Thank You for the Vital Work You Are Doing

To all members of your organization, thank you for the vital work you are doing. To Roman Balmakov in particular, “You had me at hello!”

Your presence on-screen projects truthful confidence. Your calm matter of fact manner with a representation of both sides, availability of documentation for our own eyes, and unmitigated willingness to take ownership of and apologize for errors in reporting allows me a sense of security and shared confidence in what is being said. One might even say you have similar qualities held by the great American broadcaster, Walter Cronkite.

My father (long-time UPI reporter and bureau chief) covered many important stories such as the Little Rock school desegregation and Vietnam War. Additionally, as Director of public relations for Pan AM World Airways, he handled the media side of the 1970 hijacking of PanAm flight 299 from NYC to San Juan which ended up in Havana. He and I had many discussions about the importance of truth in reporting. He died in 2001, just 6 days after 9-11, and I have thought he felt it such an incredibly important story that he had to cover it from the perspective of those sacrificed.

My point in telling you this is to hopefully lend credence to my credibility of knowing the difference between legitimate reporting and propaganda. Not only does the current state of US ‘journalism’ enflame dissidence among our citizens, it is creating a fragile sense of trust in those who have learned to trust the ‘news bite’ as their only source of the truth and feel no obligation to seek or consider verification.

Please continue your pledge of seeking and reporting the truth and facts of all stories. Yours is an honorable, worthy, and necessary journey.

My thoughts and prayers are with you,