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Speaker 1: To discuss the news of the day in the state

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Speaker 1: of the nation. Please welcome Chris Styre Walt, writer for

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Speaker 1: the Dispatch Newsletters. Styre Walt is MS is a columnst terrific.

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Speaker 1: He's a Senior Fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, and

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Speaker 1: he's the author of a fabulous sounding book, Broken News.

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Speaker 1: Why the Media Rage Machine divides American How to Fight Back. Chris,

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Speaker 1: how are you I like that my book is fabulous sounding.

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Speaker 1: I think that's really I'm happy in the space of

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Speaker 1: being fabulous sounding. And I also want to say how

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Speaker 1: great it is to talk to Californians who understand how

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Speaker 1: shattered and broken California's referendum and recall system is and

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Speaker 1: how that's different than what we're supposed to do in

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Speaker 1: this country. So I'm very happy to be with you. Well,

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Speaker 1: the idiotic bullet train is indictment enough for anybody to

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Speaker 1: end the system immediately, but there's plenty more evidence to

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Speaker 1: pile on. Yeah, we're not smart govern ourselves. What do

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Speaker 1: you want? Lower taxes? Are Left Sunday? Yes, we actually

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Speaker 1: we're just talking about how California has uh. They ranked

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Speaker 1: the roads. California has the worst roads in the entire country.

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Speaker 1: And I've lived in California for twenty five years, and

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Speaker 1: I don't know how many taxes have been added on

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Speaker 1: to various things to fix the roads. And I'm a

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Speaker 1: West Virginia and I don't live in West Virginia, but

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Speaker 1: I'm a West Virginian. We got your money. We appreciate it,

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Speaker 1: thanks to the federal thanks to the federalized system. Uh,

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Speaker 1: we got your money. Thanks, Thanks God for letting us

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Speaker 1: have your money. It's really the the the um California

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Speaker 1: is a testament to the fact that good weather is

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Speaker 1: really important to evil. And I've I'm going to California.

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Speaker 1: I'd love going to California. Girlfriend is in California. It's

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Speaker 1: really important to America. The California be California. But if

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Speaker 1: it wasn't for the good weather, I don't think. I

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Speaker 1: don't think we'd be having the same conversation. I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: so we're happy to have you on. Chris Star won't

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Speaker 1: tell us what your book is about. Well, I don't

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Speaker 1: think anybody disagrees with the central premise of my book,

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Speaker 1: which is that it's called broken news. Right, Nobody nobody

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Speaker 1: thinks that the way that we get and consume news

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Speaker 1: is good, right, um, and I think most of us

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Speaker 1: wanted to be better. How do we do that? How

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Speaker 1: do we get there? And I think the answer is obligation.

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Speaker 1: And I know obligation it is not a fun word,

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Speaker 1: and I know that's not how we're supposed to make stuff.

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Speaker 1: But as journalists, the three of us owe something special

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Speaker 1: to the Constitution. We owe something special to the funders

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Speaker 1: and the million people who died in defense of this

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Speaker 1: country and our liberty. We have that special obligation. But

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Speaker 1: we have an obligation to each other right out of

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Speaker 1: filial love, brotherly or sister lee love. We have a

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Speaker 1: little obligation to each other, which is it doesn't matter. Well,

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Speaker 1: can I can? I make a very obvious point, which

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Speaker 1: is that, um, Del Taco has the best frize. It's true.

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Speaker 1: The rest of America should know that. It's true that

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Speaker 1: Del Taco fries are the best fries. It's just what's

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Speaker 1: sort of monster orders fries to go with a taco though?

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Speaker 1: Come on, Oh, have you not had Del Taco fries?

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Speaker 1: I just found out that Del Taco has fries fifteen

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Speaker 1: seconds ago. So wow, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I came

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Speaker 1: on your show. Yeah, well that's a really shocking place

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Speaker 1: for you to be. So Del Taco has the best

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Speaker 1: friese of any fast food restaurant in America. It's stupendous.

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Speaker 1: But I don't know it just it's it feels like

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Speaker 1: ordering refried beans with a hamburger. I just can you

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Speaker 1: correct him? Or is there somebody that can die? Simmers? Do?

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Speaker 1: Are you tying this into the founders and journalism or

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Speaker 1: is this just an aside? It's okay, it's okay, we can't.

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Speaker 1: We'll just press on. We'll press on. They're the best,

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Speaker 1: They're the best prize, they are the crinkle cut best prize.

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Speaker 1: They're the most important French fries. It's really good. Del

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Speaker 1: Taco is clearly hacked into this phone call. So, Chris,

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Speaker 1: we are actually insufferably sincere about what you were talking

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Speaker 1: about and the fact that you ought to put the

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Speaker 1: constitution in the and the good of your countrymen before

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Speaker 1: in separably sincere. I'm keeping that. But there's one thing

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Speaker 1: to be said for jinning uprage, whether you are a

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Speaker 1: media publication or a talk show host or a politician,

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Speaker 1: it's profitable as hell. Yes, at my point about the friese,

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Speaker 1: which you're wrong about and weird. I don't care what

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Speaker 1: people eat. They should go do it. They should go

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Speaker 1: enjoy their great lives. They should go be happy with

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Speaker 1: themselves and God bless them. And it doesn't really affect me.

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Speaker 1: But if you don't have the right informational diet, if

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Speaker 1: you do not experience information the right way, it has

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Speaker 1: consequences for me as your fellow American. And people owe

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Speaker 1: a debt to their fellow Americans. Um. I know that

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Speaker 1: when I get on my soapbox and talk about journalism,

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Speaker 1: that it can be too much, and that my fellow

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Speaker 1: journalists and I are ridiculous in many ways, like we

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Speaker 1: got we we get to be ridiculous in many ways.

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Speaker 1: But that part is true, which is that we owe

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Speaker 1: each other a thing that out of like Ronald Reagan's

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Speaker 1: closing addressed or his farewell addressed, he said, if you

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Speaker 1: love America, you have to love Americans. And if you

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Speaker 1: love Americans, you have to like do this right. You

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Speaker 1: This is a part of it that you have to

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Speaker 1: do right. And you have to hear the You have

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Speaker 1: to get news in a way that is wholesome. You

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Speaker 1: have to eat good French fries, like eat better French fries? Bro, Like,

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Speaker 1: do you have to do you have to do that?

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Speaker 1: Like it counts for other people and it can't just

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Speaker 1: all be rbs. Yeah. Well, we talk about this topic

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Speaker 1: practically every day. It comes up in some form. So

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Speaker 1: you've got the you know, the clickonomics and everything. You've

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Speaker 1: got the the reason for the media to want to

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Speaker 1: feed crappy French fries to Americans because there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of money in it and the and the people want

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Speaker 1: it so bad apparently, Um, how do you break out

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Speaker 1: of that cycle? When night, when the first radio station

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Speaker 1: in America, Katie K a UM, had its first presidential

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Speaker 1: election broadcast in they did from the roof of the

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Speaker 1: Western House built again Finnsburgh. There's no radios within This

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Speaker 1: is my favorite, my favorite fact in my book, uh

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Speaker 1: is there were no radios within the zone to hear

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Speaker 1: that broadcast. No one could have heard it. It was empty.

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Speaker 1: Well hill hill hill, um houses in America had radios.

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Speaker 1: And we're not doing great, right, I don't. I don't

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Speaker 1: tell anybody we're doing great. I don't. I don't pretend

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Speaker 1: that it's fine. But it takes time to get better

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Speaker 1: at this. It takes a lot of time to get

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Speaker 1: better at this, and we are really just starting with

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Speaker 1: these hand computers that we carry around that we assume

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Speaker 1: as the only two thousand and eight. It's just the

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Speaker 1: way that the world is, the way that life is.

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Speaker 1: We are struggling to get better at it. Well, I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry to bring down your morning show, but I

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Speaker 1: will just say this. I've had way too many opportunities.

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Speaker 1: To quote Abraham Lincoln's speech to the young men's like

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Speaker 1: them of Springfield, which is, we will either endure for

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Speaker 1: all time as a nation of freemen, or we will

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Speaker 1: die by suicide. And those are the those options remain

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Speaker 1: exactly the same number of options. And I think we'll

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Speaker 1: do the right thing. But to quote the quote unquote, um,

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Speaker 1: as Winston Churchill said, you can always rely on the

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Speaker 1: American people to do the right thing after exhausting every

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Speaker 1: other possible outcome. Yeah. I just I fear that the

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Speaker 1: culture has moved so radically from an US culture to

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Speaker 1: a ME culture. Um. I just that that feeling of

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Speaker 1: collective responsibility to each other. I just I fear it

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Speaker 1: has evaporated. I hope I'm wrong. Well, you well, like

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Speaker 1: I I hope you're wrong. Too um, and we may fail.

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Speaker 1: And I think you the as as we would say

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Speaker 1: in West Virginia, the best way to get good at

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Speaker 1: something fast is to play for more than you can

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Speaker 1: afford to lose. And I think January six, Americans have

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Speaker 1: understood that we could have a different like there's a

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Speaker 1: different outcome that's possible. Uh. One of the things I

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Speaker 1: liked least about Barack Obama was the arc of history

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Speaker 1: narrative that he used. I don't think there's an organ history.

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Speaker 1: I think we get to pick and sometimes it takes things.

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Speaker 1: And I think that Americans will choose the correct outcome.

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Speaker 1: I think Americans will choose a republic, but it's not

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Speaker 1: a guarantee and we'd better act like it. There you go.

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Speaker 1: Chris Styrewall, author of Broken News, Why the Media Age

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Speaker 1: Machine Divides Divides American How to Fight Back at his

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Speaker 1: fabulous sound and Chris, thanks so much for the time,

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Speaker 1: good luck with the book. Thank you guys, Armstrong and

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Speaker 1: Getty