Hi everyone,
You might’ve noticed that I did not send out a newsletter last Friday, as was the plan with Eppur Si Muove. I apologize for not letting all of you know why I wasn’t, and didn’t, writing anything last week.
I was exhausted. Really. Last week was one of the most tiring weeks I had in a while that was not because of any COVID19 shutdown. It started with Sunday, July 12th where I covered the Back the Blue and the Black Lives Matter protests in Bay Ridge. What started off as a tense standoff between the two sides fell into anger and violence. Spending four hours observing, taking notes, tweeting videos and reports on Twitter, and witnessing acts of violence, was physically, emotionally and even mentally exhausting. I felt shaken and pretty much shot that Monday and even Tuesday. Even a few people I spoke to the day after, who were at the protests on Sunday, felt the same way. It was an overwhelming event for all the aforementioned reasons.
On top of this, I was also writing and reporting on another article, this time for Bklyner, which assigned me to take a look at the closing of two more Catholic academies in Brooklyn. Taking a look meant learning about the many questions parents had at the sudden, out-of-the-blue closure of their school community, in the middle of the summer during a pandemic. Finally, I was working on other articles while preparing to teach my English courses for the Fall semester.
So, I was super busy last week, and by the time Friday rolled around, I did not have the energy to write for this newsletter.
At the same time, though, I began to rethink what I wanted to do with this newsletter, or with a Substack newsletter at all. This is because the reactions I got from the tweets I did during the protests fueled something I have been working towards during this year.
I have always been concerned with the hatred towards the press that has been occurring in recent years, particularly in the last four. And as time goes on, I get more concerned, and it’s not just the hatred. It’s the misunderstanding of what a journalist’s job is, what a journalist is supposed to or not do, and the scapegoating and blaming in the news media. Not to mention, the usual, tired word “biased” - I swear that word has lost its original meaning. I wrote a bit about this back in April, and I’m currently teaming up with librarians at one of the colleges I teach at to create a media literacy workshop.
But the tweets I received on July 12th, and the days after, has further sparked my desire to address the hatred and misunderstanding towards the press, while also promoting media literacy, a much needed skill in today’s world. I also believe members of the press need to speak to the readers and audiences to address these hatreds and explain what their job really is. If we are to serve the public, we need to address what the public is saying about us, however unfair they’re accusations and complaints are.
So, starting next Friday (as always), I’ll be discussing media literacy with this newsletter. I most likely will be changing the name of this newsletter, hence why I will be starting to write again next Friday since I’ll be rebranding everything here. But until then, take into consideration this meme I found on Facebook that sums up a lot of what I think. Here’s a link to where I found this meme and what people are saying. I’m sure this is something many can agree on, or at least should consider.
Till then, take care and I’ll see you next week.