There was one thing I learned when visiting foreign ports as a sailor in the U.S. Navy … Never discuss politics, sports or religion. These are three topics that people can be fanatical about, take sides and, more than likely, cause fights. The same can be said for social media today. If you have a different view on certain topics, you will get pounced on and devoured like Garfield eating lasagna.
I’ve worked hard to keep my political views out of my blog, but I feel the need to step in just this once. As a journalist, albeit a military journalist, I have to take exception with the sad state of journalism today. It seems that today’s media are more interested in becoming part of the story rather than reporting on it. They are more interested in “gotcha” questions, hoping for a sensational quote they can point to and spend hours upon hours discussing with multiple pundits and experts. It’s nauseating.
Granted, with people like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton running for President, you have plenty of gaffes to talk about, but nowadays, it’s difficult to get past the reporter’s bias. Just by listening to the tone of their voice and type of questions they ask can determine a reporter’s political leanings and that’s my biggest problem.
The media are supposed to be the sentinels of the truth. They investigate, question and report on the activities of the government to keep the people abreast of what our public officials are doing. There is no better example of that than Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965). His reporting style focused on facts, not on sensationalism. He never made the story about himself, even when he was pulled into it. One of the best journalism movies out there is George Clooney’s “Good Luck and Good Night” from 2005. It should Murrow’s reporting during the “Red Scare” hearings by Senator Joe McCarthy. You can see the same great examples of journalism in movie’s like “Spotlight” and “All the President’s Men” as well. It doesn’t matter who is in power in Washington, D.C.
Journalists today are more interested in courting favor with those in power to maintain relations that can help propel them into the spotlight, maybe even a better job. That’s how ridiculous the mainstream media has become. All it takes is a quick Google search to discover whether a journalist is being disingenuous or flat out lying. You can also tell their political leanings when they ask on candidate tougher questions than another. It seems most of them don’t even try to hide it anymore.
People say that the Vietnam War was lost when the government lost Walter Cronkite. During a trip to Vietnam in 1968, he said, “It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.” That one sentence told the American people that the war was not winnable and, by most accounts, turned many against continuing the campaign. It is said that President Lyndon Johnson was heard to say, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.” That is the power of journalism.
Like authors, journalists are storytellers, but they rely on facts, not fiction. We need our media to get back to that philosophy so we can make critical decisions about the direction of our country, but without the sarcasm or commentary. Like Detective Joe Friday always said, “Just the facts, ma’am …”
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Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase at Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. The Dark Tides is available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble andiUniverse.The Outlander War can be previewed at Inkitt.
Today, he was talking about negativity and how it can impact your life. He talked about how hanging onto negative emotions can block you from your inner creativity and reaching your goals. It really hit home with me because of what I’ve been going through this past year and how it’s stifled my ability to write.
We’ve all experienced it, some more than most. It is an obsession that we can’t explain nor can we understand ourselves. With me, it began in college in the 1980s, where I was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons. That’s where I fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
Even after I joined the Navy, I continued to play D&D. I found friends aboard the ship and we played during our duty days and off-duty hours. When I eventually stopped playing, I turned my obsession around and started writing, and it was from that, I created my
Writer’s Block is defined as “the condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing.” For many writers like me, we just call it “a slow march into Hell with only a thimble of water to drink.” It can make or break any author. It will make you miss deadlines, collapse goals and potentially lose money we haven’t earned from our last book. In other words, a bottomless pit from which there is no escape for the weak and weary. Once you’re there, it’s hard to climb your way out of it.
The BFG, written by Roald Dahl in 1982 and directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, is the only book by Dahl that hasn’t been made into a feature film previously. The BFG (Mark Rylance), while a giant himself, is a Big Friendly Giant and nothing like the other inhabitants of Giant Country. Standing 24-feet tall with enormous ears and a keen sense of smell, he is endearingly dim-witted and keeps to himself for the most part. Giants like Bloodbottler (Bill Hader) and Fleshlumpeater (Jemaine Clement) on the other hand, are twice as big and at least twice as scary and have been known to eat humans, while the BFG prefers Snozzcumber and Frobscottle. Upon her arrival in Giant Country, Sophie, a precocious 10-year-old girl from London, is initially frightened of the mysterious giant who has brought her to his cave, but soon comes to realize that the BFG is actually quite gentle and charming, and, having never met a giant before, has many questions. The BFG brings Sophie to Dream Country where he collects dreams and sends them to children, teaching her all about the magic and mystery of dreams.
This brings me back to my opening statement. Kids, and even parents, today flock to Finding Dory instead of The BFG. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Pixar movies, but to see a classic like The BFG ignored for a talking fish is sad. This generation is so hung up on movies, television, the internet, and video games that they all but ignore reading such great stories. It’s only because of technology today that movies can bring these stories to life. Watching The BFG made me want to read the book again, to bring back the magic from long ago.
I just wanted to let everyone know I will not be blogging for the next two weeks, but I have a very good reason. I will be supporting the 2016 Wounded Warrior games at the West Point Military Academy. I will be writing stories about the games, covering all the major events and ceremonies as well as publishing some feature articles on the athletes themselves.
Today is Memorial Day, a day when we honor the sacrifice of military service members who died in defense of our great nation. According to 
Death is always an option for writers, especially since death is a natural part of life. Heaven and Hell are concepts we’ve learned about from Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Although, there are many who are skeptical of religion and do not believe in an afterlife. For example, reincarnation is a concept of the afterlife found among Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Rosicrucians, Theosophists, Spiritists, and Wiccans. Before that, you have varied concepts of the afterlife from the Fields of Elysium and Tartarus to Valhalla and Limbo.
It was Plato who said, “The soul takes nothing with her to the next world but her education and her culture. At the beginning of the journey to the next world, one’s education and culture can either provide the greatest assistance or else act as the greatest burden, to the person who has just died.” Although this sounds a little more like reincarnation than the afterlife, I think it speaks of a higher purpose. We are taking all we are from this world into the next when we die. That’s a lot of baggage to bring with you. The stories of one’s life can be told by what you take with you into the next. That brings some peace and solace while others hope it is enough to earn them a place in the afterlife.
Inspiration … it’s a word I use a lot in most of my social media posts. You’ll find #inspiration in almost everything I write. I can relate to so many different things as I weave my stories together. Movies, books, television, theater, and music give me the focus and drive in everything I do. Even as I am writing this blog, I am listening to Joss Whedon’s 2005 sci-fi classic Serenity.
It’s the simplest things in life that inspire us. I remember a few months ago when I was working to finish the third book in the 
“Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat.” That’s from Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. That’s just one constant you can always find throughout literature, words to live by and wisdom to navigate through the rivers of self-doubt. As authors, we represent the struggles of not only our own lives but that of the world events happening around us. Authors want to instill hope, courage, determination and justice in the words we right.
Mark Piggott | Fantasy & Steampunk Author 