LET'S CHANGE THE NARRATIVE

INTRODUCTION:

What is the narrative?

The narrative is a spoken or written account of connected events or a story.

Definition courtesy of Google. The real question is, who chooses the narrative? Clearly, no one chooses the events. The events are a series of occurrences that take place, most times, without planning or warning. However, people choose the narrative. It's not just the media, it is each of us. Each of us in our daily lives. When something happens, we usually tend to tell someone. However, as with all stories, if you tell one person, by the time it is repeated 10 times, the story changes. Many times, the final story does not come close to the original event as told. This is due to perception. Whenever you tell someone anything, they perceive it their way, therefore, when they restate it, they restate it the way in which they perceived it. And so on, and so on.

We know this, and actually, we subconsciously expect it. In one sense, we find it interesting, hence the term, GOSSIP. We expect it from people. However, should we, or do we expect this from professionals whose job is to tell a story? Let's call it what is it. This is what they do for a living and have been trained and educated to do properly and accurately. As with all things, there are other determining factors. In the case of the media, it's the view the media stands for. Therefore, if you work for them you have two basic choices. 1. Be on board with their opinions and views, or 2., work somewhere else.

With that said, it goes even deeper. If you are just starting in the business and you have not made a name for yourself, you are pretty much stuck with keeping your mouth shut. However, once you are established, you're making an outrageous salary, and advertisers are paying top dollar to promote their products during your show, you have a much greater say. Is it safe to say that is all omes down to the almighty dollar.

Back in December 2016, Denzel Washington made a statement to the Washington Post. Courtesy of the Washington Post. When it comes to news broadcasting, it is the most accurate statement that still holds true, and is getting worse. Now, this practice of news reporting does NOT hold true in every case, but it does hold true in selective cases. The fact is, IT SHOULD NOT EVEN BE OCCURRING.

Here is the link to the one minute video.

TRUST:

Never doubt for a moment that everything in life revolves around trust. You need to trust your doctor, your partner, your children, your boss, friends, your family, and I'm sure you have your own. We know in a perfect world we can do this. We know that often times we have all been hurt by some of these individuals. Again, if we want to admit it, we actually expect this. We know we cannot trust everyone because we know we do not live in a perfect world. Yet, like the fly to the spider's web, we always seem to get caught in that trap.

Any parent who believes their teenagers are telling them exactly what they did when they went out on a Friday night is only fooling themselves. Think about when you were a teenager. Do you always tell the truth? Oftentimes family might be a bit untrusting, or should I say, untruthful. They may not want to hurt someone or get involved in others' affairs. On the other hand, friends may have the same or deeper motives. The bond, although strong, is different. Most workers rarely trust their boss because they have been screwed by them, seen them screw others, use others, and they may know a boss will do what is necessary to protect their jobs. That NEVER has to be that way, and that problem starts at the top. I can tell you with absolute certainty, that type of boss is a weak manager, and eventually, will lose his or her job because people do not perform for those they do not respect, and eventually, they will fall out of grace with the "good ole' boy" network and they themselves, will be replaced. I have thousands of students that have taken my management tutorials on various learning platforms on proper management and management and employee relations. I was NEVER that type of manager, and would NEVER work for a company that required me to be that way. I am proud to say that many companies have used my model and there are many good companies that are not that way.

WHAT WENT WRONG IN 2020?:

Remember I stated that everything in life revolves around trust? That was the #1 thing that made 2020 so difficult. Frankly, agree or not, the main cause was the media. let's look at some examples. I believe we would all agree that the biggest life-changing event in 2020 was the pandemic and it was an election year. Have no doubts. The media choose their side. The pandemic continues to be and will continue to be the #1 topic even after the vaccines are out to the public. The vaccine is the main tool that will beat this virus, but it will take time for that to spread across the country and defeat it. We also do not know if this will be a yearly shot or we need to get it yearly similar to the flu shot. Therefore, some of the precautions we are presently taking will take time to be able to be stopped, and the number of positive cases, hospitalizations, and deaths will be the metrics that determine when it is safe to really get back to what we all consider to be normal. There will be a day or two of side effects such as body aches, maybe a fever, and a headache, all of which come with most vaccines. Then we have the experts, which I will be discussing shortly.

Some friends of mine that read my blog say it must be so easy to write a blog. Honestly, depending on the type of blog someone writes, that is true. Especially when a blog is based solely on the writer's opinion or life experiences. Trust me when I tell you the type of blog I write is the most difficult, because rarely is one of my blog posts based around my opinion, and when necessary, I post the required citations from reliable sources to back up facts I may state. The hardest part for me is choosing a topic. Most of the topics I choose come from recommendations I receive via email from my readers. It takes hours of research each week before I finalize a blog post. I also must know going into the game that not every topic will be of interest to everyone. My website gives me analytics. I do not know who reads each post, but I number the number of people who read them. and at times other details such as age group and gender. Most people have no idea the information about them that is buried deep in the metadata of what you do online. Again, never who, meaning, by name or email. Location is only as accurate as if someone is using a VPN server or not. However, I use analytics to determine which topics were more popular than others. You would be shocked if you knew the type of things many people like to read about, and at least for my blog, it is not always current events.

Therefore, for me, it is imperative that my blog is credible, accurate, factual, and reliable so people trust what they read. Wow, there's that word again, TRUST. Everyone has their favorite news network. What mine is not important, but I watch them all. When we discuss why people do not trust what they hear, we must look at why. Every news media network has its "EXPERT" medical doctor that gives their opinion on such things as masks, social distancing, lockdowns, etc. So I watch MSNBC, CNN, and FOX, which are considered "THE BIG THREE." Here's a link to those facts. I also watch ABC.

LINK

THE EXPERTS:

Then we have the National leading expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Here comes the trust factor. If you listen to every leading "EXPERT," they simply do not agree on what is the right thing to do with regards to masks, social distancing, gatherings, lookdowns, etc. So who the heck do we listen to, and who do we trust? At times, we have to look at all the information and use our own common sense. Some local leaders and Governors often times have no clue, and frankly, they just like to play the "It's my way or no way game." I am not a fan of Governor Cuomo. He changes his views like most change their underwear. Ok, that is my opinion. I think his intentions are basically good, but he made many bad decisions during the pandemic and made, and continues to make it about politics.

In a medical crisis, I don't give a damn who the President is, who the Speaker of the House is, who the Senate majority leader is. In a medical crisis, there is no room for politics. It is and should be, solely for what is best for the citizens of this nation. There is no place for politics in this setting. PERIOD! In my 32 years as a paramedic in the field, I never cared about age, color, race, creed, neighborhood, or gender. Whether someone had a job, insurance, or whether they were a criminal or law-abiding citizen. My job was to save lives. ALL LIVES. PERIOD!

IN CLOSING:

Trust is a much more complicated word than we give it credit for, and in 2020, between the politicians and the news media, they have NOT instilled reason trust in the people. They have not caused us to trust at a time that is critical to our health, future, and economic well-being. I've said this in my last two or three posts. Shame on our Congress for not being able to come up with a stimulus package to further help businesses, and the people in this great nation who need it. Why? OVER POLITICAL AGENDAS. Then they each have the gall to say in a news briefing they care about the American people? Do we all have a tattoo on our foreheads that reads; I AM AN IDIOT? Is Pelosi waiting to see how the runoff in Georgia goes in January in the hopes of gaining the Senate so she can get her way? If not and the Republicans keep the Senate, we are back to square one. In my opinion, I think Trump or Biden would sign any bill the Congress agrees to. In four or so weeks it's Christmas. Without a stimulus bill now, people will suffer, many small businesses will simply become a thing of the past. Sure, there will be billions of dollars spent, and people's credit card debt will increase. What happens when the payments are due? Will bankruptcies be on the rise even more than they are now? What about after the pandemic? In an article by FORBES, we could be looking at a Bankruptcy tidal wave. This affects everyone. It causes credit card interest rates to rise amongst other things.

Everything I have discussed in this post revolves around trust, and the bottom line is, for 2020, we have NOT been given any reason to trust. I won't spend time quoting all the BS you have all heard on the news. You know that already, and that is why you have lost trust.