#77 - The Biggest Deals Get Made When Nobody’s Paying Attention.

They're not journalists to step in and step up and They're untrained.

It's hard work, etc So yeah, I think it's a big problem.

I'd like to ask you specifically about Alabama but before I do because You just mentioned it the the obvious trapdoor right in front of the idea of local law untrained journalists doing that kind of work is what we see online, which is that, yes, they may very well end up doing good work, but they also might discover that there's a pedophile ring at a pizza place and show up with a gun.

You know, that speaks to journalism and journalistic standards, which is, by the way, the number one argument I'm constantly having with I'll go ahead and say it because this show does have a liberal bent with right wing relatives and stuff like that.

They send you an article and you say, who wrote this? Well, I don't know what it says, right? What journalistic standards do they apply? What does it matter? Read it right there.

It says it.

I go, I don't care what it says.

I remember who wrote it.

What standards did they apply? What were their sources? Do they have multiple sources? All the things that you get from, and I show them, reputable newspapers have journalistic standards that they print, that you can see, that you understand.

But to the average person, just a story online, one is equal to the other.

Yeah, I think that's right.

I think that's a huge problem.

I mean, people see stuff or share information on Facebook, which, by the way, despite the fact that there's sort of an age issue there, like my daughters who are in their 30s, you know, Facebook is not their thing, although they do use Facebook Marketplace.

Yeah.

But yeah, people circulate this stuff.

There is no verification.

I think journalism right now needs to really explain itself, however, and explain what the vetting process is that you don't just take anything that anybody's told you and put it in a story that, you know, there is a fact checking process.

There is an editing process.

There's a question.

reporters and editors interacting to discuss issues and what's verifiable.

But because it all looks the same on the internet, and this is where I think the internet has also disappointed me, it all looks the same.

I mean, it can look very, very good.

Some of the fake stuff that came out of those internet farms in Eastern Europe during, I guess, 2016, uh election looks legit but it's not

yeah in fact i would say that the i say this without knowing it for a fact but that it definitely affected the election because these were the stories people were sharing and these were the things that they believed yeah and yeah i mean we're still seeing it you know it's going to

get worse this year i think it's worse i think you know the trump's ability to sow so much distrust in the electoral process i mean he just won't shut up about it how many times has he been disproven thrown out 60 cases were thrown out of court i mean all the evidence is there that it's nonsense but absolutely it he keeps saying it and and one thing he has mastered which is the more you say something the more people believe it