For the many people out there who ask me constantly how they can cut through the spin and get to the truth, I always say it helps to go to the source and begin there. After being lied to over & over by so many major leaders, we finally have source documents like transcripts,
Which are significant because they are under oath - as opposed to TV interviews where people can say what they want and as long as it fits the narrative, it is mostly unchallenged. It is one thing to rely on leaders and organisations to tell the truth when we lack the information
And the ability to get to that information - we do our best and inevitably make mistakes. So when we get transcripts and other documents, typically in media, that is a gift. I have been reporting for more than 35 years and the principles have never changed - primary sources
Are always better than secondary sources etc. Being interviewed under oath is not an absolute guarantee that every word is the whole truth, but people tend to be much more honest when they know they can be held to account for their lies. The one thing I really struggle with today
Is that I know so many great reporters and I believe as much today in what we can do as journalists when we do our jobs honestly, so I have to believe there are many out there reading these transcripts simply because they want to know the truth. I have never looked at anything
Through a political lens - it’s not how I live and see the world. I am a heart first person and I just try to separate facts from opinion and find the trail that leads to the one thing none can change - which is the truth. We may perceive it differently but in the end...
What saves us all from ourselves is that there really is only one truth. So as I write this I wonder why on earth I am exposing myself to more abuse and false smears from those political operatives masquerading as journalists who are so desperate to wipe out all my years
Of reporting - 16 years at 60 Minutes and CBS News is just a part of a career that began at a newspaper in South Africa when I was 17 years old. Yes - much time and hard work have passed since then - I am almost 50 and feel a hundred some days.... But the point is...
You can’t turn me into some sloppy, right-wing shrill just because you don’t want independent, honest re-outing that is not ideologically driven. You can’t make it stick because it is not true. You can’t keep using the same smears against everyone and expect people aren’t
Smart enough to figure out the patterns and recognize the same tactics being used over and over. I am nothing. I know that and I’m fine with it. I only ever wanted to understand and do the right thing and maybe along the way learn something that matters so I could help.
If I can go to my grave knowing my children love me and I haven;t messed them up too much....then that will be a life well lived. That should not be mistaken for giving up - I am going to keep fighting to get to the truth ‘til the last breath in my body. Honestly, I can’t help it
That’s my DNA. I’m not always right and as my mom used to say, “the older I get the less I know’. But what I see before us today is a new fight, where journalists are not getting it wrong because they can’t find the truth or it’s hidden/held from us - here you have the truth,
You have the truth &anyone can figure it out if they suspend ideology and partisan political views and focus on the principles and the facts. If you do that and then say you think it’s a great thing for all of us when the criminal justice system is wielded as a political weapon
Well, that would be an entirely different conversation and in a free country we could debate that but at least we’d be starting from an honest place. Today in the land of the free, millions of Americans are afraid to say what they think and with good reason.
But we all know that in a free country it shouldn’t be that way.
