The Importance of Current Events

Carl Azuz from CNN10 joins me for a fun conversation to talk about current events and the importance of news-trality.

Show Notes

CNN10
Shel Silverstein
Dr. Seuss

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A podcast for homeschool families brought to you by Sequoia Grove Charter Alliance. Encouragement, tips & tricks, interviews with HSTs and curriculum help.

Speaker A: Listeners. I'm so glad you're here today. Welcome back to the Sequoia Breeze Podcast, a breath of fresh air for your homeschool. I am your host, Rebecca LaSavio. Before we continue with today's episode, I have the sad duty to announce that since we recorded this podcast, there have been changes made to the CNN Ten News show Sunday night. In their email newsletter it was announced that unfortunately, Carl is no longer the host. The show is still available and still a great resource for students and families. Carl's big personality will be missed on the show. I decided to go ahead and air this episode because we can still learn from Carl's approach to the news, but I know my family is sad to see him go. Thank you for joining us today. I am thrilled to have Carl Azuz from CNN Ten joining us today. CNN Ten is a ten minute student newscast that is on YouTube, produced during the school year. And if you aren't familiar with it, I hope that by the end of this you will be very interested in going to check that out and I think you'll see why throughout our conversation with Carl today. So thank you for joining us.

Speaker B: It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me on the podcast.

Speaker A: So is that a good introduction of what CNN Ten is? Is there anything you want to add to that?

Speaker B: The only thing I would add is you can find us at CNN ten.com or of course you can find [e-mail] CNN Ten and we are completely free. We are a ten minute 101 overview of what's happening in the world. And because we were previously known as CNN Student News, our core audience is middle and high school students. But we have grown quite a bit to include international viewers, some college students and some folks in their 20s who've told us we just want a quick objective overview and that's something we are happy to provide.

Speaker A: So to back up a little bit, why don't you tell us a little bit about how you got into journalism.

Speaker B: A roundabout way is how I got into journalism. In college I was studying video and film production because like most people at the University of Georgia at that time, I wanted to be a movie producer. And of course it helps if you are in California or New York for that. But when I was getting ready to graduate college, I had this background. I loved broadcasting, whether it was going to be film, whether it was going to be television. I love the idea of producing something that thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of people could potentially see. And when I was getting ready to graduate, I remember I was thinking maybe graduate film school, maybe joining the Navy. It was pretty broad in those days. And CNN came recruiting and of course it was in the field, it was a television network. It was something that I had been watching since middle school was very familiar with the brand and their approach, and it was a job that I went for and I got in on the ground floor at the entry level and started working at CNN two days after I graduated college.

Speaker A: Well, that's exciting.

Speaker B: Very cool. Yes, ma'am.

Speaker A: So as you have been working on, I don't even know for how long, this student news, CNN Ten, you obviously think that current events for students is really important, and I know I could give my answer for why I think it's important. And I forgot to mention at the beginning that my kids and I start out our mornings during the school year eating breakfast and watching CNN Ten. So that's been great for us as we get into discussions and my kids are a little more aware of what's going on in the world. But this is your specialty. Why do you think that current events for students is important?

Speaker B: Well, first of all, we're happy to have you and your family in our viewing audience. And we've heard from so many folks in the homeschool community, which has grown considerably in recent years and beyond, about people who've discovered our show or they've stumbled across it, heard about it from someone else, they started watching it, and we're thrilled with that. We see that viewership growth, and of course, that's something that we love to see. My answer to a question of why is it important for home school students. Or any students for that matter. To be interested in current events used to be that I used to tell people. Well. I always say that when students have a better understanding about the world around them. They're better prepared to make a positive difference in it. Which kind of sounds nice and doesn't mean very much. But especially now, at a time when our country is very politically divided, it's so important to me that students and anyone else watching has a source of news and a ten minute overview. But that gives them an idea that, look, if there is something that's controversial we're reporting on, we are not going to try to influence them to land on one side or the other. We are just informing them on what's happening and what the major schools of thought are about the controversy. I think that's paramount now because so many folks, especially young people, they're getting their news from TikTok, they're getting their news from Twitter or in some cases Facebook. TikTok's really, really massive right now. But when you do that, you're not always getting objective news, you're not always getting it from a professional reporter, and you're not always getting multiple perspectives. And so it's so important now, regardless of what students, whatever side they may land on or their families may land on, it's so important for us to communicate to them, look, there are multiple viewpoints. This is why not everything is cut and dry. Not everything is one side or the other politically. Here's why. And when you mentioned that our show is a good jumping off point for your discussions with your students, I'm thrilled with that. It's one of the best compliments we regularly get is that our show has fostered in depth discussions because we want to make sure we are being objective. I don't mind reporting on what Democrats and Republicans have to say about a political issue, but I will switch the order so that no one party always has the last word. And I will try to present these viewpoints without judging them myself because I'm not in the opinion giving business. I'm in the informing what's going on business. And that, I think, is so important for people now, especially when so often they're getting news that's through either red or blue tinted glasses.

Speaker A: So this is something that I have noticed as I've been watching your news reports and have come to value greatly. And that's part of the discussion that my kids and I have is that we don't know what you think about a story, we simply know what the story is. And I know I've even seen some Facebook discussion at times. Sometimes people are very hesitant to tune into you because of those three letters that are at the beginning of the show, CNN. And CNN has not always been known for being particularly unbiased. So can people trust you to really be unbiased, although you are part of the CNN network?

Speaker B: Well, I certainly hope so. I know that we've heard from parents and some students who are concerned about any major media outlet being shown in an educational environment. And I respect that. Our show, it's part of our DNA to be, as I said, on the air, down the middle, to be objective. And we're really focusing on neutrality. So what I always tell people, if they are hesitant to utilize the show, I'm like, look, I understand your concerns, but please take ten minutes, go to CNN ten.com, watch the show. And if they'll do that, nine times out of ten, if not more, they'll come back to me and they'll say, you know what? I like what you're doing. I hope that you'll continue this objective approach to news. And we've heard from a number of teachers who have corroborated that as well. They hear from parents who are concerned, what are you showing my student in your classroom? And they'll say, look, go watch this show and come back and talk to me about it. And those who do, those who will take the time, will often come back to them and say, you know what? I'm fine with this. There's no more problem, no more concern. And that is music to our ears. So the proof is in the pudding. And what we want to make sure is that we're doing it right. We're being objective. We're adhering to our mission to be strictly neutral that. I'm not judging one side or the other. I'm just trying to tell you what they're saying and hopefully hitting all of the high points and then letting people grow to recognize that about our program. A friend of mine once asked me, how do you avoid being one sided? And I'm like, well, that's easy. Just tell the other one. And so whatever opinion I might agree with, I don't want that to be the focus, and I really don't want people to know where I might stand because you can get an opinion from anyone. If you're coming to us to watch our show, hopefully you're just getting objective news. And that's certainly my aim each day.

Speaker A: So how do you choose which stories to tell? What's going on in the background? Where do your sources of information come from? And I've also noticed that you often have an international story mixed in with the things that are happening here in our own country. So tell us a little about the background behind the stories.

Speaker B: Great question. Our producer, who's usually up and working before I'm even out of bed, is not just looking at what CNN or other American media are covering. He's looking at what's making headlines worldwide and what information is feeding into our network from our international affiliates, from different news outlets around the world that we can use. And we can show people that the news isn't always politics, it's not always something tragic that happens. It has breadth to it. And so I want to make sure that we do have those international stories. So our producer is looking at not only CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS, all of those big ones in the US. But we're looking at Reuters and the BBC. We're looking at what Australian media are covering. We're looking at what's going on in the Middle East and Oceania and all these different places and then building a show based on that. So we're not married to one source. We're making sure that we're covering, hopefully, a good array of stories happening worldwide. We do love to cover international news. Some shows will be predominantly domestic, some shows will be predominantly international. But by doing that and having feature stories and also having those fun kicker stories at the end that are invariably followed by my puns, we want to kind of communicate to our audience that, hey, look, the news isn't all just focused on one topic or one country. There are a lot of things that happen. Sometimes people can make news by bungee jumping off a bridge to dip a biscuit and tea, and that sets a Guinness World Record. So the news is varied and the news is broad, and we hope to communicate that even though we're doing it in just ten minutes.

Speaker A: So aside from bungee jumping, what's the most memorable story that you've ever reported?

Speaker B: The most memorable stories to me are always the ones that have unlikely survivals. I've been working in news long enough to know that when there's an explosion at a mine or when a plane goes missing, usually their casualties, usually there's a tragedy. So when we have a story like the Chilean mine rescue from more than ten years ago in which there was an underground explosion, and yet everybody who was underground at the time in Chile, they became trapped, but they all survived that. They set a record for the duration of time being trapped underground that engineers had to bore a new tunnel to ferry them out one by one week later. That's the story I love to report, because it's so unlikely everyone survives, and it's so unlikely they've that sort of record. It's so unlikely that they're ferried out and they're celebrating and dancing with the Chilean flag wrapped around them. That's the kind of story that we can celebrate as well as report. Another example of that was the famous Miracle on the Hudson. A plane lands on the Hudson River in wintertime. And I remember asking a 27 year old Delta veteran at that time, what are the chances this happens and everyone survives? And he looked at me and he goes, none. It's called the Miracle on the Hudson for a reason. There's not a logical explanation for why this would happen and that it lands on this icy river. There are people on the wings, the incredible images of people lined up on the wings of a floating airplane. And then there are some people who went into the river at that time, and I see waters, and yet every single one of them survives. I love those stories because it's so unlikely that everyone would survive. And it's something that you really need the word miracle to explain. Absolutely love talking about that because, again, we can celebrate it. It's always joyful reporting when you have an unlikely scenario in which everyone is okay.

Speaker A: I've got chills just remembering those stories myself. It reminds me of the soccer players in the cave as well, in Thailand that, yes, almost didn't make it out themselves, and yet they all did. And those stories are really moving.

Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. And they're always fun to report. I mean, there are usually many layers to them and many efforts that people go through to rescue them, sometimes risking their own lives, as we saw in that case. But when people can all come out and be okay in a story that's usually headlined by something tragic, I'm grateful to be able to support those pieces. Especially.

Speaker A: Earlier, you were talking to us about how important it is to be unbiased and how important it is to tell both sides of the story. And you sort of answered this a little bit. But there must be times when it's really hard to leave your own feelings out of a story. When you do have a strong feeling about what's going on. How do you make sure that that's not coloring the story that you're telling.

Speaker B: Well, one approach is to start with just the facts of the story. I mean, what's happening if there's a new law proposed, regardless of how I might feel about it, what is it? What is it all about? Why is it being proposed? What do supporters say about it? What do opponents say about it? That's the approach. That's the framework I'm going to be presenting the piece in as I write it, and I write everything I say for the show. That's actually mostly my job, is writing the on camera stuff takes ten minutes. So as I see these stories, a lot of times we'll feature opinions by people, and sometimes I might agree with them or disagree with them, but if they're part of the main school of thought surrounding that story, I want to make sure it's included in my show. I'm not trying to be an influencer, I'm trying to be an informer. And so as we get these different politically charged stories or emotional stories that come through, there are some opinions that we feature that maybe I'll agree with, but it's my goal of presenting it in such a way that the audience doesn't know which ones they are. One of the best we talked about a compliment we regularly get on the show. Earlier, another one was from a student, a politically savvy student, who asked me, where do you stand politically? And I'm like, Well, I can't answer that because I want people to trust my news. And if I just go ahead and start giving opinions, then people will assume that when I go to report the news that it's going to be tainted by that opinion. That's the last thing I want. And so I turned the question back and I was like, I can't answer that question, but what do you think? I mean, you're politically savvy. You've been watching the show all year. And he goes, I've been really scrutinizing what you say and how you present it, and I can't tell. And I'm like, that's the best compliment right there, buddy. I mean, that put me over the moon that if somebody's actually analyzing it and thinks that I'm being objective, I'm right where I need to be. Yeah, I mean, I'm a human being and I have emotions. There are some stories that are very difficult to report, and there are some opinions that especially when it comes to the talking points of the different political parties, sometimes those cover it, sometimes those don't. Sometimes we have to go deeper and call people and interview and make sure that we're presenting it's a ten minute show. We're not going to go as in depth as my colleagues do in prime time or the hour live shows, but if there is a major viewpoint on something, we want to make sure we're hitting it. And sometimes it's not just two, though oftentimes in a very politically polarized environment. Those are the main viewpoints. And so I just want to make sure, more than I care about people knowing whatever opinion I might have, I want to make sure that regardless of where people stand, they're hearing a major point presented in a way that doesn't judge it. And I think that builds trust at a time when trust is needed for the media.

Speaker A: I think that's very true and very insightful. So one big piece of the show, we cannot talk about CNN without addressing the puns. And it's interesting which having kids from 14 down to five, the five year old has no idea what you're talking about. The 14 year old is rolling her eyes, and the two in the middle are somewhere in between. That's a lot of puns to come up with every week. How do you do that? What was even your inspiration to add that to the show?

Speaker B: Yeah, my pun inspiration, if you will. The puns are part of my personality. What I usually say is my puns and all the show without them is punacceptable. Some people might say it's unwatchable. I was always a kid in high school making horrible jokes. I came out of my shell when I started doing a little bit of acting in high school. And I would walk around and people would say, what kind of cheese doesn't belong to you? And I'd be the first one to be like, Nacho cheese? But what does a nosy pepper do? And folks would say what? And I would say it's Jalapeno business. And so because that was part of who I was, I was always making the horrible what people call dad jokes or groaners or whatever it is. I started incorporating those into the show, and people noticed I don't mean what they've become now. It's like a litany of five to seven puns or plays on words about each kicker story. But originally it was just one or two that I wrote into the show because I was feeling punchy. Get it one Friday? And people started recognizing it. And I had a really good executive manager at that time who said, look, when people start identifying things with the show or you personally, if it's your hair and they say you have big hair, make it bigger and do a tweet about it. Well, we started response to the puns, and so we really started punching them up to try to make them be part of the show's identity. And people responded. I know there are a lot of folks rolling their eyes or groaning or saying, oh my gosh, will this ever end? And I'm like, whenever we get rid of them or wherever, we take a step back, we usually hear from those folks who say, look, I got to admit I'm not a fan of puns, but the show just isn't the same without them. And so they're part of it now. They're certainly part of who I am, and I walk around the house making ponds, and my wife's like, oh, my gosh, you knew what was going to happen when we got married, so come on. But it's something that allows me to have fun, to write creatively, and to do so in a generally pun, offensive way, if you will. Because if you write jokes about a topic, sometimes at some point someone is going to get offended. There are a lot of sensitivities. Puns are generally because they're plays on words and recognized as such. You can have fun and be as creative as my mind will allow me to be without pushing the wrong buttons a lot of times. So, yeah, I mean, some people might say, you know, they're real dad jokes, but on the other hand, too, they're safe, and they allow me to have that creative outlet and to show my personality in a way that hopefully doesn't make anyone too angry. So, yeah, those are part of the DNA. You asked about the wraps. That was an unintentional consequence of me reading too much Dr. Seuss and Shell Silverstein. I was writing one day just a series of puns, and they started to rhyme. And so I was thinking Dr. Seuss, or Dr. Atzus, as the case may be, and wrote a bunch of them and rhymed them, and people latched onto it. They were like, Wait a minute, what was that? You wrapped the puns? And I was like, oh, I didn't mean it to be a wrap, but it kind of took on a life of its own. And so when I have time, I'll put them together. I'm a little self conscious about it because here's your dorky Uncle Carl trying to wrap on air. But I always think if it's written well enough and if the puns are in there, then let's go ahead and make them rhyme. And people have responded generally pretty well to them. Whenever I ask a class, whether it's middle school students or even upper level high school students, should we keep the wraps or dump them? Everyone overwhelmingly says, keep doing it.

Speaker A: Because you love your dorky Uncle Carl. Oh, yeah.

Speaker B: Carl's always the guy on the far Side who messes something up. I've noticed this over the years, and whether it's the far side or even in commercials, like, if there's a dude in a commercial named Carl, he's a goofball who just messed something up. And I'm like, you know what? I can live with that.

Speaker A: So the other fun thing, and this is where especially my five year old, who may or may not fully grasp all that's going on in CNN Ten, he is always looking for Flat Carl. So tell those who aren't familiar a little bit about who is Flat Carl, where did he come from, and why does he keep hiding in the show?

Speaker B: First off, extra credit to whoever came up with the term flat Carl. I don't know where even that came from. I know. Somebody started saying, oh, Flat Carl. And I'm like, first of all, that's hilarious. Flat Carl is a bookmark that at one point the CNN store at the CNN Center in Atlanta was giving out. When somebody bought a CNN Ten Tshirt and they kind of give them out, there would be student groups that would tour through regularly pre towed. I would see anywhere from a few hundred to sometimes a few thousand students in a given week coming through Atlanta for field trips, and they passed through CNN Center. So the CNN store wanted Chuck Keys to give to people. And one of those things was a bookmark. I never expected when I started anchoring news that one day there would be a Flat Carl bookmark with my likeness on it, but there is. And so we started putting it in the background of the show, especially when we moved away from the main studio because of COVID, we're now in a remote studio. And so we started kind of playing with it. People noticed again, when people started noticing and saying, oh, we're looking for Flat Carl. It appears in different parts. Is that intentional? Yes, it's intentional. It's like, where's Waldo? Where's flat. Carl. So we started moving it around, people started responding to it, and that became a fun part of our program as well. That hopefully doesn't distract too much from the news. Another thing that I didn't predict is that there would one day be a six foot three inch cardboard cut out of me that matches Flat Carl that stares at me in my office. I didn't ever predict that we've utilized them in the CNN store. CNN has cut outs of a lot of its anchors, and so to have mine among them is an honor and a lot of fun, especially when folks, they're passing through and they stop and get a picture with it if the real thing is not available. I think the flat one is frankly better looking, but his personality is a little two dimensional, if you know what I'm saying. But it's such a fun thing that I never predicted, and so we try to incorporate it where we can and kind of play around with it.

Speaker A: So the six foot three cardboard cut out begs the question, are you six foot three?

Speaker B: I'm shorter. I'm 6ft two inches tall. And a lot of people are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we thought you were shorter. It's really weird because most people you meet that you see in the media or in movies especially, they're a lot shorter than you think they are. And I have this weird anomaly where everybody thinks I'm 5758, but I'm actually sick, too. And so when people meet me, especially like, middle school students, they're like, whoa, we're looking up at you. And I'm like, yeah, it's a strange anomaly where I'm taller than everyone thinks I am. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Speaker A: But is there anything else that you would like the listeners of the Square Breeze to hear from you before we sign off today?

Speaker B: I would love for people if they haven't if they're not familiar with the show, I would love for people to take ten minutes and watch it. And again, that's at CNN ten.com. It's at YouTube. Comcnntn. If they're not familiar with us, please take ten minutes and check it out. Especially if you're hesitant about mainstream news product in the classroom or in an educational setting like your own home school group. Because I'm very confident that when you see our objective approach, regardless of where you stand politically, it is my goal that you'll be comfortable showing the program. Now, I know some topics are not appropriate for all audiences, and I respect that. We don't want to shy away from wars and controversies on our program. We do want to present them in the most family friendly way we can. To that end, we won't show maybe some of the more graphic images that you'll see on an evening newscast, but we want to respect our audience. We know our audience is generally younger than the average news audience. There are more sensitivity surrounding that. We want to make sure we are presenting the major events of the world in a way that's objective. But if you have concerns, and especially if they're political ones, I hope you'll give us a chance and to see our neutral approach or something I'm starting to refer to as News triality. Because you've got news, you've got neutrality, we've got news trolley. And I hope that folks will recognize that and feel comfortable using the show.

Speaker A: And on that note, thank you so much, Carl, for joining us today. I really appreciate that you took the time out of your schedule to talk to us here in Northern California about the importance of an unbiased report and understanding what's going on in the world around us. Because all of us, it affects us and we affect the world. And so I really am glad that you won provide that service for us and thank you for that and that you are willing to come and talk to us about that today.

Speaker B: It's my pleasure. It is a blessing to work on a show like this, to have the approach we do. And as I always say on air, our audience and the people who are showing our program are the best part of CNN. So thank you for taking the time to watch it. Good luck to everyone. God bless you.

Speaker A: Thank you so much. Thank you for listening. And today, everyone, I hope that we will find CNN Ten to continue providing great factual information for our families going forward. Tell us, what do you love about homeschooling? I'm Mark. And I am nine. What I like about home schooling is in mornings we can go somewhere where, when. You wouldn't be able to in public school. IRA, how old are you? Five. IRA, what do you like about home schooling? I get to home school at home. My name is Amilio, and what I like about homeschooling is you get to stay in your pajamas. Thank you so much for joining us for this fun episode of The Sequoia Breeze. I hope that you found it to be a breath of fresh air for your home school. As always, I'd love to hear from you. Send me an email at paul [e-mail].