Tell the Truth

is COVID in the media. Essentially, how has the media functioned in the midst of a pandemic and has it shifted forever. The conversation is interesting that Jonathan and I have and you'll hear him, as a turn of events,

interview me instead of me interviewing him. They think that what's really exciting about this conversation is one I don't get to talk with young people very often about how they are experiencing the world that we're living in as they are learning about the world that we are living in in the context of a university. And then also just given the opportunity to talk about what it's been like to be on the air for the past eighteen months.

You know, we've made a lot of shifts at WOKEF and thankfully many of you have made those shifts with us as we've moved from studios, moved into a different transition of audio, and then now get to be back in a studio with all of our wonderful vaccinated folks. But what is really interesting during this time is I

think the importance of media. And I've been talking about this since forever, since back on serious days and to now that the media, in my opinion, has a really important responsibility, as a responsibility to tell the truth, not to be impartial and not to be neutral, but to

tell the truth. And I think that what has happened over the core of the last several years is that we have lost the idea of what it means to tell the truth in the desire to show both sides of the story, and the reality is that not every story has two sides. Frankly, the media did a disservice

to us one discussing climate change. Think about our climate change conversations and how they would bring in both climate scientists that are telling us the truth about how ice caps are melting, waters are getting warmer, storms are hovering longer and causing more damage, and how all of this is because our climate is changing. And then in the same segment sometimes they would have on climate deniers that

are saying, no, this is normal. It's totally fine that it's fucking snowing in June in some places, and that it's totally okay that fire season now lasts for several months and burns, you know, hundreds of thousands of acres. And the reality is is that because of that both sides is um, we've gotten to a really dangerous place in our society where we don't all have the same set of facts. You know, we thought it was funny ha ha ha when Kelly Ane Conway said, well, there

are facts and then there are alternative facts. Well, no, actually they're fucking aren't. There's one set of facts, right, Like we all agree that the sky is blue, we all agree that gravity exists, we all agree right that water is wet, that it's not. There's not an alternative

to those real, known, hard facts and truths. But as we have gone on in the media, because of the desire to get ratings and to have clickbait, they turned what should have been thoughtful conversations about analysis about where our society is headed on a myriad of topics. They turned it into a food fight, and because of that we are led completely astray and everyone is now in their corners. Right. There are those of us who listen to wokaf and who listened to and believe in doctors

and science and truth. And then there are others that are now ingesting I don't know, huffing hydrogen peroxide in a nebulizer because some quack on a QAnon network told them that that will get rid of COVID, or are threatening to blow up hospitals because they won't give you a horse tranquilizer or horse hormones that, of course they wouldn't have at a fucking hospital that treats human beings

because it's not a vet. Right. But we have lived in a place for way too long that we have allowed these conversations to be normalized when they should have never been. Right, think back way back when when the Obamas were coming into office and you had the entire tea party led by fucking Donald Trump, who was debating on whether or not Barack Obama was born in the United States, or debating on whether or not. He wasn't

the Antichrist. Like all of those things sounded crazy then, but they were not pushed back against hard enough, and you gave voice and gave space too crazy, And now crazy is dictating our policy. Crazy is what has produced the Marjorie Taylor Greens and the Laura Boberts of the world that are now sitting in our Congress. Right. Those were the nut job fringe folks that are now sitting on committees and deciding legislation for the rest of us. Right.

And so we are in a very dangerous space. And one of the questions that you will hear Jonathan ask me is where do I think that media will be in ten years. Well, I'll be honest, I'll be surprised if we're around in ten years. And I say that very seriously. I mean, look at what we have dealt with over the last eighteen months. We have a global health pandemic that is killed over six hundred and fifty

thousand Americans right and shows no sign of stopping. Because now we're living in a space where at first COVID nineteen was ravaging blue state those that were highly populated, densely populated states that had a lot of international travel,

which usually happens in blue states. But then once the vaccine came into being, we saw our numbers decrease well right now, right the New York Times is reported in a piece called red Covid that now the deaths are on partisan lines, the infection rates are strictly on partisan lines, and they're calling it red COVID. Right, so you know, we're at a place right now where this virus is going to persist for god knows how long. At the same time, we have seen superstorms like we have never seen.

How many times have we saw over the course of the last several months historic flooding, historic hurricane, historic fires? How many times can you see the fucking word historic? Before we realize that this has become our new abnormal, and we look at the media and we say to ourselves, you know, tell us the truth. When weather people meteorologists are reporting on the weather, how come they aren't talking about climate change because they've been told not to because

some of them will lose their jobs. Right it's Al Roker is one of the only people that you will hear talk about how climate change is devastating our country. Right, we talk about white supremacy. Donald Trump wanted to tell us that they were good people on both sides. We knew that white supremacy was on the rise in this country,

but did you see it reported in mainstream media. Did you see conversations about what was going on with the Proud Boys and the Boogoaloo boys and these folks know right, every time with regard to the killing of unarmed black people, we would talk about, oh, that this cop is a bad apple, but the large majority of cops are good. And then we'd get a blitz on media of all of these good cops, stories of look at them playing basketball with the black kids. They wouldn't dare kill them,

And next week. The reality is is that the medias had a way to shape our images of ourselves, of these pandemics of historic climate change, and they've had an opportunity to tell the truth, and instead they decided to go after ratings. They decided to go after the low hanging fruit, which was just how to make more money. And so now we are living inside of this reckoning, living inside of the problem that was created by media.

I don't say that Donald Trump created alternative facts, but the media did because they allowed us to live inside of this both sidesism. They allowed us to think that neutrality was something where we took ourselves out of the story, when in fact, we are the story. So when asked the question where do I think that media goes in

ten years, I have no fucking idea. And to be honest, I don't feel really hopeful about where media goes because I think that we are so far into our corners right now that I can't even imagine what a coming together will look like. But I know that we don't come together unless we come together around a shared truth, around values, around a shared understanding of what it means to be moral right. And I don't mean the religiosity of it. I mean to understand that no one should

fear losing their life for passing a counterfeit bill. No one should fear or losing their life as they're driving down the street, or sending their black son to the store, or playing on a playground. Right that you know, these things that we have seen, these stories that we continue to hear, they could provide a sense of empathy and humanity if they were told in the right way. So where does media go? I have no, honestly, no idea.

But I know that we need to challenge media more and not just take what they've been feeding us, not just ingest it and say that that is the way, because it is not, and it has never been until now. So I hope that you all enjoy this conversation, this kind of flipping of the script that doctor Jonathan Metzel and myself will do in this episode. So let me know on the comments section below what you think of our live in studio or I should say, live in

classroom conversation with doctor Jonathan Metzel at Vanderbilt University. Folks, I am so excited for this edition of woke ffa daily with our friend, our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel, to be live in his classroom for the very first time at Vanderbilt University. So this is an exciting time to be talking about what it means to be covering a pandemic in the media, what it means to tell

the truth, what it means to use our platforms for good. So, Jonathan, we're turning the tables today and you're going to ask me questions as opposed to the last eighteen months of me hammering you with the most important questions that the wokeaf audience gets to know. So I'm very excited to turn the tables today, so to you. Wonderful, wonderful, Well, welcome to my honored guest here, Daniel Moody, who's going to be interviewed by me, which is really really exciting.

And we actually have a live studio audience, which is why I'm wearing. Man, I'm wearing a mask. You don't often to get to see yourself in a mask, but I'm wearing like a big ass pancake on my face here, which is weird to be on television and be doing that, but that's the way it goes. But let's just quickly have our studio audience say hi. Let's get a big cheer from the studio audience and they will be joining us very shortly. But Danielle, today we're talking about the media.

The class that you're coming in on today is called COVID and Society, and what we do in the class is we just think about how is the pandemic changing and how has it changed the world as we know it. And so even though we have a lot of questions for you, and actually the students are going to come up and ask you questions on a little bit. Can you just tell us, first of all, what's it been like to be I mean, if we can even use the word the media, what's it been like to be

in the media during a time like this? What's your what's your experience been like? Just to start, I mean, I will say that we've had to learn how to do a lot of things differently, right. I came from a radio and a podcast and then a radio background

and then back into doing a podcast. And the reality was that before the pandemic, I'd been in studio, guests were coming in studio every day, and so you're building a rapport and you're having conversation, and now we had to transition to doing all of our interviews doing everything on zoom. I think that the basic way that I can say how the pandemic has shaped has reshaped me is that it has reflected to me just how important the media is. Like we had the nightmare that was

Donald Trump because of the media. We have a completely and total breakdown and facts and science and truth because of the media. And so to me, I feel a huge responsibility as we are living in and will essentially until forever. Who knows living in this pandemic what it means to tell the truth and to use whatever platforms that you have in order to do that. So that to me has just been hammered home more so over

the last eighteen months. And when you say the truth, I mean, is there a different relationship now that you have with the truth than you think you had before

all of this? And you know, I think that initially, you know, when you're a commentator, you're being asked to come on television, You're being asked to do shows to provide your opinion, which your opinion is basically the information that you're taking in, and you're providing your analysis the world that you see with the perspective that you have through your work, through your ethnicity, your race, your religion, your geography, your gender, your sexuality, orientation, all of the

things that help shape how we see and reflect back the world. And you know, now I have a lot more people on like yourself who are steeped in you know, facts, who are steeped in science, right like I am interviewing and talking with scientists and doctors more so than I would ever because I before it was just like, let me have another commentator on to get their opinion on,

you know, on the state of the world. Where I don't really want people's opinions on this pandemic so much as I just want to keep people alive, right Like, I just want to give people the information that they need in order to keep themselves, their families, and their communities safe. And so it's not so much setting up thoughtful debates, you know, as we would on let's say, the reconciliation package or let's talk about, you know, the debt ceiling or these things. But it's more so this

is about life and death. So I'm not looking for opinions so much as as much clarity as we can get in these times. But isn't it the case that facts themselves are so contested right now in a way, So I mean, how do you how do you navigate that out of There are examples you can think of during the pandemic where it's kind of like, what is a basic fact and how do I convey that to my audience? You know, I will say that for me, I have always trusted let's say, you know, the World

Health Organization, the CDC. Aside from the Trump administration, I had trusted for the most times what was being delivered outside, you know, from the White House. And so you know, I trust the people who I believe have reputations of telling the truth and wanting to really do no harm.

So the doctors and the scientists, the data analysts, the folks that I'm bringing on I have either worked with or I have had deep connection through work that I have done with people who are dedicated to upholding their oaths right to protect people and to provide you know, as much coherent, thoughtful information as possible to many people who haven't had a biology class since they were in middle school, right, And so you're trying to reach people where they are, and those are the people that I

like to bring on Woke A f are people that are adept at reaching people where they are. You know. It's interesting because like, of course, I'm somebody who's a cultural critic. I you know, I happen to have gone to med school, but I study race and politics. And yet when I go on your show, I'm probably more of a doctor than I ever expected to be on television because I'm like, you know, because I'm like you know. But it's interesting because that used to be the role

of everybody, right, getting out the information. And now there's such a hunger for information in a particular way. And so tell us about your audience a little bit, you know, is it your sense that your audience is also looking for they're looking for opinions, but they're also looking for facts.

I think that in the beginning of the pandemic, I mean, Jonathan, the comments that we used to get from you know, our segments in the very beginning, when we didn't know anything, people were so desperate for you to come on and just tell us what we need to know, just tell us, like, you know, am I to be is this is this virus spreading on cardboard boxes? Is it? You know? Can I walk past my neighbor? Do I have to move

to the other side of the street. You know, they were just so desperate in the beginning for any you know, any sense of how they can control right their environment and themselves. Now, so I think that it is also folks wanting your analysis, right, like wanting you know, why

is there such a big gap? Right? Like you know, in the New York Times yesterday was the article entitled red COVID right where it's just like, why is this this virus that started out ravaging blue states, now ravaging red states, right when we have a vaccine and we have more information than we did this time last year. And so my audience are very you know, they're they're highly educated, they're multiracial, you know, span pretty much everything

that you can think of. But the thing that they all have in common is the truth and is a dedication to progress, right, to progressive values and ideals. And you know, it's funny because because of course we're not just talking about COVID. COVID is also a reflection of American society, right, It's a reflection of our investments, or our lack of investments about race, about social justice and

things like that. And so, do you feel like the pandemic has also changed how you talk about other social, political, racial issues, because I think, yeah, I think that everything has been colored in such a very distinct way because of the pandemic. Things that we had always talked about right before the pandemic. We would talk about racial disparities, we would talk about you know, mass shootings, we would talk about all of these things. We talk about hunger,

we talk about education and public schools. Everything became so exacerbated over the course of this pandemic, the ills that we always knew we're facing our society now were blown up, you know, on a big screen in a way that we couldn't look away from it. I think that we in our society we love to excuse the faults that government and bad policies have created. We always put it

on the people. Oh, there's something wrong with them, because they're low income, because they're poor, because they're because they're black, because they're Latin X, because they're this. It's always the problem of the community. But what we see through this pandemic is that no, this is it's the problems that we are seeing enlarged. Our societal problems right they are their policy problems. There are things that weren't fixed that we knew were a problem. For instance, in our public

school system and public education. I'm talking K through twelve. We knew that a majority of children didn't have access to the internet, didn't have access to broadband. We knew that a majority of kids didn't have you know, decent computers and technology in their homes. We known that because reports had told us that for a decade plus, but

we waited until now. We couldn't go into school, and now teachers were forced to teach on zoom, which they'd never been asked to do, or forced to teach on blackboard, or use technology in a way that we never asked them to do. And then all of a sudden, we're having to have public school buses with broadbands circulate neighborhoods, or kids go and sit outside of the McDonald's or a diner in order to do their work because they needed access to the internet. That wasn't the pandemic's fault.

That's a failure of our public education system, right that we had ignored and continued to kick the can down the road until there was no more road. That's it for Today's Woke a f Daily podcasts To hear more from today's show, including my full interview with doctor Jonathan Metzel, support me on Patreon at patreon dot com Slatch Woke a F. Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay focus. Fuck