SEASON 4
The final season had to come around and like my college graduation back in May 2017, I was sad but proud for what I have done and what the show accomplished.
The first episode was scheduled for January 23 but despite numerous emails, my cohosts didn't get the memo. So, I go on a rant about Presidents 44 & 45.
Finally all together, my returning cohosts, Shannan Strickland and Murray Monestaro, join me in poring over the legacy, or lack thereof, of former President Barack Obama. We take a surprisingly pragmatic look back at what he did, didn't do and what was left undone.
With the Obama legacy now firmly in the rearview mirror, the Debatable News team looks forward to the reality of a Donald J. Trump presidency.
Starting with the Women's March on Washington, protests are taking the spotlight of the early days of a most unusual and controversy-making president. But is there a point to it all? Or are protests just tantamount to spitting in the wind?
We just couldn't let it go. Like a parasite, it clung to our minds. Shannon Murray and I give protests a Round 2.
A Trump presidency just lends itself to newsworthy material without end. He called it a travel ban. His Republican counterparts called it a policy. Shannon Murray and I could only agree on one thing: he targeted the wrong countries.
I fully appreciate why African Americans would want to tear down monuments to past filled with unspeakable acts in the era of slavery in America. But when the monuments are all that are left from that turbulent past, aren't we just sanitizing our history? And doesn't that (G-d forbid) doom us to repeat it?
Of all the topics that get my blood to a rolling boil, healthcare is one of the top topics. But with Trump and company screaming for an insane (and impractical) instantaneous repeal, what can be done that doesn't undo the benefits of Obamacare?
For the first time in over a year, students from MCCC Communication Professor Gail Ramsey's class join the show! Ir was gratifying to have them in studio and hear their enlightening comments about disgraced journalist Stephen Glass. It's been many years but with the depth of his fabrications....
What difference a year makes. During the 2016 presidential campaign, almost every media outlet focused on Hilary Clinton's connections to Russia. Now that the Not-Exactly-Teflon-Don is the president, his connections to Russia, its president and the potential for their interference in our election have taken center stage.
That topic got so heavy, we tossed in the Dead Parrot sketch from Monty Python.
Thanks go out to Shannon for this week's topic.
Twitter's losing ground and market share. Snapchat is losing money. A LOT of it. Instagram had to get bought out by rival Facebook. These and more are why I argued (with Shannon and Murray not agreeing exactly) that social media is dying.
The countdown to the end had begun!
The only cohost for all four seasons of Debatable News shares his favorite topic and memories of the show.
Now it's my feisty counterparts turn. To share, to rib, to roast, to admire and to thank me,
In all seriousness, Shannon, thank you.
After last week's show, good friends and family came to say thank you and good luck at an impromptu "party crash". Fellow DJ's of Montco Radio and writers and editors of The Montgazette, the MCCC college newspaper that I Editor-in-Chief of for nearly three years, gave their wishes and gave me the surprise of my life.
COMING SOON: Click here for Matt Silverman's amazing story.
Since we winged it last week, I repeated that trend as I gave my undying thanks, enouraged listeners to follow their passions and recapped the previous seasons of the show. In the middle, my friend and military veteran Bob Hartnett, called in. Needless to say, I am a ball of emotion.
Words are woefully inadequate to express my gratitude and admiration to all who helped me keep this show informative, engaging and fun. I cannot wait to this again. Good luck to you all.
A hearty thank you to:
Murray Monestaro
Shannon Strickland
Nikki Hargrove
Steve Carles
Chris Markopolus
You made this show great.