The below is based off Glenn's opening monologue of the March 19th, 2014 TV show.
Why does your subscription to TheBlaze matter so much?
Let's look at the latest Russian military escalation in the Ukraine. As usual, the media doesn’t give you the proper depth on the story. They’re in full reaction mode because they won’t give you any context whatsoever because they just want you to watch pictures of things going boom. That’s one of the things we’re trying to change here at TheBlaze, and we are grateful for your support.
We are trying to give you a news network that actually informs you and gives you an understanding of what’s going on, not just bits and pieces and pictures that aren’t related to anything because we think it will get us ratings. We actually care about the truth and care about the perspective of it.
I always start the show by saying thank you for joining us, this is the network that you are building, and I want you to know this is not just a catchphrase to us. We are literally taking every single dollar, every dime of your subscription, and we are pumping it right back into the growth of this network. And I can’t thank you enough, and if you haven’t subscribed, if you happen to be watching this either, you know, for a trial episode or you’re watching it on TV, please go to TheBlaze.com/TV and subscribe because that $10 a month helps us build this.
And I just want you to take a minute here and think about where we were two and a half years ago:
It was me and a couple of cameras. Here I’m in a studio that’s very small in New York, and I’m saying look, this is what we’re thinking we’re going to do. It was as cameras, me, and an idea. And then you stepped in, and everything you see around me, everything you see on television is a direct result of you, and it’s more than just stuff.
We are working hard every day, every night, to infect the culture, not only with the true stories but the stories of love and courage where the good guy actually wins, truth and good. And on the culture side, we haven’t even begun yet. We are just beginning to scratch the surface on that front. There are studios here in Texas, and we are currently building out this facility. And it’s amazing what is happening, and I’m telling you, hopefully I’m going to be able to tell you some things here in the next couple of months. Really remarkable stuff, and it is because of you. And we want to thank you for that.
But here’s why I’m telling you all of this because we’re taking the money that you have given us, and we are pouring into shows like 'For the Record', and I want to show you why this is so important. The other day I was catching up on the news. It was Sunday night, and I’m back from vacation. And I’m reading this story, and honestly I don’t even know why.
The press said it was a jaw-dropping story, and it was from the BBC. And they said that back in 2008, Russia and China were conspiring to dump massive amounts of holdings in American securities to set off the financial crisis or to make it much worse. This is what the BBC wrote, “This is pretty jaw-dropping stuff – the Chinese told Hank Paulson that the Russians were suggesting a joint pact with China to drive down the price of the debt of Fannie and Freddie.”
Now, I’m reading this on TheBlaze. They say they’re doing this to “maximize the turmoil on Wall Street – presumably with a view to maximizing the cost of the rescue for Washington and further damaging its financial health.” And Sunday, I’m looking at this story, and I’m like why is this a story? This is old news. Jaw dropping? This is old news. I had forgotten where I had read it. I had read it eight months prior on 'For the Record' when we did this back in September.
I am compelled to tell you now that I really, truly believe that our staff in many cases, not all cases, but in many cases is being led by a higher power because our staff on 'For the Record' is a very small but incredibly talented and dedicated team. They are always ahead of the news. They’re always ahead of the news, and investigative journalism is really hard. It is really hard. It is exacting, and it’s not cheap.
And in today’s world, it is becoming more and more dangerous. We are actually having significant security issues because we will tell the story, and an individual investigative journalist has to devote weeks and months to fully vet and release a single story. We are not going to do things, we are holding ourselves to the standard that CBS used to have with Edward R. Murrow.
I am not in the newsroom, and I tell you, it takes incredible manpower to pull that off on a consistent basis. And that is why I’m so proud of the work 'For the Record' is doing because they are doing it every single week, and tonight, they have another amazing program. Remember, I told you it takes weeks if not months to do these episodes, and it seems every time we have an episode, the week we release that episode something huge is happening.
The latest episode is the full truth and context of what is happening in the Ukraine. We sent some of our people over to the Ukraine. We contacted people in Ukraine. We saw it with our own eyes, and we’re bringing you the story. Now remember, what you’re getting in the current media is what they think will bring them ratings – the riots, the fires, and the protests and the tanks. That’s what you’re getting.
What you’re missing is the Why, and I don’t think anybody wants you to learn that because I don’t think, half of them don’t want you to learn it. The other half don’t think you can learn it. And they just want you to gawk. On the latest 'For the Record', you hear from the people on the ground and come away with what you were hoping for when I told you about this network and when you subscribed to this network, a deeper knowledge of the issues and the complete truth, as well as we can tell it, so you can make your own decisions.