Journalisming and stiff-arming media | Hour 3

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepeakclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. It is Monday two o'clock and that means it's time to chat with Ap Dylan. She is a reporter at the North State Journal Nsjonline dot com is their website. She's also the creator of the substack newsletter. It's called more to the Story. You can subscribe as I do. AP. How are you doing? I'm good, Pete. How are you? I am doing well as well. So interesting weekend. I saw you were on Twitter a little bit, uh chatting, chatting with some colleagues in the North Carolina Reporting Corps. So I think we spoke about this last week because we were talking about the previous round of this of this story. It has to do with media access to the two candidates of the major parties, the Republican Michael Wattley and the Democrat Roy Cooper, and their refusal to allow certain reporters and media outlets into their campaign events. Right, we talked about Brian Anderson from the Assembly who was barred access to Michael Wattley's campaign and this was, you know, outrageous. And then it turns out North State Journal sent a photographer over to the Cooper campaign event in Gastonia and they too were barred access. And so maybe you could first just this is just sort of an inside baseball question, just for my own peace of mind. Was this photographer one of those like is it a photographer that's going just to take pictures or is it a photog that's going and taking pictures but also writing up something about the event. They don't write up the story, but they do grab sound bites or the question if we give it to them, but it's mostly to take pictures just to get a general feel for the what the event was about. So the reporter the writing. No, Right, So did this photog have a question that they were going to ask from North State Journal if they got the opportunity to do so. No, we didn't have a particular question for the Cooper event, We just sent him hoping that he would be able to have access and to take a few photos, maybe get a couple quotes from whatever speech was given, and that was it. We weren't looking to engage on that. We have heard that there aren't a lot of media gaggles after these things, and we heard mainly through the grapevine because we're not on Roy Cooper's media list. He has not put us on it, though we've asked. So that's a problem and for anyone from the News and Observer who might be listening to this podcast this time around, I'd just like to mention the fact that we were talking about Roy Cooper's inability to put us on the press list before, and that prefaces the comments that they included in their most recent article where they did not reach out to me nor to the North State Journal about our reporter not getting access to the Cooper campaign. Yes, so this is a very lengthy piece at the News and Observer by Danielle Battaglia, and she references at one point too because it started off according to because she got a lot of blowback and pushed back on Twitter after this report was published, not just from you. I made a comment on it as well, but there were a lot of people that were responding to it. So to her, this. Article started off as just a story on Whatley shutting down access to hostile reporters. But then they, she says, they found out or heard about the Cooper campaign doing the same thing to North State Journal and the Blue Ridge Times, and so then they kind of they updated their story to add more to add the Cooper angle into it as well, which I understand, you know that that happens in today's. Day and age. Like it used to be, they would just publish it and it would be in the print copy and that's it. But you can update these things after they're posted online. And she yeah, but she does have a quote from you that's was taken from this segment that we did last week talking about this topic, and you you thought that it wasn't that she left at a piece of information that I think probably is important because you said again that you have been trying to get on the Cooper mailing list, but they haven't put you on the mailing list. Did you see did did you see what her explanation was for why she did not include that that part of the quote. No, she didn't. She didn't clarify what why she didn't include that part? So no, I found I found a response, you know, I found I didn't see that. Yeah, yeah, so a guy named Andrew Barnes said that you ap Dillon also accused Battaglia of cherry picking a quote and not sharing where the quote originated. If that's true, that seems like a much bigger deal to me. And here's what Danielle Battaglia, the reporter said. My article says where the quote originated. She just said WBT radio. Right. She didn't give a link. She didn't say you shouldn't put my name whatever. There was No there was, which is weird because like you obviously listened to it to pull the quote, so you could have just put a link into the story, but she didn't. Look. I'm just anytime they even mentioned the call letters of our radio station any like in any one of these news organizations, I'm happy because like they usually they just usually call us like a local radio station, a Charlotte radio station. They like, that's usually the treatment we get. So she says, I didn't cherry pick. I used a quote from her accurately that I could substantiate instead of one I could not. So she's saying she could not substantiate what you said about trying to get on Cooper's email list, that the North You said that the in the in our interview last week, you said you the North State Journal has been trying to get on Cooper's email list but has not been has not been successful. So because she could not substantiate that, she left that part out, which is weird because. Just reached out to meet I mean reached out to me and ask if it's correct. She didn't even reach out about us being the aggrieved party being kicked out of Cooper's campaign event either, and that went out over almost an hour before they even were starting to update their story with what happened to us. She said she saw, she heard about her, she saw about it. The one key source that actually posted that was on x and it was me, and it was at round one thirty pm that day, well before any of their stories went out, So it was very easy to reach out to me and to ask about it, and they didn't do that. So that's journalism. One oh one. You reached out to the aggrieved party. Well and Also it's a it's a quoted source by name. Yes, right, So if you want to take the quote and it's not like this, I mean, this thing was five pages long. This article was five pages, so you had a lot of word count that you had to play with here. She had a lot of room, so she could have added that and quoted you directly in the quote. And that's that's atributed source. Now the reporter's not saying that I can't you know, I'm vouching for this as true. She's saying that you're making this statement. Here's what you said. You said you're trying to get on the list. Why would you lie about that? Right? You're like And here's the thing too, they have no problem printing accusations. In the very same article they quote, she quotes who's this guy, Baldaris Israel Baldaras, Yeah, yeah, who says uh? Baldaras acknowledged accusations, lobbed at Cooper for not allowing conservative media outlets to ask questions during a COVID nineteen or during COVID nineteen focused news conferences when he was governor. So you are willing to print accusations as you call them, even though that too was substantiated by your reporting, Like we know that they did this, and yet this is oh no, no, it's an accusation, but we'll print that accusation, but we're not going to print this, this other accusation because we can't substantiate it. It's like, I'm not clear on this standard now. Well you know it really it flabbergasted me. And she tried to mitigate it on X and the thread that we had, and she said that she was sorry that I was mad, but it wasn't a conspiracy, and I told her, yeah, I was damn well mad, because you know, it's not like she doesn't follow me on X. It's not like she hasn't met me in person. It's not like she doesn't know who I am. It would have been quite easy to just check my timeline and see if I had posted anything, which I did hours before their story went out. In fact, it looks like their story was first published the following day and then they updated again at noon. All our stuff had been out for almost twenty four hours at that point. You know, it's it's a layup. Yeah, frankly, all. Right, So what does this speak to? Why should people care This is kind of you know, inside baseball naval game, if you will, among the media here like, well, why should people who are not in the media care about all of these all of this back and forth and this this media war. Well, it shows an uneven application of basic standards for reporting number one and number two. It shows that there's a there's a history here conservative outlets or you know, if you want to call them that, whatever outlets that have been that were shunned by a Cooper during his eight years as governor. It didn't seem to bother the media at all. Then. Now had it been one of their outlets, we would have heard bloody murder. But you know, we're we're a member of the Press Association, We're you know, we've ketten awards. We've been around for over ten years now. Yeah, they're still quoting what Neil robbins affiliation with North State Journal. Neil Robbins who helped to launch it, and he used to be he did, yeah, and he was part of the McCrory Yeah. He for like six months. Right, But you know, anything to tie us to the GOP or to tie us to Republican leaning, with the implication being that somehow we were operatives trying to gain access to a campaign event. That's not what happened, right, We're media outlets trying to gain access to a campaign event. I mean, but you didn't see any kind of descriptors like that for the other outlets that didn't get into the Wily event. No, no descriptions about there, No, no. No, there's one here. They describe NC news Line a nonprofit news outlet under State's newsroom. State's Newsroom. Don't know what they're about. Actually I do know what they're about. Oh you should, because I wrote about exactly funded group exactly. It's a left wing, dark money funded operation all across the country where they create these like fake looking news sites and such. They hire former reporters to staff them, and they have they have an ideology. And I'm not knocking that. I'm just saying that you can't describe State's Newsroom as anything. But they did say it was that. NC news Line was formerly n C Policy Watch, which was then under the NC Justice Center, a left of center advocacy group. They just get the left of center right. It's just that they're not there anymore. They're considered above board. It's all the same people, right, yeah, it's yeah. So anyways, that's the state of the uh, that's the state of North Carolina media. And I guess we. Can't get a first shake from a Cooper campaign nor from the North Carolina media. That's yeah, that's what it is in a nutshell. Yeah, And so it makes it harder when everybody's trying to make these arguments against Michael Wattley's campaign, like, oh, we need to all have access, this needs to be the standard, and how dare you, you know, remove these people who have shown bias to towards Wattley or whatever. How dare you you know, hold this standard and they want everybody to join on board. Well it's kind of hard when you know, you guys are stiff arming all of these other reporters and media outlets for political or ideological reasons like oh, they're not in the click you know. Yeah, and there's there's you know, of course, the ones that were kt kicked out of the Wattley event. Nothing's said about why they were kicked out or why they weren't allowed in, and there were backstories about that and you can track it on X. People were raising the question that you know, one of the reporters had had an altercation with a Heywood GOP person. Right, that's why that that reporter was denied. And then you know the Assembly reporter, although he denies it over and over again and kind x, he had some bad conduct at a Wattley event where he chased around the room trying to get answers about things and jumped in front of other reporters. So he was aggressive. There was aggressive behavior there, and either one of them that says there hasn't been in either in the past or the recent past or the far past couple of years ago, they really need to check themselves. All right, We're gonna have to leave it there. We went way too long on this, but I'm interested in the story. So keep fighting the good fight, AP Dylan. I appreciate your time as always. Keep up the good work. Thanks all right, take care. That's AP Dylan. Read her work at the North State Journal nsjonline dot com and subscribe over at substack. More to the story is the name of the newsletter. All right. For over a year now you've heard me talking about create a Video. Great local company in mint Hill that has helped more than two million families preserve their memories by turning old photos, VHS tapes, film reels, and slides into lasting keepsakes, now creative videos helping families and groups create brand new memories while they're traveling. Introducing group travel videos perfect for family reunions, church mission trips, group vacations, destination weddings, student trips, senior adult groups, sports teams, I mean, really any gathering of people that you care about that's traveling together. 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You can email Katie Katie at group travel videos dot com. Group travel Videos from old memory to new Adventures, preserving life's moments for a lifetime. So Roy Cooper, running for US Senate, apparently spends a lot of money on security. According to Fox News, they got a hold of the federal records from the campaign expenditures and such, and his campaign apparently spent two hundred and seventy seven thousand dollars on security related payments during the twenty twenty six election cycle. Thus far, the money went to two vendors. One is called Foresight Solutions and then another one called front Point. So I don't know anything about either of these these organizations. If they are like security companies, I mean they Fox describes. Well. Foresight describes their work as including customized security assessments, workplace safety training, de escalation techniques, conflict resolution, and workplace violence prevent prevention. So I'm not sure if that's like armed security detail or if that's just like hardening, various locations, front point markets, home security systems designed to protect homes and families. I don't begrudge Roy Cooper from having security, not at all. However, I would point out. That there were a lot of people that probably wish they had a quarter million dollars to drop on security during a particularly fiery but mostly peaceful riot period. Fox News report by Alec Schemmel six figure private security bill for top Democrats Senate hopeful fuels GOP hypocrisy claims a right. So once again I'm just going to point out here this is sort of an old framing. Old I mean, like. Pre twenty fifteen or so twenty sixteen, Like back in the day, the charge of hypocrisy was enough to get somebody to resign in disgrace or drop out of a race, like a campaign to suspend, you know, during an election, like oh my gosh, they said this one thing like two thousand and four. For example, you know John F. Kerry, who I think Rush told me served in Vietnam that you know, he said, oh I voted against the Iran the Iraq war before I voted for it. Right, So, like that kind of hypocrisy used to be a career killer. And we used to talk about the hypocrisy all the time in talk radio conservative media. We would talk about, you know, this this two tiered standard, this double standard of you know, a Republican has this done to them, Democrat has this done to them? And you know, one gets this kind of coverage and one gets this other kind of coverage, and where's the consistent application of a standard? And along the way, over the last decade, conservatives finally wised up that the charge of hypocrisy is only meant to go one way. Now, I don't like that. I would prefer that people not be hypocrites, although really everybody is in some form or fashion, I mean, everybody has some bit of hypocrisy going on. I get that we are all humans, we are all fallen. Get that. But the charge of hypocrisy used to be way more damaging for Republicans. If a conservative did something like, you know, I I'm you know, I'm poor, I don't have any money, and then it turns out, oh, actually you know they're living. Oh that's kind of more of a lie. Yeah, that would be more of a lie. But at some point Republicans were like, well wait a minute, when the left engages in hypocrisy, it doesn't end their careers. Nobody seems to care if it's even covered at all. This hypocrisy charge just seems to be used one way. And so. They finally said, you know, we're gonna we're going to abide by your standard lefties. We're not going to care if our politicians are hypocrites. We're not going to care because you don't care if yours are, so we're not going to be shamed. And that's the thing. It's sort of like when an atheist start using Bible verses in order to get you to go along with some sort of you know, big government spending program. Well, Jesus was a socialist, you know that kind of stuff, right, And so the charge of hypocrisy carries no purchase any longer. I've been saying this for probably a decade, so I'm not sure that this is actually going to matter to people. I am simply pointing this out. This story in the in Fox News in that Roy Cooper, who remember you know, had to flee the governor's mansion during the BLM riots while business is burned, and he did not deploy the full National Guard to go protect the city. Right, he refused to combat that riot over a couple of days. Meanwhile, he had to flee from the Governor's mansion because of the riotous behavior outside the gates. Right because he had security, He had the Department of Public Safety whatever they you know, they have a security detail for the governor, as we should like. I'm not saying that he should have stayed, and I'm not saying that he shouldn't have security. Of course he should. However, it's very easy for people who have that privilege of security, and they get treated in a certain way because of that privilege, to then do things veto bills, right, espouse ideologies, empower certain ideologies for them to then hamstring regular citizens from trying to protect themselves or failing to protect the property of those citizens because the politician's property and their loved ones are protected and the regular citizens is not. Right. This isn't even really I mean, this is hypocrisy, sure, but it actually comes down to a sense of fairness and people can tell this, and that's why I suspect Cooper never told anybody that he was that the governor's mansion was evacuated during the BLM riots. I believe it was the night before, because we still don't know the extent, you know, the duration of the evacuation of the governor's mansion. But remember he then went outside and did like a one block walk with the fist in the air and the mask dangling around his ear in solidarity with the BLM protesters. And this is of the same thing. This is of the same kind. Okay. Cooper has spent two hundred and seventy seven thousand dollars campaign money on his security. It comes as he faces GOP attacks over his record on policing, criminal justice reform, ICE cooperation and COVID Night eighteen era inmate releases during his time as governor. Right, the Wiley campaign is pointing out that Roy Cooper not exactly tough on crime. Right, he bent to the will of the radical left wing base inside the Democrat Party as governor. This is what he did, Okay. He vetoed a bill that would have required sheriffs to cooperate with ICE. Who does that in danger? It endangers citizens, regular people who now have these illegal aliens that have been arrested for criminal acts. They bail out, they don't get deported, They go back into the community and now they can re offend. That puts the citizenry at risk. Republican strategist Mark Bednar, who was a comms director for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, he said, the issue on voters' minds isn't whether Roy Cooper or any other Democrat deems it necessary to keep themselves safe, but the issue is when he and other Democrats prioritize their own security while trying to hide from voters. They're soft on crime records that threaten local communities, and I think that is the challenge because Wattley has been hammering Cooper on crime policies and the release of all of the criminals. I heard during the I think it was the bottom of the hour newscast there about accusations from a former police officer in Macbe, South Carolina. Just it's not McBee, it's MacB how. They pronounce it, about a ticketing or a ticket quota scheme. He has accused the police department and the mayor of operating this quota scheme, which like when I first came down, I came down from New York, I was eighteen, went to college at Winthrop University, and like I was there. I was on campus one day during orientation and my roommate was playing in a band in Myrtle Beach like a reunion gig. And. So we just got in his car and we drove all the way to Myrtle Beach. And that's when So, like I was in South Carolina for all of I don't know, twelve hours or so when I was warned about Macbe, South Carolina. So this would have been nineteen ninety six. So this is not new. Everybody has always known that if you're driving to the beach and you're going through Macbe, South Carolina, it is basically a speed trap that is operating as a town. That's always been my. Of the way, Like everyone when you go to when you when you're driving to Myrtle Beach and you go through mac me make sure you are not breaking the speed limit like at all. They will ticket you for like two miles an hour over the speed limit. So I mean, it only took thirty years, but good to see that seeing the light of day, that story up. Kevin the fake Republican on the text line regarding Roy Cooper and security, not the first thing I think about when I think about hypocrisy. Okay, don't know if I was advocating that that's the first thing that you should think about regarding hypocrisy. Like, there are all sorts of examples to be given on hypocrisy because, as I said, virtually everybody engages in hypocrisy at some level, at some point at some time in their life. And the hypocrisy. Is most prevalent I would submit in politicians because they have to say things and vote certain ways that change over time, depending on the audience, depending on the bill, depending on donations. Right, there are all these reasons why politicians lie and tell you what you want to hear, and flip their votes or do things that they say they are against. Like all of that. Right wing Republicans Supreme Court and begging for more security would be more accurate when you are talking about hypocrites right wing Republicans Supreme Court and begging for more security. Are you talking about the US Supreme Court justices that have had death threats and swatting attacks on their homes and people showing up at their homes to murder them and their families. Like that's your hypocrisy. See, this is why I call you a fake Republican. You're not a Republican. You're not a conservative. Conservatives recognize the importance of the institutions and protecting people who are engaging in that work. And so when you have a Supreme Court that is being threatened with murder because of opinions they are issuing, that is not good for a healthy society. Now, if you are of a left wing or a black pilled horseshoe right perspective and you want to burn everything down, that you are free to believe that. However, that's not conserving anything. Sort of right there in the name of conservative Those who conserve, they don't seek radical changes. See when you start, when you start saying it's basically okay to murder and threaten Supreme Court justices, apparently, like that's that's not conserving, that's destroying the civilian civic infrastructure of the society. See, Kevin, Like, I'm not even going to call you a fake Republican. I'm just going to now relabel your text account name as a as a leftist, because that's that's what you sound like. Shane in Smyrna says, man, I knew I liked you. I went to Winthrop too. For about two and a half years till I ran off to the Navy in nineteen ninety two. PS. My barbecue is absolutely superior to NC style. Okay, well now, Shane, Okay, now I have to blow you from the text line too. Is that kind I mean that that kind of offensive talk. It's just not acceptable on a family friendly radio show like this. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.