How-To-Be-Your-Own-Reporter-Bob Davis Podcast 915

How-To-Be-Your-Own-Reporter-Bob Davis Podcast 915

How To Be Your Own Reporter

These days our minds are the new battleground. To fight back we have to be our own reporters. I’ll tell you how to do that in How-To-Be-Your-Own-Reporter-Bob Davis Podcast 915.

Politicians Lie

It’s especially relevant to point out politicians and so called leaders lie. If it’s Monday, they lie. If their lips are moving they are lying.

Start With Skepticism

Any decent reporter starts with being skeptical when it comes to those who wield power. From there it’s all about checking details and establishing fact. Why? Because we live in a world where the information channels are filled with crap. Moreover, it’s on purpose.

Investigate Sources

In addition most so called ‘news sources’ these days are thin on resources. Newspapers have cut their newsroom staffs. Television networks don’t always fact check. More importantly cable news is all about personalities and arguments.

We All Have Blind Spots

Most noteworthy are the biases we all come to the table with. We all have blind spots when it comes to the ‘leaders’ we think are ‘doing a good job’. That’s how they use us.

What We Want To Hear

Even more most of us want to hear what we agree with. We want to feel secure in our beliefs and conclusions. Consequently we gravitate to the sources, stories and personalities we agree with.

Get Rid Of The Blind Spots

Above all if you really want to understand what’s going on you have to work on getting rid of the blind spots.

How I Lost My Blind Spots

Certainly I’ll tell you how I lost my blind spots in How-To-Be-Your-Own-Reporter-Bob Davis Podcast 915.

Sources, Biases and Facts

Similarly I’ll give you some pointers on how to use your devices to run down sources, determine biases and establish facts.

I Do Not Advocate

Finally, it’s my policy and the policy of my podcasts not to advocate for or against issues. I don’t fight for politicians. I am not financed by political donors.

Conspiracy Theories, Horoscopes and Psychics

Furthermore the longer I do this the more I believe we have to work with the facts we know we can confirm. Conspiracy theories and opinions are fun. Horoscopes and psychics are for entertainment only, right?

Not Fighting To Convince You

In conclusion I’ve given up trying to convince listeners and subscribers. I don’t fight for or against a politician.

Some Stories And How To Do Your Homework

I’ll tell you some stories and help you become your own reporter in this extra extra podcast.

(Editor’s Note: I do this all the time, I talk about someone off the cuff, and get the name wrong. In this case I refer to a certain Doctor Redmond at the CDC. It’s Doctor Robert R. Redfield, recently in the news with the Coronavirus crsis response.)

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Reliafund Payment Processors

How-To-Be-Your-Own-Reporter-Bob Davis Podcast 915

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Political Dealignment-Culture Shock-Bob-Davis-Podcast-750

Political Dealignment-Culture Shock-Bob-Davis-Podcast-750

I find it harder these days to make sense of politics. We’ll talk about it in Political Dealignment-Culture Shock-Bob-Davis-Podcast-750.

Role Of Podcasting

Moreover it’s time to talk about the unique role of podcasting in sorting out the noise. Especially since our day to day news coverage has become a reality TV drama. A minstrel through the lens of Cable TV News and Social Media.

News Is A Reality Show

What will it be this week? A reveal in court that has to be walked back? A trade deal touted as the greatest thing ever that closer examination turns out to be just ok? An economy that is the ‘best ever‘? Diplomacy and policy discussion conducted via twitter?

Sorting Out The Noise

Especially relevant to me is the role of podcasting in this political realignment. How do podcasters help listeners navigate these times? More opinion disguised as news? Or worse, opinion disguised as ‘truth‘.

Let Politicians Defend Themselves

Most noteworthy is the idea that the ‘little people‘ need media to defend and interpret everything politicians say and do, when those politicians should be able to defend themselves. Find out more in Political Dealignment-Culture Shock-Bob-Davis-Podcast-750.

Tuning Out

Finally I am beginning to get the impression people are turning away and tuning out the noise anyway. Should podcasters rush to cover stories in depth that will be forgotten in twenty four hours?

Mean Discourse

I spent a weekend delving into the last one hundred years of history for Podcast 749. Our country and the world has changed so much over the last century. We have exchanged the industrial revolution for a technical revolution. Technology has made our discourse meaner.

An Invisible America

There is an America where people share their passions and help each other out regardless of their political opinions. That America just isn’t always visible on social media and definitely not visible in news coverage of every breath taken in Washington DC.

Maybe that’s the problem.

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul, Reliafund Payment Processors and John D Scott Personal Injury Lawyer

Political Dealignment-Culture Shock-Bob-Davis-Podcast-750

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Gettysburg-Real Cost of Civil War-Bob Davis Podcast 735

Gettysburg-Real Cost of Civil War-Bob Davis Podcast 735

These days commentators use sexy titles for their blogs, articles and on-air commentary. It needs to be said sometimes these guys go too far. Find out how in Gettysburg-Real Cost of Civil War-Bob Davis Podcast 735.

Use ‘Civil War’ In Your SEO Title

‘Civil War‘ is working its way back into the current American political discourse because it sells.

At least three so called pundits recently suggested there will be ‘another Civil War’ if democrats don’t ‘win’ the midterm elections this year.

Battle Of Gettysburg

So it is most noteworthy we remember a Fourth of July in 1863.

During those days in 1863 men who spoke the same language killed and maimed more than fifty thousand of their fellow citizens. Get the details in Gettysburg-Real Cost of Civil War-Bob Davis Podcast 735.

One Million Killed

Especially relevant; the bloodletting went on for two more years. Our real Civil War was a disaster for this country. It took one hundred years for the American South to begin to fully recover. We are still dealing with the aftermath of that war in this country. One million people were killed when we the whole country had a population of only 31 million. In terms of population our most costly war.

All because politicians couldn’t solve a problem.

War Is Not A Protest

War is not a protest. It is not an expression of outrage. A sit in. Blocking the highway. Civil War isn’t a bunch of people shouting someone out of a restaurant or refusing to bake a cake.

War Means Killing

War is a state of armed conflict. In war the most ruthless combatant eliminates his enemy’s will to fight. This is done by killing or maiming as many of the so called enemy as possible, and destroying the means of production. People and property do not do well in war. Worse in a civil war.

Civil War Is No Joke

Civil War is much more bloody than a conflict between sovereign state actors.

In short, civil war is no joke.

Outrage

It is an outrage for talk show hosts and pundits to suggest we in the United States are already in a state of Civil War. It’s folly that honest disagreements about policy and personalities are characterized in such a lazy and irresponsible manner.

Chaos Would Be The Norm

If we did have another civil war in America the cost would be enormous

Chaos would be the norm throughout the world.

In conclusion I can only ask those who like to say we’re ‘in a civil war’…

Is this the world you want to bequeath to your children?

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul

Gettysburg-Real Cost of Civil War-Bob Davis Podcast 735

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