I went out to dinner with my parents at a place that had Fox News on and I watched as the chyrons communicated the message Biden had failed on this matter. That was the main takeaway. There was nothing from any other source at all. This was after 7 p.m. when the opinion people speak, but there's no delineation of that. This same person also spent 15 minutes on Hilary Clinton's trip to India. Did you know she was in India? I didn't. What she does is not relevant to my life in anyway.
There were also more chyrons. Did you know the second amendment is under assault? Did you know that you need to go through hardship to truly deserve success?
I lament so much that so many talk in soundbites. Locally we've had quite a bit of this, too. There are claims made that are not factually true, and I can debunk them. I choose not to because I choose my time to write information about what's happening, and I try to avoid using the word news because that's an old word now, laden with so much.
I tried to explain to my parents that the reason I despise Fox News is because it's primary existence is intended to get them to hate certain figures. And then I think, we have that in my local community, too. The last several years have been very painful because this same style has come to the place where I have been writing about for years. And this is where I have to be very cautious because I am a cipher. My job is to relay information and to do the best I can to subtract myself from it. This is more difficult than it used to be because I am human, too. I have emotions and sometimes they get the best of me.
I get angry when I feel that people are lying and spreading misinformation. I'm sure many may accuse me of doing so, but I have a policy to correct myself and disclaim to the utmost level I can.
I'm driven by a sense that I am human and that others want to be treated with respect. I try my best as a writer to not pepper my language with that which will inflame.
So watching Fox News, as well as a lot of cable information programs, is painful. I know what I write will never get the most headlines, but I'm writing about issues that are also potentially inflammatory and I strive to not add anything that causes another human being to tap into emotions that provoke less than rational responses.
Others? That's their game plan. They want to control others. And yet for some reason in the back of my head is this notion that Americans are supposed to be free.
And this is where I get twisted. I know other people can just turn this off and see this as entertainment. I don't know many people who at 1:34 a.m. are about to look up a deed for a story. I'm trying to get to a bigger point in a story, one that will actually be printed as opposed to whatever fantasy land I live in.
It makes me angry sometimes what I find. But I also have to caution myself to tamp down the feelings of anger for that clouds the mind. I know that my entire ethos is to get people to primary sources. Like the Blinken press conference Heather Cox Richardson refers to.
I love her style because she writes passionately. The volume alone is enough to detect that. I've been inspired to do what I do again because of her exhaustive work. I work as hard as I do because I believe in spreading information. I do not want to tell you or anything want to think. Heck, I question what I think all of the time!
This is way too long but I appreciate the opportunity to write the above. I needed to after spending the last two hours writing up a story.
Oh, in case anyone wonders about the deed. The house in Belmont in question had been left to someone in the will and they decided to just sell. They did in January 2021 for about $50,000 less than assessment. The new owner began work right away, but didn't know they had to check to make sure the asbestos in the structure was handled safely. The city issued a stop work order, and the new owner then had to go through the city's building permit process.
Anyway the newly renovated house sold on January 30 for $760,000. That's about $180,000 over the 2023 assessment. Those with means will do what they can, and there a lot of people with means. I can cite example after example from my research. I cannot and should not extrapolate from this into an easy soundbite.
For my work is to paint a larger picture, or perhaps even a mosaic. How do all of these various pieces fit together? Will the upzoning in Charlottesville have the desired effect of bringing down the cost of housing? Or does it even matter, when this trend is happening anyway? I don't know. I cannot profess to know what will happen. That's not my job. I write it down, "it" being the result of as much research as I can do.
Again, I'll probably delete this but not until I turn it into ten words for a story.
