Hi everybody, Cheryl Ackison here. Welcome to another edition of the Cheryl Ackison Podcast.

I think you'll love today's episode. You're going to hear about some amazing original

new stories, investigations, and inspiring journalism on fascinating and important topics

even though you may not have heard of these stories until now. It's enough to give you hope.

I spent many years as a young journalist trying to figure out how to do my job well,

training, cultivating sources, trying to become a clear, accurate, fair writer and reporter.

Well now I'm in my 60s and the past couple of decades I've spent a great deal of time

reflecting not only on my training, my thought processes, what I did right, what I did wrong

as a young journalist, but also looking at the media and the bigger picture, what we as an industry

do well, what we don't do well. And I've written a lot about it. Some of you are probably familiar

with my writings including my books where I address these topics. Well one other thing that I've

been doing in recent years is trying to figure out how I can help beyond criticizing or trying to

look at things with a critical viewpoint and maybe having that voice be heard. And one thing I

decided to do that I thought might actually have a hands-on impact is sponsor some awards

at colleges and professional awards that reward the kind of reporting that I think people really

want to see that we don't get enough of. Because there are plenty of great reporters out there

and there is good work being committed, but it's not always going to be on a platform that's

widely seen because of today's managed news environment. And it's certainly not going to be

a story or a reporter investigation that garners top attention and awards. I judge the Emmy awards

every year and I do see some great work but I have to tell you that it seems to be a version of

the same couple of stories over and over again entered by the same media organizations. And not

the original stories that are off the narrative that are completely accurate and fair and interesting

...