean, and like I said, we'll watch the
local news in the morning for a little bit, but
through rest, throughout the rest of the day, we're on
our phones and capturing it, not necessarily from services like
your TikTok, your YouTube whatnot, at least not for me.
I'll go out to CNN dot com, Foxnews dot com,
(04:11):
Start Tribune dot com and capture the news that.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Way, which is great, but that's a national or international
news cycle you're usually grabbing. When you go out to
those websites. You're not getting the local news that you
typically would get from your local media providers. So it's like, okay,
how do and you and I talk about this quite
a bit. You know, a house will be on fire,
and I mean, this is a good sized market, and
(04:37):
it'll be like, really, they're at a home fire, Like,
how is that news? I mean not to say that
it isn't tragic for the family that's living there, but
that isn't the type of news. But people are, you know,
whether we like it or not. Social media influences a
lot a lot of people get their news and our
listeners can't see this because we're not on YouTube yet right,
but our news.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Is coming with your fingers, the quotes.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
You have to finger quotes that you know, they're getting
their news from Facebook or places like that, which really
isn't so much news as information. And as we've learned
and we know, I mean, the media is what does
the investigative reporting. So there's a huge trust factor with
your local news. But it's hard for them to stay
(05:22):
afloat because advertising revenue is getting dispersed to so many
other media outlets and internet outlets that you know, at
a certain point you have to have enough money to
pay your staff to do the reporting, and you need
enough viewers or you know, in terms of like radio,
you know, talk radio, things like that, you need people listening.
So it is an interesting thing. Another thing that happened
(05:44):
in our market here this past week was the Star
Tribune announced that they were moving their print facility. The
Star Tribune is a local rag. I don't know how
old it is, but it's you know, old newspaper and
they are, you know, basically one hundred and twenty five
people lost their jobs. They're still going to exist, but
(06:05):
the printing of the paper is going to be done
in Des Moines, Iowa. Right, So how does that impact
our local news? Well, for starters, their deadlines have to
be moved up because they have to get the paper
back up to the Twin Cities area, which is what
the morning is about five hours maybe.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
So we have to so everything has to be moved
up from a deadline perspective, which means that anything that
happens like after like eight nine o'clock at night, right,
it is not going to be reported.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I mean people in the rural parts of Minnesota typically
got the early edition anyway, which didn't have you know,
late breaking news. But this is a whole new world
and we were like, wow, well and.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
You brought up you know how the one channel is,
you know, setting things up different for like four o'clock
and then they'll still have the six and ten. But
do people actually sit in front of their TV at
six o'clock at night to watch news anymore? I mean,
if you if I want to get news, I can,
just like I said, I can at any time of
the day look at my phone and get it.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I think it might be a generational thing because I
know that my folks still try to stay up for
the ten o'clock news right at night, and if you
and I are up, and I mean that is somewhat
rare during the week anyway, occasionally I'll flip on the news.
I prefer you know, I'm on a computer a lot,
as are you. I don't like reading my news on
my phone, and I'm not one to have my laptop
(07:27):
out and right this is also an age thing because
you know, even with my cheaters, my eyes get tired
reading my phone. So I prefer, like, if I could
have the subscription to a newspaper again, I would probably
read that more.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
And I think what we're seeing is the local news
stations are are moving toward doing more streaming on their own,
off their own websites and offering streaming services because they're
recognizing that as the demographics switch, fewer and fewer people
(08:02):
are going to be are going to be are going
to be actually sitting down front of their TV to
watch the local news. So they understand that and they're
now putting out streaming services.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Well, that example of that watch the newspaper actually the
Star Tribune. So Cara Levin, which is that NBC affiliate
that I mentioned, was eliminating one of their meteorology positions.
They also announced that they're eliminating the sports director position
at the end of twenty twenty five, and we're like, whoa,
what the heck? I mean that local sports that's still
big news. I mean half the time. That's why we're
(08:34):
turning on the local news. Right The Star Tribune is
streaming high school sports with one of the former anchors
of NBC's Cara Levin station, Randy Shaver. So now he's
got a stint over with the Star Tribune streaming these
prep football games for high schools because what they know
(08:55):
is that sure, kids like to be in the news,
but you know who likes kids to be in the
news more than kids, their parents. And there's big money there.
So now everybody can go to the streaming service. And
quite frankly, that age demographic of parents of high school kids,
they're pretty in tune with their digital media, right, so
they have no problem streaming this stuff. And boy, then
(09:17):
it's easy to screen capture it and send it out
to all your friends and family or make a post
about it on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So I'm wondering if, if then that is what's going
to keep the what we'll call the local news relevant.
Is their ability to move from the over the air
broadcast at six and ten to more of a we're
going to stream stuff, can constantly be streaming stuff throughout
(09:45):
almost like a CNN would do right, right, And so
that from a local perspective, if I want to catch
local news, I can just go on to care leven
dot com and go to their streaming service and I
can catch them locally doing what they're just continuing on
with whatever local news is available. National news as well, obviously,
(10:07):
and if they do something like that and then they
put it onto what the young adults, the eighteen to
twenty nine thirty year olds are doing, is they're capturing
it from TikTok, from YouTube channels. Facebook is still big
as far as how they're capturing their news. But again
(10:31):
it's not from a trusted news outlet.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Well, I think that's the key point, because whether you're
on TikTok or Instagram, oftentimes these accounts or these content
well I hate to call them creators, but that's really
what it is. They're going to a news source and
then they're creating posts commenting about the validity of that
or arguing with it for and against. And I think
(10:55):
the slippery slope that we're on right now is we
forget that in our democracy, media and journalism it has
been paramount and keeping our government honest in educating communities
about what's happening in their area. Now, for me, personally,
I'd rather not hear some random neighbor on a rant
(11:18):
on Facebook about what's happening at a school board meeting
because that's their interpretation of it. I would much rather
or I would prefer to hear it from somebody who's
a journalist who has some ethics, you know, taken on.
I mean, maybe I'm just weird about this because I
was a journalism major as well, But you know this
idea that you're actually presenting the facts and it isn't
(11:41):
my opinion, unless, of course, you're reading an op ed,
which is described as an op ed. So we'd like
to think that the news media is not biased. Now
that is a whole nother podcast, okay, But I do
think in local media it is a little more pure
because it's a little less political when you're talking about
the goings on of your local community. And I just
(12:03):
think if you're trying to find out what's happening. You know,
with the school board, you're the local media is kind
of the watchdog. It's also the mirror, and it's also
it's just it's what is happening around you. And news
stations aren't completely going away from it. But what they
(12:26):
are doing is we can do this with fewer people,
you know what I mean, We don't need as many
people on staff to give you the information that you
actually want because of the other stuff that we were doing.
You're gonna get elsewhere any.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
But you need you still need the I believe you
still need the boots on the ground, investigative reporters that
are qualified to take a story and actually dig into
it and find out what is going on.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Well, you said, like we said earlier, the social media,
digital media often it's spreading information, but it isn't investigating.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
And so and it's incoming done us. I've said this
many times on this podcast that you know, for if
I want to get to what I'll call the truth
of a story, I have to sift through all sorts
of websites trying to get all the information I can.
So I'm actually doing my own investigative reporting on a story.
(13:27):
Or on a topic so that I can you know,
have all the information I need to actually make a
viable of decision argument whatever on a topic.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It's it's difficult, I mean honestly with every subject that
comes up in the news. And as mentioned earlier, it's
certainly been a difficult week in the news, just all
the way across the board, right right, and people are
insanely people are insane. No, no, but I mean people are.
(14:02):
The speed of which people have access to information out
of context and that isn't investigated is alarming very much.
And we have seen a week of this and I
mean it's been on you know, every side of a
debate if you will. And here we are, right, we're like, okay,
(14:23):
so in this case, local media doesn't play a huge
role in a national story, but if you live in
those communities at Sherwood, but there's no time for the
local media to do much reporting on it because a
minute after something happens, it's international, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It is, and and the what happens is you know.
The For me, I'm just going to say it's alarming
because it is how the young, younger generation is, like
I said, getting their information from TikTok, getting it from YouTube,
where it is in essence, just regurgitated information with an
(15:02):
opinion spin on it by whoever's putting it out there.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
You know, another thing that keeps happening, and again it's
this idea, well, if it's on the internet, it's true.
Right with some of these things that have happened recently
that have been horrific in the news. For you know,
in the last month, there have been people posting stuff
about professional athletes donating like all or part of their
(15:26):
salaries to these charitable organizations, and millions of people or
hundreds of thousands of people are like, oh, there's such
a good person. In most cases it's bs. But because
we read it on the internet, or because some people
read it on the internet, you believe it to be true.
And I feel like information without any sort of context
is very dangerous in this world.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
It is, and it's and again I'm I you know,
I'm throwing a blaming TikTok and YouTube and all those
things for helping to not spread but just to put
the information out there that may not be accurate, you
have to take you have to be careful as well.
With Fox News, oh for.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Sure, well, they're all on a race to have the
story first, and that that's been going on since you
know the beginning of media, if you will, you know,
everybody wants to have the scoop right, they want to
be the one that breaks the story. But back in
the day, you know, people or organizations in my opinion,
were much much better confirming the validating correct.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
If a story came out, you had to get two
sources before it was actually news and you could go
with it. And now many times they just say, well,
it's on TikTok or it's on the internet, so that's
my source, right, and we're going to go with it.
And if it turns out to be not accurate, you
know what happens, absolutely nothing.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Well, the other thing that I think is alarming, and uh,
is what you mentioned about, you know, these stories coming
out before you have the information to me. I compare
that to the way how healthcare is today with so
many healthcare organizations. You now have a portal or an
app or some sort of a my chart or whatever
(17:09):
it is where you go and all of your medical
records are there, and if you go in for blood work,
they post the results on that. If you go get
a scan, they post the results on that. So often
patients are alerted to a result, a test result on
that portal that comes up and it says, yep, this
(17:29):
is abnormal and we found this and we see this
no context. Okay, So now a patient has this information,
but they don't know what it means. And I feel
like that's where we're at with media. We get information,
but nobody really knows what it means or what the
backstory is. So our imaginations take off and then your
(17:50):
perception becomes reality, and pretty soon you start spreading your
perception of a fact that you only know the tiniest
kernel about, and I just it's alarmed for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
And so again that gets back to where whether it's
local news or national news, journalism in general can really
start to get the trust back from the consumers is
by doing more, investigating into it, doing more. Here's a story,
(18:23):
we don't know anything about it. We're just letting you
know that this happened. We'll come back with more, instead
of immediately coming out with Okay, this is what happened,
and this is why, and this is the ratifications. Because
again it doesn't take more than twenty four hours forty
eight hours before a story comes out and it could
be totally inaccurate and everybody's totally forgotten about it because
(18:46):
something else has moved on, and that's the motive, that's
their motive, the modus operandi, themo these days is we
will take a chance of just putting it out there
quickly and giving our own information on it without checking
it because we'll be moving on later anyway. And it
just it makes it very difficult to take a story
(19:09):
and to read it and to understand it and to
not immediately say, well, I don't really know if I trust.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
It well, and trust is the key point for me,
for me and mine, right, I really hope that local
news media finds a way to stick around because statistically,
and again with a medicine head, I don't know where
I read this, but local news media is by far
the most trusted sources of information and news, above CNN,
(19:40):
above Fox News, because these are people that are in
your living room every night, and these are people that
you know shop at the same grocery story you shop at,
and everybody cares about their community, so you feel like
you're really getting there. It's trusted, it's research. That's what
these people are doing. And it is competitive, no doubt
about it, right, but it is by far the most
(20:00):
trusted news source. So I really hope that they find
a way to stick around. I mean, they're not going away,
but it's changing with the times.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's changing over time, but I think the medium for
which they give us that information has to change. It's
going to change. How they go about their business doesn't
necessarily have to change. How they capture the information, how
they investigate, what the story is, how they go out
and make sure that they are doing their due diligence.
(20:32):
That can all still be done, and they can still
be streaming it out there on anything they want. They
have their own YouTube channels that people can capture the
information on if they want, as long as that stays relevant.
I just don't think the old rabbit ears are going
to capture much of it anymore.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Well mine seem to. But well then again, I mean,
we watch the boarding news and it cycles through like
every eight minutes, and it's news, traffic, weather, sports, news,
heavy weather, sports and.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Uh and John, we love you, but we can only
take so much.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
That's true. This has been another curveball production.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
H m m hm.
Welcome to another curveball production back at Studio B for
Barka and we are excited because well not excited. We
had a tough day today because we went to our
last Twins game.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yes, our last Twins game, not the last game for
the Twins, however, given that they sold off half the team,
because that's what it's felt like.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
But did for to day. That was your second game
in twenty four hours.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Indeed, I was fortunate enough to finally go good on
Dad's birthday present from February. We finally found a weekend
that was going to work and no one was going
to be at the cabin and we had a lovely time.
It was cooler last night today, in spite of it
being mid to late September, it was warm and soupy.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
But we were kind of ready for that because Renee
and I like to, because we're old, watch the local
news in the morning and specifically the weather.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
My mom thinks we say that we're old too much. Oh,
we're not old. We're not going to give it up,
she says, Okay, let it go fair enough.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well we're not going to because it's but we Yeah,
So what we like to do is is in the morning,
turn on the TV when we're at Renee. She's actually
got an old fashioned antenna and we can't get the
local we catch we catch the local news straight out
the sky like it was meant to be.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
We do and then my brother will vouch for this.
Oh boy, we could really have some trouble going forward.
But he was like, really, I mean, the antenna is
good enough for you. And I'm like, well, I have Netflix.
And he's like, doesn't it bother you that you don't
get all these other channels? And I said, well, one,
I don't really watch any of the other channels, but
they're on my TV. And he's like, what do you mean.
(01:58):
I'm like, well, Sean has all those channel at my house, right,
but true story, I don't really watch them unless we
happen to be watching a show together, which is anyway,
That's not what this podcast is about.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Back to the local news.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
It's the it's the allergy medicine, right.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
But what we what we had a conversation about amongst
ourselves was just where local news is at and you know,
how is it is it still being consumed?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Is so relevant?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Right? You know?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I mean I think in true story in the purest
of fashion. I happened to be scrolling on my phone
and saw a little shake up in our local news media, which,
as most of you know, we're in the Minneapolis Saint
Paul market, and I noticed that with our television stations
(02:51):
there was quite a bit of shake up. They let
a meteorologist go, and that's really the rabbit hole that
started this, right and then come to find out that
that is the NBC station. The CBS station announced that
they were going down to a sole anchor for their
five and ten pm broadcast, which was kind of big
news because a married couple has co anchored that broadcast
(03:14):
for many, many years, and they're moving the wife to
the four o'clock where they're going to do a full
hour news broadcast with in depth interviews and things like that.
But the husband, Frank VASSLERO, he's going to anchor the
five and ten o'clock news all by himself. And this
is definitely a cost saving measure. And it just started,
(03:35):
like you said, it got us thinking, what is going on.
What's the relevance of local news media. There's certainly a
lot in the news lately, so how are people consuming
it and are they like you and I and that
a lot of news is consumed on our on our
digital devices.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, I mean, and like I said, we'll watch the
local news in the morning for a little bit, but
through rest, throughout the rest of the day, we're on
our phones and capturing it, not necessarily from services like
your TikTok, your YouTube whatnot, at least not for me.
I'll go out to CNN dot com, Foxnews dot com,
(04:11):
Start Tribune dot com and capture the news that.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Way, which is great, but that's a national or international
news cycle you're usually grabbing. When you go out to
those websites. You're not getting the local news that you
typically would get from your local media providers. So it's like, okay,
how do and you and I talk about this quite
a bit. You know, a house will be on fire,
and I mean, this is a good sized market, and
(04:37):
it'll be like, really, they're at a home fire, Like,
how is that news? I mean not to say that
it isn't tragic for the family that's living there, but
that isn't the type of news. But people are, you know,
whether we like it or not. Social media influences a
lot a lot of people get their news and our
listeners can't see this because we're not on YouTube yet right,
but our news.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Is coming with your fingers, the quotes.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
You have to finger quotes that you know, they're getting
their news from Facebook or places like that, which really
isn't so much news as information. And as we've learned
and we know, I mean, the media is what does
the investigative reporting. So there's a huge trust factor with
your local news. But it's hard for them to stay
(05:22):
afloat because advertising revenue is getting dispersed to so many
other media outlets and internet outlets that you know, at
a certain point you have to have enough money to
pay your staff to do the reporting, and you need
enough viewers or you know, in terms of like radio,
you know, talk radio, things like that, you need people listening.
So it is an interesting thing. Another thing that happened
(05:44):
in our market here this past week was the Star
Tribune announced that they were moving their print facility. The
Star Tribune is a local rag. I don't know how
old it is, but it's you know, old newspaper and
they are, you know, basically one hundred and twenty five
people lost their jobs. They're still going to exist, but
(06:05):
the printing of the paper is going to be done
in Des Moines, Iowa. Right, So how does that impact
our local news? Well, for starters, their deadlines have to
be moved up because they have to get the paper
back up to the Twin Cities area, which is what
the morning is about five hours maybe.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
So we have to so everything has to be moved
up from a deadline perspective, which means that anything that
happens like after like eight nine o'clock at night, right,
it is not going to be reported.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I mean people in the rural parts of Minnesota typically
got the early edition anyway, which didn't have you know,
late breaking news. But this is a whole new world
and we were like, wow, well and.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
You brought up you know how the one channel is,
you know, setting things up different for like four o'clock
and then they'll still have the six and ten. But
do people actually sit in front of their TV at
six o'clock at night to watch news anymore? I mean,
if you if I want to get news, I can,
just like I said, I can at any time of
the day look at my phone and get it.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I think it might be a generational thing because I
know that my folks still try to stay up for
the ten o'clock news right at night, and if you
and I are up, and I mean that is somewhat
rare during the week anyway, occasionally I'll flip on the news.
I prefer you know, I'm on a computer a lot,
as are you. I don't like reading my news on
my phone, and I'm not one to have my laptop
(07:27):
out and right this is also an age thing because
you know, even with my cheaters, my eyes get tired
reading my phone. So I prefer, like, if I could
have the subscription to a newspaper again, I would probably
read that more.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
And I think what we're seeing is the local news
stations are are moving toward doing more streaming on their own,
off their own websites and offering streaming services because they're
recognizing that as the demographics switch, fewer and fewer people
(08:02):
are going to be are going to be are going
to be actually sitting down front of their TV to
watch the local news. So they understand that and they're
now putting out streaming services.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Well, that example of that watch the newspaper actually the
Star Tribune. So Cara Levin, which is that NBC affiliate
that I mentioned, was eliminating one of their meteorology positions.
They also announced that they're eliminating the sports director position
at the end of twenty twenty five, and we're like, whoa,
what the heck? I mean that local sports that's still
big news. I mean half the time. That's why we're
(08:34):
turning on the local news. Right The Star Tribune is
streaming high school sports with one of the former anchors
of NBC's Cara Levin station, Randy Shaver. So now he's
got a stint over with the Star Tribune streaming these
prep football games for high schools because what they know
(08:55):
is that sure, kids like to be in the news,
but you know who likes kids to be in the
news more than kids, their parents. And there's big money there.
So now everybody can go to the streaming service. And
quite frankly, that age demographic of parents of high school kids,
they're pretty in tune with their digital media, right, so
they have no problem streaming this stuff. And boy, then
(09:17):
it's easy to screen capture it and send it out
to all your friends and family or make a post
about it on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So I'm wondering if, if then that is what's going
to keep the what we'll call the local news relevant.
Is their ability to move from the over the air
broadcast at six and ten to more of a we're
going to stream stuff, can constantly be streaming stuff throughout
(09:45):
almost like a CNN would do right, right, And so
that from a local perspective, if I want to catch
local news, I can just go on to care leven
dot com and go to their streaming service and I
can catch them locally doing what they're just continuing on
with whatever local news is available. National news as well, obviously,
(10:07):
and if they do something like that and then they
put it onto what the young adults, the eighteen to
twenty nine thirty year olds are doing, is they're capturing
it from TikTok, from YouTube channels. Facebook is still big
as far as how they're capturing their news. But again
(10:31):
it's not from a trusted news outlet.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Well, I think that's the key point, because whether you're
on TikTok or Instagram, oftentimes these accounts or these content
well I hate to call them creators, but that's really
what it is. They're going to a news source and
then they're creating posts commenting about the validity of that
or arguing with it for and against. And I think
(10:55):
the slippery slope that we're on right now is we
forget that in our democracy, media and journalism it has
been paramount and keeping our government honest in educating communities
about what's happening in their area. Now, for me, personally,
I'd rather not hear some random neighbor on a rant
(11:18):
on Facebook about what's happening at a school board meeting
because that's their interpretation of it. I would much rather
or I would prefer to hear it from somebody who's
a journalist who has some ethics, you know, taken on.
I mean, maybe I'm just weird about this because I
was a journalism major as well, But you know this
idea that you're actually presenting the facts and it isn't
(11:41):
my opinion, unless, of course, you're reading an op ed,
which is described as an op ed. So we'd like
to think that the news media is not biased. Now
that is a whole nother podcast, okay, But I do
think in local media it is a little more pure
because it's a little less political when you're talking about
the goings on of your local community. And I just
(12:03):
think if you're trying to find out what's happening. You know,
with the school board, you're the local media is kind
of the watchdog. It's also the mirror, and it's also
it's just it's what is happening around you. And news
stations aren't completely going away from it. But what they
(12:26):
are doing is we can do this with fewer people,
you know what I mean, We don't need as many
people on staff to give you the information that you
actually want because of the other stuff that we were doing.
You're gonna get elsewhere any.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
But you need you still need the I believe you
still need the boots on the ground, investigative reporters that
are qualified to take a story and actually dig into
it and find out what is going on.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Well, you said, like we said earlier, the social media,
digital media often it's spreading information, but it isn't investigating.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
And so and it's incoming done us. I've said this
many times on this podcast that you know, for if
I want to get to what I'll call the truth
of a story, I have to sift through all sorts
of websites trying to get all the information I can.
So I'm actually doing my own investigative reporting on a story.
(13:27):
Or on a topic so that I can you know,
have all the information I need to actually make a
viable of decision argument whatever on a topic.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It's it's difficult, I mean honestly with every subject that
comes up in the news. And as mentioned earlier, it's
certainly been a difficult week in the news, just all
the way across the board, right right, and people are
insanely people are insane. No, no, but I mean people are.
(14:02):
The speed of which people have access to information out
of context and that isn't investigated is alarming very much.
And we have seen a week of this and I
mean it's been on you know, every side of a
debate if you will. And here we are, right, we're like, okay,
(14:23):
so in this case, local media doesn't play a huge
role in a national story, but if you live in
those communities at Sherwood, but there's no time for the
local media to do much reporting on it because a
minute after something happens, it's international, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It is, and and the what happens is you know.
The For me, I'm just going to say it's alarming
because it is how the young, younger generation is, like
I said, getting their information from TikTok, getting it from YouTube,
where it is in essence, just regurgitated information with an
(15:02):
opinion spin on it by whoever's putting it out there.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
You know, another thing that keeps happening, and again it's
this idea, well, if it's on the internet, it's true.
Right with some of these things that have happened recently
that have been horrific in the news. For you know,
in the last month, there have been people posting stuff
about professional athletes donating like all or part of their
(15:26):
salaries to these charitable organizations, and millions of people or
hundreds of thousands of people are like, oh, there's such
a good person. In most cases it's bs. But because
we read it on the internet, or because some people
read it on the internet, you believe it to be true.
And I feel like information without any sort of context
is very dangerous in this world.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
It is, and it's and again I'm I you know,
I'm throwing a blaming TikTok and YouTube and all those
things for helping to not spread but just to put
the information out there that may not be accurate, you
have to take you have to be careful as well.
With Fox News, oh for.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Sure, well, they're all on a race to have the
story first, and that that's been going on since you
know the beginning of media, if you will, you know,
everybody wants to have the scoop right, they want to
be the one that breaks the story. But back in
the day, you know, people or organizations in my opinion,
were much much better confirming the validating correct.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
If a story came out, you had to get two
sources before it was actually news and you could go
with it. And now many times they just say, well,
it's on TikTok or it's on the internet, so that's
my source, right, and we're going to go with it.
And if it turns out to be not accurate, you
know what happens, absolutely nothing.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Well, the other thing that I think is alarming, and uh,
is what you mentioned about, you know, these stories coming
out before you have the information to me. I compare
that to the way how healthcare is today with so
many healthcare organizations. You now have a portal or an
app or some sort of a my chart or whatever
(17:09):
it is where you go and all of your medical
records are there, and if you go in for blood work,
they post the results on that. If you go get
a scan, they post the results on that. So often
patients are alerted to a result, a test result on
that portal that comes up and it says, yep, this
(17:29):
is abnormal and we found this and we see this
no context. Okay, So now a patient has this information,
but they don't know what it means. And I feel
like that's where we're at with media. We get information,
but nobody really knows what it means or what the
backstory is. So our imaginations take off and then your
(17:50):
perception becomes reality, and pretty soon you start spreading your
perception of a fact that you only know the tiniest
kernel about, and I just it's alarmed for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
And so again that gets back to where whether it's
local news or national news, journalism in general can really
start to get the trust back from the consumers is
by doing more, investigating into it, doing more. Here's a story,
(18:23):
we don't know anything about it. We're just letting you
know that this happened. We'll come back with more, instead
of immediately coming out with Okay, this is what happened,
and this is why, and this is the ratifications. Because
again it doesn't take more than twenty four hours forty
eight hours before a story comes out and it could
be totally inaccurate and everybody's totally forgotten about it because
(18:46):
something else has moved on, and that's the motive, that's
their motive, the modus operandi, themo these days is we
will take a chance of just putting it out there
quickly and giving our own information on it without checking
it because we'll be moving on later anyway. And it
just it makes it very difficult to take a story
(19:09):
and to read it and to understand it and to
not immediately say, well, I don't really know if I trust.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
It well, and trust is the key point for me,
for me and mine, right, I really hope that local
news media finds a way to stick around because statistically,
and again with a medicine head, I don't know where
I read this, but local news media is by far
the most trusted sources of information and news, above CNN,
(19:40):
above Fox News, because these are people that are in
your living room every night, and these are people that
you know shop at the same grocery story you shop at,
and everybody cares about their community, so you feel like
you're really getting there. It's trusted, it's research. That's what
these people are doing. And it is competitive, no doubt
about it, right, but it is by far the most
(20:00):
trusted news source. So I really hope that they find
a way to stick around. I mean, they're not going away,
but it's changing with the times.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's changing over time, but I think the medium for
which they give us that information has to change. It's
going to change. How they go about their business doesn't
necessarily have to change. How they capture the information, how
they investigate, what the story is, how they go out
and make sure that they are doing their due diligence.
(20:32):
That can all still be done, and they can still
be streaming it out there on anything they want. They
have their own YouTube channels that people can capture the
information on if they want, as long as that stays relevant.
I just don't think the old rabbit ears are going
to capture much of it anymore.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Well mine seem to. But well then again, I mean,
we watch the boarding news and it cycles through like
every eight minutes, and it's news, traffic, weather, sports, news,
heavy weather, sports and.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Uh and John, we love you, but we can only
take so much.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
That's true. This has been another curveball production.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
H m m hm.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.