Why on earth do I study journalism?

In a matter of months I saw my profession ripped to shreds, torn apart for the fable that it is, and placed in a cage as everyone in the country threw their peanuts at it like an animal in the zoo.

It is true that unless you are on the inside, then you have no idea the real story.  All you know is what the entertainers behind desks and laptops have told you.  And that is it.

In Congressman Tim Ryan’s office, we have the news on almost all the time; most of the time it is CNN and MSNBC.  But even the staff here watches the news and reacts:

“Why is this a topic?”

Melania not holding Trump’s hand, how much money the New York Police Department is spending to protect the Trump family this month, ‘Republicans slowly retreating from Trump’, and all other nonsense.  It seems like every day there are constituents calling to complain about the next Trump narration.

But I can promise, nobody truly cares here on Capitol Hill.

Yes, there are Republicans and Democrats both calling for the investigation of a Trump collusion.  Yes, there are Democrats (Rep. Al Green) calling for impeachment.  But if you strongly believe that these issues are the only thing that Congress is working on, you are highly mistaken.

They could care less.  Regardless of the position of the executive office, there is no lack of proposals, meetings, and congressional sessions talking about real-life issues.

Just last week, Tim introduced a bipartisan bill with Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) called the Veterans Wellness Act of 2017.  According to Tim’s House website:

This legislation would bring mental healthcare to our Veterans by establishing a two-year grant program to provide integrative wellness programs at Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs).

The bill would also provide funding for:

• Repair or renovation of facilities to create or improve a wellness center.

• Complementary and integrative medicine and wellness programs.

• Childcare for classes.

Earlier this month, he worked with Congresswomen Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to introduce legislation to protect the pension plans of nearly 10 million workers and retirees.  According to the House newsletter:

The Keep Our Pension Promises Act would reverse a provision passed in 2014 that could result in deep pension cuts for millions of retirees and workers in multi-employer pension plans.

The new legislation establishes a legacy fund within the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to ensure that multi-employer pension plans can continue to provide pension benefits to every eligible American for decades to come.

The pre-conceived notion that Congress is not running smoothly and that there is a divide in Washington is completely false.  Congress has proposed many new legislations and has been letting the Trump-train take its own course.

Your congressman/woman does not care what is going on in the White House.  Let the chips fall where they may.

In this time of mistrust and brainwashing in every form of media besides local news, it is important to know which publications are important for Americans to read and listen to.

My personal suggestion would be to avoid the Washington Post and read more of The Hill.  There are some great writers who are on staff at the Post, but the agenda-pushing that many of their feature articles are commuting to their readers is absolutely horrific.  Some of their most recent headlines include:

“The Walls are Closing in”

“The Ongoing Debate Over Trump’s Disclosure to Russia”

“What scandal? So far on his foreign tour, Trump has escaped ‘that Russia thing.’”

And these stories are all under the topic of ‘politics’.  To me, it is just the usual daily dose of entertainment news that pulls apart journalism.  There will be an outside investigation, but this is not news on Capitol Hill.

To read the latest news on Congressman Tim Ryan and his latest proposals and focuses, follow his newsletter @ Congressman Tim Ryan.