Sunday afternoon the Y's Men of Westport/Weston and the Westport Library welcomed a distinguished panel of renowned news journalists as well as U.S Senator Richard Blumenthal for a discussion about the state of news reporting and the impact of social media on current and future generations. It's no great secret that the accuracy and validity of news reporting has been massively impacted by social media and is now causing great concern among our population. 

Moderated by Y's Men Past President John Brandt, the panel, featuring noted reporters John Berman of CNN, Alisyn Camerota and Dave Briggs, formerly of Fox and CNN, local reporter Dan Woog of 06880 and Senator Blumenthal, providing the congressional perspective,. They delivered an honest discussion about concerns we all have about the accuracy of the news and information we are exposed to every day.

Photos By J.C. Martin and story by J.C. Martin and Dick Kalt For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.

Above, row one, (l to r) Senator Richard Blumenthal, Westport Resident Alisyn Camerota, Dan Woog, Dave Briggs, another Westporter with Woog. Row two: Moderator John Brandt, Blumenthal with Brandt, John Berman, Camerota. Mr. Briggs commented to WestportLocalPress, saying “Kudos to John (Brandt) for assembling an excellent panel. The crowd was terrific. I’m always thrilled to see how engaged my Westport community is. I wish there were more young people among the packed house, they have to power and intelligence to change the narrative.”

When Ms. Camerota spoke she discussed the election and spoke at length about the effects of the mass distribution of misinformation though media outlets, especially from the right, which have also focused upon cultural issues. Ms. Camerota defended the accuracy of the reporting on mainstream cable such as CNN, and Mr. Berman concurred citing the vigorous fact checking CNN does and spoke about how fact-checkers have come to be mocked "as these charlatans" saying that when he hears people have given up on fact-checking (as Meta has just essentially done) he said, "boy, do I find that disheartening."

Camerota was also impressed with the audience, telling WestportLocalPress, “The standing-room only crowd that showed up on a cold Sunday demonstrates how interested Americans are in the work of journalists. And how concerned they are for the future of press freedom.”

Senator Blumenthal began the discussion and addressed multiple issues including the divisive nature of politics and the stark differences between right and left. He the future of the American dream which seems to be getting more out of reach for our children saying "that dream is vanishing for a lot of Americans, (they) can't buy houses, can't buy cars. He also opined upon the issue of immigration and anger towards them as one of the factors contributing to this clear divide.

He also expressed deep concern with the stated actions of Donald Trump especially as to the nomination of several people to top department leadership positions including Kash Patel at the FBI, Tulsi Gabbard and also Pete Hegseth to head the Department of Defense. He called attention to what he determined the poor qualifications for these vital posts, saying some of Trump's picks seemed to be "outside the realm of what used to be realistic nominees, qualified and prepared... people of character and competence", and further mentioned the lack of transparency of the Hegseth background check and to his qualifications to run that department effectively. Blumenthal also mentioned his deep concern about the emergence of deep fakes and their potential to further erode confidence in the public sector as to what is real. The Senator cited his work with conservative Republican Josh Hawley (R-MO), Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law on deep fakes in elections.

Local politicians in attendance included First Selectwoman Jen Tooker, above left, Second Selectwoman Andrea Moore (next) seated with former First Selectman Jim Marpe. Staples High School's award-winning journalism teacher Mary Elizabeth Fulco is introduced to the audience and students in the upper level take note of the ongoing discussion.

As the discussion continued, Mr. Woog, as Westport's leading blogger with a tremendous reach in the community spoke about how he addressed the political climate in his 06880 blog. He described articles which addressed the heated rhetoric especially concerning Trump including the great golf cart controversy at Longshore where a heated exchange resulted from the display of Trump flags on the cart as it drove through the golf course causing some to think he was a Longshore employee which he neither claimed or denied. This raised directly the issue of free speech, another political hot button issue.

His other mention was is piece on the Maple Ave. North who displayed a sign saying "honk for Trump", which resulted in enough "honks" to disrupt the neighbors resulting in legal action that achieved an order for that neighbor to remove the sign which was deemed to be free speech, but was also found to be disruptive.

Dave Briggs also focused on the issue of the widespread dissemination of mis-information through the vast social media landscape, and described having conversations with "intelligent, college educate people" whose understanding of the facts bore "no resemblance to the truth" and "arguing with them is impossible because they read it somewhere." Briggs also mentioned an article in the respected publication "The Economist" which called the U.S. economy the envy of the world which did not seem to have much of an effect on the 2024 race.

Above, (l to r) Staples journalism teacher Mary Elizabeth Fulco, Inklings news advisor and teacher Joseph Del Gobbo, Staples seniors and Inklings News co-Editors-In-Chiefs Nina Bowens and Lily Hultgren.

Inklings Co-Editor Nina Bowens told WestportLocalPress, "It was a huge honor to speak onstage alongside such accomplished journalists and our Senator, Richard Blumenthal. Lily and I were excited to share a small aspect of what Inklings, as an organization, was able to cover during the 2024 election. Though our Instagram video, which we discussed during the panel, was relatively small, we believe that local politics has a major impact, and hope our journalism helped contribute to that impact. We are always looking to educate both our peers and the broader Westport community through honest and dedicated reporting."

Co-Editor Lily Hultgren added, "Inklings has made such an impact on our lives so we are very grateful for the opportunity to share a bit about what we do. We are very lucky to have such supportive advisors and such a talented staff, so we hope that the community continues to support us and tune into all we do whether that be our paper, website, TV show or social media.”

Inklings reporter Anna Kercher is hard at work writing her article on the event which will appear this week and can be found by visiting Inklings News.

Photos and story by J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.

Near the end of the program a slot was reserved for questions from the audience. Mr. Brandt cautioned folks to be brief and requested they ask a single question. The first couple of questioners did so, including one question about the qualifications of Mr. Hegseth which was of concern. Another audience member began with a comment about how he was in the minority of the audience (which as we suspect is not composed of very many conservative or maga leaning individuals) He then started reading an email as a preface to a question on the bias of pubic radio against the conservative point of view as a result of their desire to receive funding, which was of concern to him. The moderator had to request that he discontinue his comments as they were preventing other questioners from getting their turn. In fact, 4 or 5 people were not able to reach the mic before the event was ended. Ms. Camerota who might be viewed as leaning somewhat to left of center responded that she agreed the public radio should be more centrist and balanced in their broadcasts and that limiting their focus to more left-wing coverage may not be the best way to conduct journalism.

TO VIEW THIS IMPORTANT AND INFORMATIVE DISCUSSION IN IT’S ENTIRETY:

Visit the Westport Library’s YouTube channel for the entire presentation: Election Impact: Journalists Alisyn Camerota, John Berman, Dave Briggs & Senator Richard Blumenthal