 Coming for our discussion of why all news is local news. So I'm going to introduce our panelists. We have Jeff Barned. You want to come up? Jeff Barned is the ACMI News Director. Since 2018, he's a one-thirteen-time Emmy Award recipient in television news broadcasting, including three Emmys for news writing and one Emmy for Best Anchor in Boston. And he is also a weeknight anchor in Boston. Baltimore and Portland Main Markets. Welcome. Everywhere, everywhere. Thank you very much. Good to be here. We also have Bob Spray. Come on up, founder, editor, and publisher of Your Arlington. Thanks for coming. And we have Crystal Haynes, award-winning journalist, Boston 25 News Weekend Morning Anchor and reporter with nearly 20 years of broadcast experience. So thank you for our panelists. All right, so we're going to, this is a question to everybody, but I'm just wondering, why did you go into journalism? We can start with Bob and then go down the line. That's funny. I went into journalism on April Fool's Day, 1970. I walked down the street in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and walked into the Bethlehem Globe Times and asked for a job. And what do you know they gave it to? I just want to say that on my first day of work, I turned in a police story at 1.30 in the afternoon. This is an afternoon paper. And the city editor looked up at me and said, we got deadlines, you know? If you don't know, newspapers operate under deadlines. And I had missed it by a few hours. But you were accurate. There you go. That's it. There you go. You had it down. So my story is a little different. So in third grade, we had to watch the news every night and do 100-word summary. And so I fell in love with watching the news that way. And so I said, I made a declaration of Thanksgiving that year, and I said, I'm going to be a journalist. And would decide it. I was never thought about doing anything ever since. And then there was a citywide writing contest for the Springfield Union News and Sunday Republican, which is now mass live here. And so they had a teen section. And it was like middle school through high school. And so my first paying job was as a teen beat reporter for the Springfield Union News. And then I fell in love with television production. And my first TV job where I was professional was I went to Emerson College. And as some of you may know, it's extremely expensive. And I paid for it by myself. So I wanted to get it done in three years. So I was like, I'm going to do as many internships as I can. And I got a job in Springfield where I'm from, the WGGB Channel 40, which I think is something else now. And five people quit in one day. And they turned to me and they're like, you seem like you have some aptitude. Do you want to be assignment desk manager? And I said, all right. So junior year of college, I got my first TV job. And the rest is history. Very, very good. I always wanted to do anchor. I wanted to basically do play-by-play for ISACI for NHL. I come from the Philadelphia area. And I went to school. My father was very, very conservative. And look, I know you want to go to broadcasting. But at the time, there were only three stations, ABC, NBC, CBS. And I want you to have something to fall back on. So I got my marketing degree from what is now Jefferson University College when I went there was Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. So I have a degree in marketing and organic chem, minor. But I always wanted to, I figured, OK, now I have the degree. I want to do sports play-by-play. And I was just sitting with a friend in the office as I was selling airtime in my first radio gig in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He said they're having tryouts for the anchor position at the NBC affiliate, Little Tiny Sandbox TV Station in Atlantic City. They're only paying $10 for a half an hour to complement the female anchor. So I figured, all right, I sell during the day. That's my salary. I want to get it. That's my foot the door. So I tried out for the job and got it. Because I think I was the only one to take it because it was only $10. And that was before taxes. And so I got the job. And I'm still waiting to do play-by-play for Isaacie 40 years later. So that's how I got into it. That's great. So from our very beginning as a nation, local journalists have played a vital role in both educating us and building community. They've been the foundation of the American Free Press and political democracy. Abundant research in recent years has found that strong local journalism builds social cohesion, encourages political participation, and improves the efficiency and decision-making of local and state government. I'm sure you would all agree. But where do you see local journalism in the age of social media? Let's start, Crystal. So I think there is a tension right now where we are both fighting. We are accepting social media in one way and fighting against it in another. And I think that social media technology is not going away. We cannot legislate it away. We cannot, you know, gripe at it away. We have to work with it and use it. We have to regulate it if necessary. And then we have to use it as a tool, because a lot of times the lowest barrier of, like it tends, a lot of times it's the lowest barrier to entry for people to get their news. Not everyone has a television at home. Not everyone has the ability to even be able to consume a newspaper and read at a level where they can understand it. I have been in places where the New York Times has been literally incomprehensible to communities because of the literacy rate in that community. And so social media tends to be this place where people feel like they can get their news easily. It's one or two minutes. Usually it's very simple. And it feels like someone isn't talking down to them. And so I think we have to have a more robust conversation about how we integrate it in a way that feels natural, because a lot of times, and I have this conversation with my newsroom all the time, where it feels like we're doing newscasts only on Twitter or like newscasts on TikTok, and that's not what TikTok is. So I think there has to just be a better bridge in communication and frankly creativity to bring the news to these different platforms. And I think it's easy to do if we make a conscious choice as a society and also as a news industry to use it as a tool for disseminating information rather than trying to compete with it. Great. This is a question for everyone, but how has the 24-hour news cycle changed journalism? Oh, good Lord. We're sleeping over. This continues. It's changed it completely. I remember, I started in 1982 when the summer of 82, when we had the big three networks. And I remember in college in 1979 or 1980, when CNN said we're gonna go 24-7. Bobby Bates started in 1980, and it was a joke. I mean, no one thought that there's not enough room for all that news and to be doing that 24-7. And they found a way to do it rather by formula, really. They would have a news story for two or three minutes and then, okay, joining us now are the two analysts who are gonna take care of the next 13 minutes until we go to a break from this word from Tide. And it worked. And now you have Fox, you have MSNBC, you have all these choices in which to make but 24-7 news changed everything in my opinion. I think that that's absolutely true. And I also think, and we were just talking about social media, that also changed it. Because not only do you have to create content that lives in a 24-hour cycle, all your newscasts, you also have to tweet twice a day, you have to post to Instagram, you have to post to Facebook, sometimes you have to do a Facebook Live. Sometimes you have to, Periscope was connected to Twitter and you had to stream while you were doing your live shot at the same time. And so it's not only that, but it's like this 360 and then it's 24 hours a day. And I think it changed just the way that we consume the news completely. Because the news used to be appointment television. Like it was like six o'clock you sat down, that was the news, you read the news paper in the morning and you had all that time as journalists to gather and then put that out. And so I think it completely changed the landscape. Social media is a source for me. Social media was emerging in 2006 when I decided to start your Arlington. But the beginning of your Arlington also has to do with a trend that was going on in America in general where traditional newspapers were declining, larger newspapers were declining and there was all this other internet related media landscape emerging. So it goes both ways with social media. I watch it relentlessly for what people are saying. Most of it is without solid basis in fact. Journalists still have to operate from a basis of agreed to information and fact. And as we went along. Are you sure about that? It's a good question. It is an ongoing goal. Is it always realized in the way that you would want it? Probably not, but you do the best you can with the facts that you have, with the sources that you have that are good sources that can provide that information. I see 24-7 news and also the websites and social media. It's just changed the entire landscape to the point that, and as you said, it was appointment television. Television was in control, it was a one-way street. Now it's the viewer and the reader who has the power. I'm like, okay, I want to read this right now. I want to find out what's happening on Twitter or whatever. And it's just changed everything. The thing that I'm surprised with, when I see even in television news, social media, the number of errors that I've seen in a story into getting the story and to getting your first and second source in order to secure the story and then put it out there has just waned and I see recklessness today that would not be tolerated 30 years ago. I'm not saying that news was better 30 years ago. It's just that everyone's need to get it out there and the immediacy of the medium that you're using, that's being accurate and secondary in many cases. I'm thinking, my gosh, every now and then they'll come on and apologize. I own that, sorry, goodnight everybody. And then the next day they're right there, nothing and it's like, wow, it's changed. So, I don't know, it's always evolving though. You guys kind of led into my next question. This is perfect. I knew that, I read your question list before I came up here. When is a story ready to publish? Well, we're good with the Democratic Convention in 68. We have that nailed down, so that's all right. When you get your sources, when you're absolutely sure, I can't stand the uncertainty and I'll hold back. I know a lot of people don't, but I'll hold back and I've had many, I've had loggerheads with news directors, executive producers. I'm not ready for the story. Well, we have two sources and there have been times where that station that I worked for in Baltimore, for instance, they've been burnt and those were the same people who put a story on prematurely. And I always, I fought for a story some I lost, but it's as you know, it's your face up there. It's not theirs. They're making the decision. And if I'm not comfortable with it, they're going to know it. So a lot of people, they'll go with a story and devil may care and just hope that it's right. And so I like to get two or three sources. I like to hear from the horses. Even a credible source, if I get one, I'll try to call another source directly involved with whatever story it is, just to cooperate what they're saying. So not perfect. There have been times where, you know what, we came in third on that story, but you know what, we don't have to apologize. We don't have to retract anything. And that to me is more important than getting a story out first. And I think that one thing is, I also teach at Northeastern and like I asked the students, I was like, because they're eager young journalists, although even that's changing for what it looks like for them. But they were like, I was like, does it really matter to you if a station got it first? And they're like, no. They're like, we don't care. Because they're not, like no one's sitting there. Like I think the concept of who's getting it first came from when we were sitting there at six o'clock and we were like, oh, channel five got it before seven. But like no one sits and watches a newscast anymore. They're doing other things or they're streaming it or they're listening to it on whatever device that they're using. And so I think that that piece of it is less important. I think what I also struggle against is like, our morning show is six and a half hours. It's from 4.30 in the morning to 11 a.m. And the wheel and filling that content, I find is where you see the most errors because it's like the producers are turning out a documentary every morning and they're making mistakes and you're anchoring it and you're in it because you're in it. You're trying to both preserve your energy but also be into the read. And you're like, that what I just read, I don't think was right. That doesn't make any sense. Or three stories back, like we said something else. And then that's why I find that you see the most error. So I think when you're talking about like, is the story ready? I think now the conversation is like, okay, even if we are putting out developing news, right? That's our, what we call scapegoat or like cover is developing news. So this is what we know and we timestamp things. And I think there's a way to do that well. And I'm so thoughtful of, we're up at the 10 year anniversary of the marathon bombing. I covered that in real time when that was happening and the weeks after that. And it was like the hunger for new information. People were putting out anything to the point where people were being arrested where they shouldn't have been. And like even the police were eager to just jump on anything. And so like, I'll never forget in Watertown, we were like two streets over for when Johar Sarnayev was in that boat. And you know, Swati was there and people were like, you know, standing at this lawn and we were all going live from the same place. And we were getting information from their public information officer directly. And we were only tweeting and saying the information that we knew that we had confirmed because the stakes couldn't have been higher, right? We had people come out of their house and go, you know, I just saw on Twitter that this is what happened. And you should be saying that on TV. Like, I don't know what you're doing here, but like I could be doing your job. Multiple people coming out of their house because they're watching. And then at the same time. You need that on top of everything, yeah. And the police are like, you need to be in your house. These like these people here, we have enough like SWAT team, FB officers to like manage this because people need to know this information, but we don't need you to come out your house and tell these people what they're doing. Like I will never forget a guy in full like SWAT battle gear was like, had to tell this lady, ma'am, you need to be in your house right now, not telling this reporter what to do. Never forget it. And so, but that's the way people, like people will think they can do your job better than you can. And like even, so even when you hold back a story, they're like. Where were you? Where were you? Like I read this on Facebook because my cousin's aunt's cat's dog said this and this, I already had that information. Well, how many donuts did you make today at your place? Right, exactly. It's wild. Yeah. That's a great job of explaining to the public how difficult it is. Right. I remember the boss and bombing. I was in Baltimore when it happened and I'm sitting at my desk. Cubicle and the assistant news director came in and he was flustered. He said, who knows anything about Boston? I said, I said, I worked up there for nine years and I left Boston to get my old seat back and the Baltimore station. I said, I do. He said, get on the set. What happened? Just get on the set. I'll tell you in your IFB, your earpiece. I'll just tell you. And that's like, get on the set. Those scripts don't nothing. And it's like, okay. And I'm sitting there and turn the monitor around. My co-anchor hadn't been in yet. And just talk and lead into Barack Obama was making some speech right after that. And he was a little late that day. So he will stretch. But for me, when you had a breaking story, I never wanted to pretend to anyone that I knew more than they did. So it's like, and I would say on the air, we are gonna learn together. I'm looking at this in real time as you are. I know a little bit about the Copley Place. And if you recall, JFK had an explosion. JFK Library had an explosion that day. And they thought, and so we're going to JFK Library and thank God I was there. I knew a lot about that. We were right on Morrissey Boulevard when I anchored in Boston. But I don't pretend to know anymore. And I don't wanna put out, I don't wanna speculate. I just wanna say, this is what we're looking at. They're looking for the suspects. They shut down the city basically. That's all we know. We're gonna have more tonight at six and 11 and morning show and 12 and all that other stuff. So you just roll with it. And you're always gonna be criticized. Oh, my God, please. And I just worked the local angle because we had Crystal Campbell, who was an Arlington resident who was killed. And that information I got from a variety of sources including police, and I didn't know where she lived, but I didn't know any relatives. However, I will say at the time I was a partner with Inside Medford, a website that no longer exists. And the editor of Inside Medford was a personal friend of the Campbell family. So I did get information that way. And that's why all news is local. There you go. Nice tie. Very good. I was gonna say that, Crystal, but I'm glad you did. Your SWAT comment. Also, I have one of my favorite restaurant bars, the Druid, I don't know if everyone's been there. They never shut down. I was talking to the guy there. He's like, we never, ever shut down. They did not shut down the day. The boss said, don't shut down the day of the marathon, even though the bombing, that even though they were also supposed to be shut down and a SWAT team came up to, the guy was like, finally a SWAT team came up and was like, get, like, you gotta go, like this is not happening. All right, back to our questions. So yeah, back to some local news. So as you mentioned, many local newspapers around the country and locally as well have been shutting down. And it's harder and harder to get these local newspapers and these local news sources. So what do you believe can be done to strengthen local professional journalism and tighten its connection to its communities? Can I answer? Yes, please. I'm doing it. Whether people agree with what I do is the best thing that I could do or not. My aim is to do just what you're talking about. And here's where I get the rag on the advocate. Because I used to be the editor of the advocate in the 94, 95. We won some prizes. We were owned then by Fidelity Investment Company, which immediately cut our health benefits after they owned the company. And they also started measuring our offices at Five Water Street where we used to be. Why were they measuring? They wanted to find out where they could find real estate elsewhere. And two years later, they were gone. The advocate is no more. And to bring it to present, the advocate really is no more because it is the advocate and star as of last May. And if anyone happens to pick up the paper, I was a subscriber for 30 years. There's nothing in it. And my whole aim in pursuing your Arlington since 2006 has been to build it into a reporting outlet for Arlington. And we're doing it. I read it all every day. I read what you write every day. You steal stuff? I steal by the way. You think I work? I'm at the heights, Bob, Bob. You're just, Bob, you're doing a good job. I mean, you're plugged in. And quite obviously, I think Arlington's lucky to have somebody like you. I'm not saying that because you're here. And I've said that before, even outside of your presence, but seriously, you have your ear to the ground. You know what the players are. And for me, it's interesting because I came from a commercial background, commercial television background, working for an affiliate in the Boston, Washington, Philly as a reporter and Baltimore. This is my first foray into ACMI. And it's marvelous. It's like a breath of fresh air. And it's wonderful. Why is that? I'm sorry? Why is that? Why is that? I think it is because it's one town. You get to know the players very well, not just in passing. And there are so many stories in this town. And I'm an outsider. I'm originally from Jersey, but I took a crash course in Arlington. And the public here is very engaged politically and with many issues that are going on around town, with town meeting coming up in just the next few days. And it's a pleasure to work here. It's refreshing. It's not like a squirm. Yeah. I mean, when Trump was arrested, I was looking at those reporters across from the tower and I'm thinking, oh, thank God, I'm not doing that anymore. I mean, that's what I used to do. And it's like, how do you feel, 40 million people with 18 million mic flags? And you're getting something really of little substance, if nothing, under those circumstances. And here you take some deep dives into stories and thank God they give me the time to put some stories together. And I like the stories I do here. I don't wanna do anything else. It's a perfect way to round out my career. I'm very happy here. So, but yeah, the way things have changed, I think there is, I also wanted to say, I don't wanna get ahead of you, but I also wanted to say there's, when you have like one quarter of the papers have dried up since 2005, but you're finding new ways to get the word out. And so it spurs creativity and I think you're onto something here. I think that's going to be the future. I think so too. And I also think, I just think, and I have this whole soapbox where I talk about the importance of local television, why local TV stations are probably the most important part of news gathering that exists in a free democracy. And you can just, an attribute to that is a high school football game and covering a high school football game. Because that, like, and I'll say, because I think like what you're doing with your Arlington, ACMI, I think this is an engaged community. Like I've been in other communities where they're less engaged. So that's, it makes it a little bit harder, but I just think it just needs a rebranding. If I mean, like the way that we put energy, money and focus into other things to pivot it so that it can be more appetizing to the masses. I think that that's what local TV needs to, but the problem is is there's a stubbornness in newsroom. And I'm sure that you came across this where it's like, we got to do this differently. Like we can't chase the big national stories. That's not what we do here. That's right. We need to do what we do well and where what we can offer at CNN and MSNBC and all the others cannot offer our community because they'll come to us for that. They'll come to us. But we keep, like especially in Boston, we keep chasing these stories like if we're big national players and I'm like, we're gonna lose every time because people will turn to CNN and see it at the time we're off air where if we really dial in and pay attention to storytelling. I have this conversation every single day about why a 90 second story can unless told in a very precise way cannot is not as valuable to our local viewer as a well done three minute story that involves the community. And you have to fight for that time. And you have to fight for the time. And for what? Like people will sit and watch it if it's a good story. I mean, so anyway. So I think when we're talking about like local TV, I just really think the energy and investment, like what ACMI is doing where, like you've probably see other public access is television issues. They are not as sophisticated or organized or thoughtful. I mean, they try but it's not the same kind of thing. So I think if the energy and the focus was put into local TV, pivoting it into a way where it is more focused on what viewers and communities want, not focus groups that consultants out of Indiana decide are what viewers want. I think that it not only will survive. I think it'll thrive. And I think that that's exactly what we, and I would challenge you all. Our job is a supply and demand business. If you demand coverage in a certain way, we have to supply that because our advertising dollars come from the folks in the community who are telling like, like Jeep Ford is gonna advertise on the station that has the most eyeballs. And so if you're watching a station that's giving you the thing that you want, then that's where the advertising dollars will follow. Like I think of during the pandemic, public television and NPR, and during the Trump years, that ended up being, I mean, you know, we all know what happened to NPR recently with Twitter and stuff like that. But it's like that, that's a direct supply and demand. People funded public television and radio because they liked the way they told stories. That needs to happen in local commercial television. I always got anchoring in Baltimore for 20 years. The first eight minutes are depressing. It's just the same thing. It's just the- Crashes. Crashes. Yeah, that's all it is. Drive-bys, drugs, just awful stuff. And then finally, as I'm anchoring this, I'm thinking, I wonder if the viewers feel this way? Cause I do. We would have what's known as a cover story. We'd go to a commercial break, have a second block of news, which was basically national and international news. Go to a commercial break, cover story at 1030 was an hour show. And then we'd run our cover story, which was an in-depth four minute report. And I lived for that. And a lot of anchors don't like going out and reporting. And I loved it because it would drive me crazy sitting there in front of my computer all day. So I'd go out and I'd really try to find a story. So basically they would say, man, if you want to go do a story, what do you want to do? Just do it. Don't curse on the air. That's all we tell you. Okay, and then you do it. And that's what I really enjoyed doing. I really lived for that cover story. So yeah, if you could tell a story and it moves and it's a really compelling story, why not go past a minute 15? Right. So. Great. All right, so we've seen a great partisan divide in our nation. How does this exist in our local news sources and where do you see it coming up? You want to start it, Rob? How to say this. I have my critics and they show up on social media. And I'm not going to name any. If anyone is out there on patch neighbors, they will see it. And the motivation seems to be from the right to make it seem that whatever I'm reporting must be questioned. So it really comes back to the attitudes that came to the fore during the Trump administration where facts and truth were questioned. And your question was how do I deal with that? Not very well. I don't like anybody. Is that, what do you do? Well, you have the credibility behind you and the longevity and that will be. Except it's questioned constantly. But that beats keyboard courage. You're going to have your non-lots who are going to go, oh yeah, he's right. All two of them from mommy's basement. But it's tough and especially now. See, I got out of it four years ago. You're now in the trenches and it's interactive. I mean, if someone got mad at you 30 years ago for something you said, it wasn't wrong. They just don't like the way you said it. You'd get a hard letter. And I'm thinking, boy, that took a lot of, a lot of, you know, put the stamp on it and send it. And I got like two, but now it's really easy. Oh, I don't like what you're wearing. I don't like, I don't like this. I don't, is that a two page up? Is that a, you know, I would say yes. Well, it's like I did a story about. So Boston 25 is owned and operated by Cox Media Group. It was owned and operated by Fox. And about seven years ago, that's when we were purchased by Cox Media Group and they were like, we're not, and that's a, it's a company that is out of Atlanta. And so they were like, we're not doing none of this anymore. And so there was a whole change of that. So I was there the whole time and I had made my work what I do personally easier because I was the one that was saying this language isn't appropriate. And I'm not gonna say that on TV and like that kind of stuff. And I didn't, people always go, why didn't you leave? And I go, because if I left, there would be no one left. And no one knows, like, and so for me it was like, the representation was extremely important. And now, you know, 12 years at that station, I feel it's even more important. And so I think the hard part about that is, especially in the last four years, people, my stories specifically, I tend to do a lot of stories, you know, in the equity space. And I did a story in Black maternal health and I used the term birthing people. You would have thought, birthing people, instead of mother. You would have thought, I went to someone's house personally and set it on fire, birthing people are mothers and this and that and like, I'm not gonna go into spend another 90 seconds to explain to you, well, what about surrogates and what about these people? Whatever, because that wasn't the point of the story. The point of the story was this legislation that was out and you know, and frankly, this point of the story was the death rates among women and birthing people in the United States, the richest country in the world and we have a death rate among people who are having babies that's worse than Uzbekistan and Mexico and things like that. So that's the story. But it was like, and every day it's like that. It's like, I'll use the term male king who I had the pleasure of having one of the last interviews he gave. And I said, and I had said, you know, he led these protests, these tent city protests and stuff like that and people were like, those are riot. If the liberals can call those protests and call what we did, you know, January 6th a riot, then that's not. And it's just like, come on. And so, you know, it's like all of these kinds and it's every single day. It's a lot of like when I do stories, I always do these stories where I did a story today about Black men run Boston, which is a chapter of a national association that engages Black men specifically in Brotherhood and Fellowship and they run in Roxburgh, Dorchester and Madpan every Saturday and Sunday. And it's to increase running visibility for people of color in running from the US, not the folks who are from Africa. And I did the story and they were like, oh, well, if we did a story about white men run, you wouldn't do that story. And it was every time, every single time. And so I think for me, the thing is like, just continue to keep doing that work and the people who wanna see it and the people who need to see it will find it. But it's difficult to navigate because, and this is what I'm gonna actually get to your question because I'm rambling with it, is when you have management that gets nervous about those comments. And that has happened to me before whereas I did a story about, I don't know if you guys are familiar with the sociological concept called Missing White Woman Syndrome. It's extremely well documented. But it's basically that if a wealthy or good-looking white woman goes missing, she'll get tons and tons of stories, news coverage. But if it's a poor immigrant or a black woman or a woman of color, get next to no coverage. And so the Columbia Journalism Review actually did a study on this and they have this interactive thing about and you put your information and it'll tell you how many news stories you were worth. And it's a really stark like. That's really a good idea. It's really well. I remember Natalie Holloway, remember her in Aruba? Man, it was all over the place. And I'm thinking, you know, there's a lot of missing kids everywhere. Everywhere. And you say, how many calls do you get into a newsroom about missing kids? Oh, we go, and you know what? That was one of the greatest parts of my job. I love writing. I like doing what I do. I like telling you a good story. But man, getting the bad guy every now and then we're finding somebody who's missing. They come into a lobby, they're just crying. And it's like, yeah, we could slip 20 seconds in. Sure, we'll show the picture. We have a picture. That really was a good feeling. And sometimes, I mean, we had a pretty good audience in Baltimore and we're also Boston. And yeah, that's when it really, really works. It's a lot of fun. So with this thing, you know, with this story, the missing cohesive mother, gorgeous woman, beautiful house, nice community. And there was people who were advocating for a black and brown woman who were missing were using that opportunity. And what I mean by using is being like, well, what about these missing? This woman has been missing for five months and she's got five kids and not three. And like she, you know, there's a woman in East Boston who's still missing, but she's an immigrant that is not a native English language speaker. And so I did a story about that, about while we are all, you know, all eyes are descended upon this wealthy community of co-hacit. There are thousands of missing black and brown women. Their cases do not get the police presence that they do, that I pulled in the Columbia Journalism Review data and things like that. My news director flipped out. This is insensitive and, because I also fill in at GBH and Greater Boston, so I did a whole second on this. And she's like, this is insensitive and you know, you cover the co-hacit story as well. And you know, this family is, this is a tragedy and this and that. And I go, and I said to her, it's a tragedy for the other families as well. And so the folks, and yes, no one can, everyone, it's a tragedy all around, but I'm gonna tell you this woman in co-hacit has gotten the resources or like that story has gotten the resources it needs. The stories that aren't being told are the ones we need to have a conversation about. And it is not a this or that, it's and. And so when you, and I think the hard part is when the criticism, because of course you get all of the folks who talk about it on social media, comment on social media, the problem is is when your managers get shook and they think about that in terms of advertising dollars and think about. You're on the tightrope by yourself. Nobody's backing you, your executive producer is not backing you. They're concerned about the dollars. We can't shake it up. You gotta please the stockholders. Yeah, and that's when it gets tough to tell the stories. I agree. Great, I just have a few more questions. We're sharing right now in time and then we'll take a few questions. I thought we were here overnight. Now, this is a big pivot. I'll talk faster. It's something quite a question we get here a lot, but how can someone learn more about town elections? Oh, okay. Very big pivot. An election, yeah. I start publicizing, traditionally started publicizing the town election early December when people take out nomination papers to run. And that's the first step in the process. This year I waited until January, but early January I was on it. And the fact is the incumbents took out papers in December 8th the first day they could, so there wasn't much going on. But it turned out there was contested elections. And I simply began reporting it as early as possible. And still right up to the time of the election you get people say, oh, there's an election? So I do what I can, but I can't do everything. I admire you all because Arlington is a special place in terms of like town elections and town meetings. It's very New England. And the title town meeting, yeah. Yeah, it's very New England. Periodically people will say, you know, we're a city, we should become a city and have a different form of government. And yet there are plenty of people in town who don't agree with that. And they want to keep it a town. It's a tradition. And it's also a learning experience for me. I always worked in cities where they had mayor, city councils, and coming here it was like, love this school, you know, town meeting and everybody meets at the auditorium and articles. It's funny because when I first moved here I don't know if you had this experience. I was like, how come they don't have overnight parking here? I was like, I know, my father already told me. And I was like, so I just used my reporters so I just called up, you know, the clerk and I was like, so how does this work? If you want to put it as an agenda item, you know, like how does that work? And she went, oh honey. Welcome to Arlington. She's like, no, no, no. And I was like, oh, okay. When was that? It was, well I moved, I moved to Arlington with my house, because my husband's family was in here for five generations. Three years, three or four years ago. Because it was a referendum in 2013. Really? And people favored keeping overnight parking restrictions. Oh really? Yeah. Really? Jeez. Interesting. Just let it go. Just deal with it. Deal with the time to park it. Drop what? What are we dropping? All right, this is my last question. How do you guys get your news? What are your favorite sorts? What are your favorite places to read your own? Tiktok. Read your news outside of your own. Tiktok. Your own reporting. I watch, Norm and I were just talking about this. Norm McLeod, our executive director at ACMI. I watch MSNBC for about 15 minutes. I'll watch CNN for 15 minutes. I'll watch Fox for 15 minutes. Then I get angry and I turn it to TCM to watch Casablanca. I'm always online. The New York Times, The Globe. Every now and then the Washington Post. I read it more obviously when I was on Constitution Avenue in my last job. But it's just a mishmash. And it's interesting to read. And I'm sure you can opine on this as well. When you're reading an article about a specific subject, it's like, okay, now I'm going to go to this network and hear what they have to say about the very same thing. And it's entertaining. But everywhere, pretty much, I watch TV. Like I said, seriously, I get mad watching the three networks. I'll go to the BBC because at times I think they do a much better job of reporting about America than America does. BBC does an excellent job. And what's the German? I think it's D.W. I think it's a great network. It's like, this is what I want to see. I want to hear about Ukraine. What happened in Ukraine today? What's happening in Taiwan today? I know I can't, if I watch Fox, I'm going to wind up watching Humphrey Bogart. So it's a mishmash of everything. But I think that's good. The more you read, the more you're going to be able to come to the conclusion that, okay, this paper is full of it and that website is full of it. This one's pretty much on. But I think that just the more you can absorb and the more platforms you can use, the better off you're going to be as far as being informed. Like overnight parking. Yeah, thank you. I do the same thing. I also set a Google alert for Arlington, Massachusetts. So if this article comes up, then I'll get a Google alert and I'll be like, oh, something's happening in Arlington. Usually it's your article. Yeah, it's true. I get mad when this thing dings and it's like, all right, what's happening? The world is ending. What's going on? You know, the surfing world died. It's like, why am I getting this stuff? Why am I getting this stuff? So I read the Globe and watch PBS. And they have longer stories. They do. Any other questions? Do you want me to do the questions? That was our, yeah, be me to it. That was the next step. That's exactly, that was my last question. I thought I was going to ask if anyone in the audience had any questions. Well, I got one. Great, okay. I read the Globe and watch the news. What about Patch? Sorry? Patch? Well. Did I read the patch? Sometimes. You know, like there's something missing now if I didn't have you around and didn't have anything. Yeah, I thought that was the number one news source. We, uh- Now you often wonder about what happened to you because you do not have to use that. I have a bad experience with it from myself. We have a weekly newscast at ACMI that touches on all the topics that we can cover visually. What are you saying? We have a newscast. It's a half hour newscast that we take. We're going to be taping the latest one. We're going to be taping the latest one. Seven, the norm? Seven? Seven and five? Seven, 30? We're not going to use that. Yeah, and it depends on what cable channel you're on but you don't need a computer for that, even though we do have Facebook. So you say you have a news source on TV? Yes. Is it possible? Yeah, yeah, we put it out town-wide and it's on Facebook. It's also on YouTube? As much as we possibly can? No, it's, no, but the- Yeah, thank you. Oh, daily? And you have actual, I could do it once in a while. You're going to actually load the story? Yeah, oh, we do every time. Yeah, we did the parking of the beaters last week. Oh gosh, this week I talked to Greg Christiana of a preview about the found meeting. We have a preview on that. Ted, when they do have newscasts that relate to stories I'm doing, I embed the video right in the story. So. They have all the nasty comments that all of you guys and thank you, Bob, for not allowing that on your side. You know, when I read the patch, I sometimes see all these nasty comments that can divide the whole country. Oh, that has- And then I talk to the internet and they got the patch with all that stuff on there, the people saying, I don't like you, I don't like you. It's just, it's terrible. Well, I was mad at Bob that day. But. But if you want the patch, I apologize for that. No, no, we're not with the patch. I'm patchless. No. But we were talking about this when we were previewing this event. And we were basically saying, it's basically my thought, you can speak for yourself. But if you have nothing but friends and you're a journalist and no one dislikes you and no one is criticizing you, I don't think you're doing your job. And we're not looking for trouble. We're not looking for enemies. You're just, they're just going to gravitate towards you if they don't like what you said. And it's just an acceptable part of the job. I'm gonna tell you this, I'm working with you. Maybe we should take a trip over there and talk to some of the folks and fill them in. I'd love to give them a sample of what we do. Well, we are going to, you know what? You asked a great question. We are going to have an open house next Thursday at three and six at 85 Park Ave. You'll be able to see the newscast come together. You'll see the stories that are going into that. How we operate our social media, which is updated daily. And you'll get a tour of the station, but we'd be more than happy to have anyone who was curious. So we have the pamphlets in the back and it gives you the times, who you can contact, if you have any questions. And that way we can invite suggestions from you as to how we can do our job better and cover all of these things better. Maybe you're gonna have to see people. Norm, expand that budget. I would love, you know what? I'd love to do that because I mean, I come from the world of daily news. I did it for decades. And there are times when I know we're gonna be taping our newscast on Thursdays and I have a great story on a Monday or a Tuesday. I'm gonna get it out immediately on our Facebook page, which Katie Chang in the back behind that camera taught me how to use. But we're expanding and it's baby steps, but we're getting to where we wanna go, but we have a long way to go. And we're looking forward to getting it. But come to the open house. And I invite everybody to. Bob, come to the open house. I know a few news. All right, road trip, road trip to our place. And you know what? I would love to go talk to everybody there too, just to let them know what's worth. And Bob, I mean, you get to Crystal, everybody's invited, but seriously, that way we can show you what we're about and we can take suggestions. I'd like to have a little Q&A in here what's going on. So I invite that. I'd love that. Yeah. I can find it as a series of discount for one correct discount package. And I see a lot of it because I'm very involved except for your audience and they don't wanna do it. No, it's certainly not gonna do well. Well, you've given me an idea. I appreciate your question. Oh, yeah. It's awesome. All right, do we have, we take one more question? Hello. Hi. My name is, my name is Tyler from the School of Art. Thanks to the friends and to Robert's brothers for having this wonderful program. I hope you would have something like this again. And I have a couple of tests done, but they're still in depth. How long have you known each other? Oh, not that long. No. Yeah. I met you in front of the region. A couple of years? Yeah. But just recently. Yes, we just met. Yeah, and you've interviewed me on other stuff. Yeah, I did stories. When did you go to Emerson? I graduated in 2005. Okay. I used to teach. Really? Yeah. But in the 90s. Oh, okay. Okay. So maybe you know Bob Ward. I think he went in the 90s. You know that name. Bob Ward. He's the number seven? I never did that. Oh, I know Bob Ward. See that? Look at that. It's a close knit business. You're a winner too. Yes, yes. A lot of us went there, yeah. My second question is, do you have a few stories I didn't tell in my quicksail, do you think you and Barg's News would do a story next Thursday about NGMI news? Oh, he just pitched it. You know, I don't know. I don't know. Well, well. What's your mentor on that? Yeah. I'll have to ask my producers about that. Yeah, I think doing a piece on local TV, I think is, would be really good. You know, it's so funny. There's a phrase that says, like, you cover the news, you don't become the news. So a lot of times we don't do stories on each other. Don't want to become the news. That's happened once or twice, and that's like, it never ends well. Yeah. And Jeff, have you ever attended to your Bob? Yeah, Bob and I were talking about the Arlington paper. Bob came into our studio, and it happened to be, I guess it was a Thursday, or whatever. The paper, because we were given the paper that day, and it arrived Thursday. And I'm looking at the headline. The Arlington. The Advocate. Yeah, yeah. And it said something about money being raised for an amusement park, Edeville. And I remember talking to you about that, and you were just starting your Arlington, and Bob was basically saying, you know, we could use underwriters, things like that. I said, well, maybe somebody from Edeville could, you know. Right? But we had a, there's a local angle, you know? But yeah, no, I've interviewed Crystal. I interviewed you with the Martin Luther King birthday celebration for a few other events, too. Yep. And with the Capital Theater for the AIFF. Yep. So yeah. And we appreciate what, I mean, we respect, obviously, what everyone else does, because we kind of know what everyone is going through. And I loved working in Boston when I would go out and do a story if it was a breaking story, and meeting the competition. And they were always, they were helping you out. You know, if you arrive late, hey, the guy you want to talk to is over there, the house burned down, he's talking, the PIO is over there. And it's like, hey, thanks, because I know I'm going to be here first, and I'm going to give you the same information if you arrive second or third. So everybody knows what everyone's going through. And there's mutual respect on different platforms, three totally different platforms, which is, I think it's healthy. You know, my wife, my wife was over there. We met at the Boston Herald, and we would never give anything to the globe. You from the globe yet? It's five miles that way. All right, well, thank you, everybody. Thanks for coming. Thanks for coming. And thank you again to the friends for all that you do for the library. Thanks for coming out tonight.