Soledad O'Brien, former CNN anchor and journalist, uses her wide-reaching platform to call out ... [+]
Like millions of other Americans, Soledad O'Brien was glued to her television on the afternoon of January 6.
As thousands of President Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol for what is being called an attempted coup, O'Brien feverishly flipped through channels, watching history unfold before her eyes. Covering breaking news and being on the frontline of history is not new to O'Brien, a veteran journalist and former CNN anchor who spent much of her life reporting on natural and human-made disasters. She has dedicated her life to produce and tell stories about social issues like race relations in America.
But that day, the former CNN anchor wasn't just watching the news. She was analyzing how her former colleagues and fellow journalists presented the insurrection, which was the first time the Capitol had been breached in more than two centuries.
Over the last four years, O'Brien, who now anchors and produces Matter Of Fact - a political magazine program on Heart Television - and owns her own production company, Soledad O'Brien productions, has become known for something else. She uses her wide-reaching platform, specifically on social media, to unapologetically call out wrongdoing by politicians and elected officials, and take journalists and media organizations to task when she feels news coverage has been harmful to the public.
Regarding the riot at the Capitol, O'Brien believes the day-of coverage was done well; she says most media outlets typically cover breaking news effectively. The problem, O'Brien says, lies in the after-the-fact analysis, and how media outlets have covered the Trump presidency over the last four years.
"I would like to see journalists have a little more analysis on why they gave so much airtime to people who lie and who they knew were lying," O'Brien said. "I think the challenge has been when reporters tell you they're so surprised [about Donald Trump's actions]. Because I feel like there have been so many people, myself included, who have pointed out the dangers of this kind of language from the president."
"I mean, he's so utterly consistent, that when reporters whose job it is to cover this president and this administration somehow find themselves surprised, I want to ask them, 'What have you been watching? What have you been reporting on?'"
Since the insurrection, O'Brien has called out outlets and reporters for their continuing coverage.
After quote-tweeting her former employer's article about how January 6 will go down as "The day America realized how dangerous President Trump really is," O'Brien commented, “Utterly stupid. Journalists who couldn’t figure this out before Jan 6th should be ashamed of themselves.”
And in response to another Tweet, she said, “The joking/playful way that journalists covered a narcissistic sociopath was both stunning—and depressing. Remember Chris Cilliza’s constantly telling us Trump’s a “reality show”? Many other journalists normalized this dangerous bigotry. Shame on them all.”
But for O'Brien, her insistence on holding people, specifically journalists and media, accountable on social media is nothing new and wasn't necessarily a conscious decision. It's just an extension of what she says she's been doing since she became a journalist.
"If you're in a position of power and privilege, then I think you have an obligation to use your seat at the table to hold people accountable," she said.
The Trump Administration
For journalists everywhere, covering Trump and his administration has been no easy task. The president has lied an astronomical amount, according to the Washington Post fact-checker, which has chronicled over 29,000 false claims Trump has made during his four years in office. He has also been consistent in fear-mongering when it comes to Democrats, immigration, and other issues.
But the lie that many experts say will be hailed as the greatest of our time, and will have the longest-lasting impact, is what led to the Capitol insurrection: that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him.
Journalists and media organizations have struggled with how to cover Trump, and in the eyes of many, including O'Brien, they’ve missed the mark.
"The goal of journalism should be to hold people accountable who are empowered, and to make sure that we're educating the public and that we are bringing factual and accurate information to the public. I think most journalists would be like, 'yes, that's the goal,'" O'Brien explained.
"Then, why would you ever hold a press conference where someone is allowed to spew misinformation?"
But also, how do you not run a press conference by the President of The United States? These were questions newsrooms and reporters grappled with since Trump's election in 2016. Some newsrooms would run Trump's press conferences un-edited, as they have for other presidents. Other outlets would run the press conference, followed by having the news anchors fact check points that weren’t true. Many journalists, in every newsroom, who are expected to remain "unbiased" and "objective," would sometimes falter at how to inform the public of the president's outrageous lies as his team came up with terms like "alternative facts" and as an army of people in government and elsewhere tried to normalize his behavior.
And some journalists would fall into the trap of seemingly normalizing Trump's behavior, too.
"I think people would consistently give him [Trump] the benefit of the doubt and say, 'Oh, he didn't say that. He didn't mean this thing. He didn't mean that about The Proud Boys. He doesn't support that,'” O'Brien said. “And then he would get on Twitter and confirm [his beliefs.]”
"And so at some point, people have to lose the benefit of the doubt. And there's nothing more embarrassing than watching someone from CNN talk about 'You know, I think his [Trump's] tone has changed.’ The tone hasn't changed at all unless you're not following him on Twitter."
O'Brien, who spent her decades-long career covering elections and presidents, like Barack Obama, explained that typically, presidents follow a similar timeline. From their election to their inauguration, and then the moment in office when she says, they seem to step into their role as Commander in Chief. Journalists have come to expect these significant milestones. But with Trump it was different, and many journalists, O'Brien believes, were seeking that familiar narrative and were unable to accept that they were reporting through something unprecedented.
Instead, she says, Trump was able to communicate lie after lie on live television for the world to hear, at a disservice to the American public.
"The answer could be, let's run the press conference at a delay. Let's run it, but chop it up so that only accurate things are being elevated. Let's analyze all the things that are not accurate," O'Brien said.
"But the idea of putting it out there and then saying later, 'Oh yeah, that was full of misinformation,' I don't think people understand that as well, and so I think you are failing at what your basic job is, if you are elevating lies."
The coronavirus press briefings at the beginning of the pandemic were a point of contention for O'Brien, because the information presented was proved to be unequivocally false. Between misleading claims, downplaying the virus, and offering possible cures, like the consumption of Hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, the press briefings, O'Brien said, proved quickly they weren’t serving the American people. These briefings were typically shown in full, uninterrupted, for all to view.
"Those coronavirus pressors did not serve the people who are most at risk for coronavirus. Black and brown people were failed by those press conferences," O'Brien said. "Black and brown people, who are dying at a much higher rate, two to three times higher— having someone spew absolute bullshit about the virus transmission, and how you can avoid it is a failure— people died because of that."
"I don't think it's super complicated, just don't elevate lies."
Social Media
On any given day, Soledad O'Brien is voicing her opinion on social media.
She quote tweeted an Ivanka Trump tweet writing, "Dripping with desperation."
O'Brien quote tweeted an Axios story stating, "Lol. Axios calls a Qanon follower a "firebrand" in case you need a good example of the media normalizing full on nut-jobs who also might likely be implicated in the insurrection."
She called Politico "mostly trash" after they used controversial political commentator Ben Shapiro as a guest writer.
And she retweeted columnist Connie Schultz's tweet, saying, "Remember those early newsroom debates over whether we could report that Trump was lying when we could not know if he meant to? I do."
The veteran journalist uses her social media, both Twitter, where she has 1.3 million followers, and Instagram, where she has 482K followers, as a way to hold public officials, media organizations, and journalists accountable.
"It's certainly just an extension of what I've always done," O'Brien said. "I'm all for holding people accountable. And I think, at the same time, I use social media as an opportunity to demystify a lot of the process [what goes into producing a news story.]”
Her opinionated and public ridicule doesn't always make her a lot of friends in the industry. She mostly says that journalists and news organizations reach out not to question the point she argued but about why she decided to call them out publicly.
But as O'Brien put it, journalism is a public job, and after someone she believes made a public mistake, she feels it's imperative to correct that mistake for all to see too.
Aside from using social media to condemn media organizations and elected officials, she uses it to elevate journalists she believes are doing good work and to share stories she thinks need to be seen. O'Brien laughed that she probably retweets and reposts more journalists than anybody else; she said she probably reposts more New York Time's stories while also pointing out, "when they absolutely screw up reporting."
She also uses her social media to elevate heart-warming and feel-good stories, and experts' voices in various fields— something that proved useful during the Coronavirus pandemic.
"I do try to say like, 'Well, this is an epidemiologist who has something interesting to say, or, here's a person who's been researching this, or, here's a woman who's got an amazing story about something. So I do try to make sure my page is really informative for people who follow me."
Facts, objectivity, and bias
At the beginning of Trump's presidency, “alternative facts” were often shared with the public, uninterrupted, on media outlets. They were presented as "the other side" or broadcasted on right-wing conservative outlets as facts.
According to O'Brien, this did a massive disservice to the American public.
"There are some things that are facts. And some things are just untrue," O'Brien said.
A huge issue, O'Brien says, is the confusion surrounding what it means to be objective. She says being objective doesn't mean presenting two sides of a story when one side is factually wrong.
For example, she says, take pedophilia or sexual feelings directed towards children.
"I think it would be problematic to give someone the ability to talk about why pedophilia is OK," O'Brien said. "I do think it's interesting to understand what's going on inside the mind of pedophiles, for sure. But there's a difference between that and framing something as, 'Well, actually these people say pedophilia is OK.'"
Objectivity, O'Brien says, is around a journalist's good faith efforts in telling a story accurately and fairly. What's also imperative to conveying an accurate and fair story, she says, is for journalists to always provide context as to why they are reporting something.
"I think it's about the good faith effort in how you're going to tell a story versus this idea of this side gets to say this, and this side gets to say that, when one side might be lying," she said.
"Regardless of who I'm reporting on, I have no problem reporting on white supremacists; I have no problem reporting on anybody. But you just need context. I don't think you can just blindly quote people who are lying to you."
And then there is the issue of bias, something every journalist and person inherently has based on their own experiences. The important thing for journalists to do, O'Brien says, is to make sure their bias doesn't ruin their story.
"I think the first step is admitting that we all go into these things with bias. Often when I would do interviews, I would tell people, 'Gosh, I've always thought blah, blah, blah,' and they would say, 'Oh, well, here's what you're getting wrong, Soledad,'” O'Brien said. "I have no problem framing for people, here's what I don't understand, here's where my own bias might be in a story, and I think that often brings about a really good answer from someone who pushes back and challenges you."
"I don't think people should think about it like 'they don't have bias and be objective' because I don't think those words mean anything to people, and they certainly don't mean the same thing to all people."
O'Brien said one area where journalists do have bias and should challenge their own thinking is choosing interviews.
"When you grab someone on the street [to talk for a story], who are you getting and why? Are you just grabbing people in suits because you feel like they'd be better? Do you assume that everybody poor doesn't have a point of view?" O'Brien said. "When you're going to go get a welfare mom to do a story on because that's what you've been assigned, do you automatically run to the Black neighborhood because that's where you think that is?"
"Those are all areas in which journalists, I think, really fail."
Today
Currently, O'Brien has five series in production with her production company, Soledad O'Brien Productions. She's working on a multi-part series about structural racism; a story about missing Black girls in the country and those looking for them; and she's working on a story about a man who escaped from prison by what she calls "mailing himself out of prison," — he was on the run for 18 months.
She loves the freedom owning her own company affords: telling the stories most important to her, about marginalized and underrepresented populations.
Like millions of others, O'Brien and her company were impacted by Covid-19. They had to change how they traveled for production shoots, and she hired a paramedic to travel with the team. She says she has her staff tested practically every day for Covid-19.
"We travel a lot because we're still working a lot of our stories, you know, some that have Covid involved in them," O'Brien said. "That has changed and made much more complicated everything that we're doing."
O'Brien says her team even did a documentary on the response to Covid-19 in Seattle; she says it was a surreal experience shooting a documentary about Covid while trying to keep herself and her crew safe. She also says she learned an immense amount about leadership because of the coronavirus - O'Brien refused to lay off any of her 13 full-time employees, meaning they took on every job that came their way to keep people working.
When she isn't traveling for her company, O'Brien is anchoring and producing the Hearst Television political magazine program "Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien," which Sony Pictures distributes. She says she profoundly enjoys this role because of how intentional the show is about diversity. She says they track how many experts of color they bring on the show to ensure full inclusivity.
"People would say to me, 'Do you count the Black people?’ Yes, we do. If we're going to say we're going to have gender equity and we're going to have diverse people on our show, we should be tracking them," she said.
With "Matter Of Fact," O'Brien believes she is also able to inform differently than the typical cable news outlet does today — she's not interested in "talking heads," but in storytelling.
O'Brien spends time with her husband, four children, and her rescue dog Coco on her few days off. She also loves horses and horseback riding.
How does this busy mother of four find time to do it all?
"I try to get in what I want to do, so I don't really think about doing it all," she said. "I don't make beds, and I don't cook, I just don't enjoy that stuff, so I just don't do it."
"I think it's a combination of really just doing the things you want to do and enjoying it. And also, ditching the thing you don't want to do and not feeling guilty about it and not feeling guilty about anything— it's such a useless emotion."
Who inspired O'Brien the most through her incredible journalism career? Her Afro-Cuban mother and Irish-Australian father.
"My parents were very interested in issues of race and social justice because they lived them," she said.
"And so I think my parents were what was most interesting to me about unraveling some of these things that we thought we knew about America, that it turns out the story was a little more complicated."
Authors Note: This piece has been updated to remove an anecdote originally included regarding an interview between KellyAnne Conway and Chuck Todd because of a mischaracterization.
