The 24 Seven: May the 4th Be With You
On purpose and motivation, brutal honesty and the power of reporting
Support the free press, friends. (No, not that one, though you should support them, too.) I’m talking about all of us professionals out there chasing the news, getting it right and sticking to professional practices and ethics like objectivity.
The world’s richest, most powerful people are flailing away at independent journalism, filing junk lawsuits, directing bureaucrats to grill news outlets, flooding our phones with fake news, junking algorithms with Russian agitprop and attempting to overload us with crap.
(Did I miss anything?)
I started 24sight News 16 months ago to stand up a normal news outlet in the breach, one of many, providing clarity to cut through the junk. Clickbait clouds; professional journalism reveals.
Thursday, May the First, can be considered the unofficial celebration of The First Amendment. Yesterday was World Press Freedom Day. Today is another day fighting for truth, accuracy and understanding. Tomorrow continues the battle anew.
One MC short of a Spiderman Meme
What’s your core?
I’ve linked my discussion with my friend and colleague Michael D. Cohen, Ph.D. at the top of this post. A big thanks to New York University’s Brademas Center in D.C., it was a pleasure to co-sponsor this deep and thoughtful chat with one of the great lights of this moment, Michael Cohen. (No, not that Michael Cohen, this Michael D. Cohen, Ph.D. But you should support him, too.)
We talked about the newly updated second edition of Cohen’s invaluable tome, “Modern Political Campaigns”. If you like politics, you do politics and you want to do politics better make sure to pick up a copy.
Cohen’s a veteran pollster, with 30 years in the field and dedicated academic rigor. I’m a veteran journalist, with 20 or so years in the field, a few trophies and a dry wit. We share a lot in common, but at the top of the list is a dedication to laying out the brutal truth. (You could go with sycophants in either field, but they’re about as useful as a snap poll on a MySpace page.)
Something Cohen talked about at length toward the end of our discussion is why politicians run for public office. The best ones have something they believe in, a moral core, principle and purpose — whether you agree with their purpose is a question for the campaign trail, the voting booths and, occasionally, impeachment proceedings. Times change, public servants grow older, but the core and principles remain, shining through increasingly — or not — as their careers evolve.
If you didn’t catch our talk last Thursday, it’s worth a listen. Some other items we touched on:
With technology evolving, there’s a good chance the era of “based” is replaced with the return of the power of the center.
The 2028 Democratic field and delayed reckonings.
Why pollsters should ask voters if their friends and neighbors would ever vote for a woman.
Updates
You may have noticed more Substack Live videos recently, look for more. To spare all of our inboxes, I’m going to start posting the full videos to the ** Super Secret 24sight Page**, available only to paying subscribers (a bonus and thank you for your support.)
If you haven’t yet, please make sure you’re looking in your inbox for regular dispatches from Michael D. Cohen, Ph.D., Juliegrace Brufke, Kaylie Klausing and Reed Galen. (I just recently realized that sender lines in email sometimes cut off the 24sight News tag after their names.)
You can find all of their dispatches here in the Newsletters page of 24sight.
(If you’re not seeing them in your inbox, please check your spam folder or promotions tab and make sure to whitelist them by moving them to your main inbox. We’ve got a lot more coming from the entire 24sight News family.)
And a big thanks, friends, for all your support. You keep journalism thriving in the face of some very powerful forces.
May the 4th Be With You.
Tom LoBianco
Editor, 24sight News
tom@24sight.news
With falsehood the common currency of Trump - buy your TrumpCoin now! - how can we expect the newly capitulating media to offer anything but sane washing and lies rebroadcast?
Nice caption!