I'm a former newspaper reporter (25 years) who recently published a book titled Saving the Beast: A recovering reporter reflects on America's broken media and how to fix it. In the book, I draw on my journalism career to trace the origins of the breakdown in the relationship between the mainstream media and the American public occurred, the fallout from it, and what the media could do if it wanted to repair it. To keep things current, we can discuss the 2024 election on your podcast, including examples of the media's major failures and successes during the campaign.
Who better than a guy who spent 25 years as a newspaper reporter and established himself as one of the mainstream media's harshest critics to write a book about the broken relationship between the media and the American public? Makes sense to me, but it took me a while to get to this point. You could say writing is in my blood -- my mother was a newspaper reporter and photographer and before her, my grandmother as well. But I started off on a divergent path, earning a degree in criminal justice. However, once I graduated, I decided law enforcement wasn't for me, so I got a job as a security officer by day and pursued a second degree in journalism by night. I then parlayed my two degrees into my first job as a full-time newspaper crime reporter in 1996. Two years later, I moved from Rhode Island to Pennsylvania, working for three different newspapers in the Keystone State, all as a crime and emegency news reporter. Sensing a seismic shift in the craft and industry of journalism, I left newspapers in 2021, and now work in public relations. My first book, Saving the Beast -- A Recovering Reporter Reflects on America's Broken Media and How to Fix it -- is the culmination of nearly two years of dissecting the conundrum of the media versus the public. It is my hope that readers find it educational, informative and entertaining.
