i think the original story uncovered a lot of more deeper stories. this kid shot by a police officer, the unarmed kid shot by a police officer, now of thee the response police towards the citizens that pays their salary. now have you the response the police towards media members that cover the stories. you have uncovered the racial wounds that st. louis has so this story uncovered so many more stories beyond what happened to mike brown. other stuff to deal with, because of mike

brown. you think -- i've done this before, i've mentioned this before. drivese media sometimes the protest. they might be not doing anything, but the tv camera people start going crazy. do you think the media ferguson?d to that in anybody. thomasink the night that the tank engine showed up in the sell something and a local well-known homeless minister showed up to raise money, and i'm not sure the t shirt that were being sold, yeah, absolutely. they were a lot of people trying to manipulate the media. we in the media, i think we can all agree on this, we hate being part of this story. it is not why we're there. goal.s not the even the thought that we would be part of a story is just makes extremely uncomfortable. but the phenomenon that you

undoubtedly accurate. and it will continue to be accurate. people will see the camera or notebook or the microphone and they will act in a way that they would not otherwise have and that's unfortunate. >> i agree with christopher that reporters don't like to be the center of the story. i have to admit that i had the same reaction i think describing earlier reportersimes the were really happy to make themselves part of the story. the day thate bit, those two guys were arrested in had really divided feelings. because on the one hand i felt as though the police in general that point and the way they were hand telling protest and reporters were violating the amendment. on the other hand i felt as though those, when i looked at and theington post world war 3 head lines about

these two guys getting arrested after they basically refused to vacate the mcdonald's on police mean, suddenly the guys.was about those and i found that sort of honest.e, to be seemed like at that point the story took off. offstory should have taken for what it said about race in st. louis, not what it said whot a couple of reporters got themselves arrested in mcdonald's. any questions from the audience? we have a question. we talked about national versus local media. you think this would

have been, how much less of you think it would the have been had it just been the local media? when the big boys show up, as they say, now you've got cameras,rucks, the you've got all the fixers and everything. was local at first. everything was local. got the drove what national media's attention was social media. are,s where your stories that's where it came from. theo see the tweets and pictures and the videos that were out this, you can't help be like oh my gosh, what's going on. so i'll tell you, the local was out there, they came out there, they were live streaming what was going on at night. and the photo journalists. runningall out there

together, and it was amazing. local was there first, then it was the response from social media. >> let's not forget that what story,me off about this because i wasn't at work when i about the death of mike brown, but it was social media. it was not reporters, it was that had seen this, these images all over instagram or all twitter and they're asking what the story was. so it's really not just the this media that started whole thing, it's really how took a part really in the story. people were instantly sharing this, the word got out so quickly, the news hadn't even come on yet. >> i believe that picture of mike brown laying on the ground with the bloodstreaming down the street, and the dad says my son the fergusonby police department, those two pictures were shared thousands

standes within the time of a couple hours. so you have, can you not miss you, no matter how are, couldn't miss that, you. >> knew somebody that shared this picture, so it's going to your news feed, instagram, facebook and twitter. fact that those pictures were out there made the story bigger than what it is now. video, whilehe reporters were sleeping if we did sleep, there were other the neighborhood that were out that are still on instagram, still on facebook and moms sopturing these did their best to try to cover the story, but i think people in st. louis really andkly picked up on it world.it with the we've seen a shift, because time a big story would be on pain one --

>> the next day. day.e next working in radio, i can go on the air immediately with my telephone. are we seeing a shift? how much pressure is there to the web as soon as possible? >> intense pressure for all of no matter what platform a journalist works in. right.dline, you're when i'm old enough to where when i started in this business when i started, you had a deadline, it was around 5 or 6:00 and you could take your time and get everything right, double check everything, write it up, have it rewrite it, submit it again, then you go home and then the story still doesn't get out until 6:00 the next morning. those days are long gone. time.nes all the and so here's a point i want to make about this. right, she was one of those people, by the way,

that was getting the word out on social media. it exploded around the world literally, that's not a that's actual truth. antonio french, patricia, others were tweeting, taking photographs and sending them out. that's a huge element. so it's much different than it was. got yourif you just news, and i use the term loosely, about ferguson from media, you would have quickly seen things that were right.t in fact, not only were they not right, they were dead wrong. there was a rumor that was spread like wildfire, again literally,world, that the police officer in question had suffered a socket, youe probably saw that, right? >> the picture, yes. >> and oh yes, and someone mocked up a affordable care act picture on twitter. it on twitter, my dwosh i better share it. okay. we never ran a word of that until we could track it down,

it was false.ut and then we were very happy that we hadn't done. that what's the difference there? the difference there is that therelists, and i know are some nabj meshes heeb, and you, young smart aspiring journalists, you have here, our society from this trend of just spreading rumor and spreading opinion about things and not getting to the fact. traditional journalism wrinkled as it seems to be, traditional journalism still holds that the the important thing is truth. the truth. so you don't report things that you just see on twitter. yougo and check it out and figure it out. and you do it fast. because you're still competing folks. all those so it's very fascinating how willhas developed and continue to do so. >> do you believe that the

to the medianse presence was exceptional? if so what might that say about the desperation of the citizens direuote, have eyes on a situation? one?ants to take that a citizen journalist, are they journalists. citizenthink that a journalist is going to look at a or something happening the same way that i would, because i'm in search of the truth. am impartial, i'm taking my feelings and emotionings out of findand i'm just trying to out what happened and how to get those answers. i thinkn't think that, citizen journalists, they can it,rt their own emotions in so that just makes my job and their job very very different,

to me. the next question. what makes somebody a journalist? the term citizen journalist all the time. those of us who went to school journalism, and i know that some of the purists will say if go to school for it then you're not a journalist. bradley? >> i believe what makes you a journalist, the fact that you want to tell the real story. perspective, either your perspective or from the perspective of others makes you journalist. that's a good question. that's a very good question, journalist.ou a but i believe the fact that you want to tell a story from a your ownve other than gets you to be one. >> bill? think i agree. be soow, we don't want to exclusive about who gets to of beingor the club journalists that we turn up our

journalists who maybe they are recording events particular point of view, trying toif you were figure out what was going on the thestreets of ferguson, nights of all the protests and the looting, you, tweets antonio french and of patricia, were really crucial to figuring that out. public radiod on we had kelsey proud, she's whoed up by erica smith were putting together all of the responsible tweets they found, from patricia, from antonio french, from post dispatch photographers and scene,rs who were on the from public radio reporters on

the scene. the whole to get picture, it required the of all of accounts those folks. asked patricia before we came out here, are you a atizen journalist and are you politician, and she sort of said both. and i sort of go with her on that. >> i would add i think before days of twitter and facebook, people who we would be considered citizen journalists, would be the people the regular journalists would be coming to for the story, and i think journalism kind of evolved from the need of another perspective.erent i think maybe what's not told cities is reporters in order to totheir job they have develop some level of the persons orth entities that they're reporting on.

and through having to develop sometimesionship, everything isn't told. hey, ie are other people don't have anything to lose, i'm going to put it out there, and do. are you going to it's a different kind of sometimesbecause everything can't be told at the time that it happened. with journalists because of those relationships, so it's kind of a balance that needs to strike, but sometimes to hear perspective, i think that's important in giving people a full picture of the story. they wouldn't have before. >> another question. after the night of unrest i open the post dispatch the next day and read the accounts. then the chronology in story was based on the statement, quote, police said. many times the series of events just not factual. for instance, statements about when police moved in and when fired tear gas was used. having been there, the

falsehoodsof these was disconcerting. didn't the police department the scene those late nights and why were the police statements taken at face value? >> since that was the post try to address that. it's a good question. why do we just put what the paper, andin the i've heard that question over the years many times and it's an excellent question. answer it this way. thepolice, united to ask police what they did and what you don'tntered, but need to take it at face value. you don't just believe it. asking a politician, no offense, patricia, asking a getting thend then answer and just being a stenographer and putting it down away.en walking you can't do that. however, when there's an event that happened and it involved and the reporter was not there, the reporter must

thek with police or reporter is not doing his or her job, because the police were there. that doesn't mean the police are the truth.ll and we know that over the years certain crucial situationings. we also know that police theyimes don't lie but don't exactly get the truth. this goes back to what patricia totallying about and i agree. to go beyond the official statement. you go and fine the person that was standing up there, you look twitter and you sigh the photos that people are taking and putting up. evidence much of that is an eyewitness account. i think the ethical journalists weighs all of these as best they can, in the time allotted. and that's a key phrase. the time allotted. we may not have had time to thek out every detail of police account of what happened over an 8-hour or 10-hour

the bestou know, we do we k. there's a saying, an old saying, again i'm dating myself that journalism is the first rough draft of history. right.t's exactly because it is not what's in the or on our website right now or what's on public radio or the st. louis american or any other number of websites, and news organizations, is not necessarily the total story. in fact it probably isn't the total story, but it's the best that we can do for now. what steps is the media stereotypes?

>> being a student, i think it's an oversight most of the time. i think they only don't realize the words that are used to describe certain people in situations. but i believe that is up to the people that are watching and viewing those particular avenues of media, be it online, even on social media, it's important for those up.s to be spoken because oftentimes media only stories or produce material that they feel people want to see. so if i am the editor or news a tv station, i want to try to feel the vibe of my community. if the vibe of my community

says, they're saying black people, they're giving words to describe black people that are suspects,than white but maybe we should start thinking of redoing that kind after purchase. happen, because people are speaking up and those up arewho are speaking viewing the material. >> remember that you do have a voice. during the ferguson coverage we litly nonstop, 24 hours a day, ferguson ferguson ferguson. many of our viewers pointed out like what else is going on in st. louis. news. there's other i said let look at our newscast and see how we can make this a more neutral. so that was because viewers called in or e-mailed in and they shared their opinion with us. we don't know it unless you say something. >> this is along the same lines. why, given that other black men have been unjustly murdered,

tray john martin, oscar grant, a the death of michael brown been point for national concern and media coverage at this level? >> given that i'm also local, i'll also national, i can tell have thewhen you pictures and you have be the community out there taking the putting them on social media and it becomes a story, i mean, the first word that we got a young guy was trying to give himself up staying don't shoot. six times. i think that becomes the kind of a story that you say wait a wasn't you know, it like, he was unarmed, he wasn't even running away. getss one the things that it mixed up with the national story. the fact that it was the latest in a series of all these other events, it was hourshe four and a half

ont he was avowed to lie out that street, which wasn't kind of police procedures. i think those were two factors that made it blossom this big story. >> i think what makes this a big was the fact story that it was an unarmed black teen so by a white cop, that's one perspective. another perspective that he was allowed to be on the imrowb for four and a half hours. have the response of the community around him, seeing his body on the brown for four and a half hours. socialu the response on media. and you have the police response to the people's response of groundhis body on the for four and a half hours. so awe all those things made this an international story in order. >> mariah what do you think? brandon are young journalistings just getting into the business. this?t is your thought on

>> well, st. louis has always hostile environment between police and citizens. everyone has a story. these town hold meetings, everyone has a story to tell or they know somebody directly affected by the police relationship here. emotionallywas attached when it finally happened here, and it has wasened here before, it just, i guess people were broke itp, and this loose. like bradley said, the reaction had, that'smmunity what put this story over the top, because it has been said before by some of the protesters i talked to, they said if happen martin was to here, we know something was going to happen, and that's what happened. question. why has the media not identified this excessive police brutality of our society, which has been progressively internally due to

failing systems? know there is trouble with police, all across the country, it.know, we've seen i'm not sure if it's because of failing systems. >> may i speak on something -- >> please. >> i think that when we have the questions that are asked about are portrayedle in the media, we have to talk about the diversity or the lack diversity in media in these stories. and i do believe that people know the power of the words that they use. let anyone in to journalism get away with they aret understand how blacks portrayed in this country in the media. i'm just not. words. the power of i remember even maybe about a there was ago i think a station that said they were going to stop using the terms on the north side or the south side

when a murder happened, because weple said this isn't fair, want to get away from assuming a south guy, north guy, i don't the post?that i don't know if it's the news or the post distach, that when we report about a not going to say on the north side or the south side, we're going to give the canet address and people figure it out on their own. so i think if there was a louder the media in the mainstream media, because i media, there have been several stories about excessive force and police brutality. thewithout those voices in mainstream media being in the editorial room, you know, lot of the' eds, hear aboutgoing to force and police brutality. >> brittany?

>> yes, so i was a reporter that would always, in the beginning, leave race outside, say police somethingg for a man, along those lines. so when i'm making friend with sittinge contacts and down and talking to them and being real, one of the officers brittany, if i tell you we're looking for this black you and he's on, i'm giving a description of the person i'm looking for, i want you to put that out, i don't want you to sugar coat it. and this was an african-american officer that was talking to me. he said this is what i'm looking for and this is what i need to you put out. so we're going to be on the same team, we need to work together. you'rederstand where coming from. but i just think there is another side to that story. >> i think it also important to people criticize , but with no hopes to do anything about it.

talk abouto something, i want to make sure to have a plan to change what about, so a lot of not enough are often african-americans applying for police jobs, there are not enough african-americans applying for elected positions, african-americans applying for media jobs. the voiceant to, if of the african-american itmunity wants to be her, has to be african-americans willing to stand up and be that voice. >> so nabj is very big on media, not just on the air, especially behind the scenes. because your media coverage is determined by the reporters in the field, the news ageneral manager.by the news and i can tell you that in st. yous the last time media diversity

and the newsrooms, there was almost none. person whonk of one was executive producer who was at -- gone.'s >> so maybe there's nobody. but the reality is, you shed have to apply for jobs? major one of the missionings is to be a clearing motions forw african-american journalists. at, thetation we looked last report we did almost 300 tv stations and 12% of the newsroom managers were people of color. rather than, latino, his panic native american, 12%. now, as i've said many times, problem if you have no diversity in your newsroom in i place where there's no diversity in town. if you haveproblem 40% diversity in your market and there's nobody of color on your

staff, so that's an issue we've been addressing forever. major jobs is to go out and talk to people, news managers with hiring more of our in managerpecially positions, because that's where the real power is. i have a lot questions coming, much.ank you very i think this is one story, two stories have emerged after the shooting in its aftermath. knowthe officer who we now to be darren wilson, had his skull crushed, this came from let now we've been told by liable students that six young killed in the 18 hours after michael brown was killed. notthese stories were reported. where did these stories come concerninge story six killings an urban myth? brown actually suffer a crushed orbit tall eye

socket? i've her that too and i don't know the answer to that. toi think that's referring the officer. >> i'm sorry, right. the false yet repeated rumor that the officer an eye socket in some kind of confrontation with flying brown, that was around social media and was not true. extent ofent to the getting an x ray of somebody i socket and putting it out there and saying that this was the overs'. a completely wrong. the 18ck men killed in hours, i haven't heard that, i don't believe that that's true. we write about every homicide that occurs in the st. area. sometimes we don't right a lot everyone, but we keep account, it definitely part of the news report. kmob and others do

the same kind of thing. >> do you remember right after the shooting like the day after there was a lot of things social mediand that somebody else had been shot remember that i day. do you remember? every time we got a tweet geed to that location, and say oh okay, false alarm. might have been rumors circulating. black men,ay six isn't say where. thatu're around the nation could well have been true. this brings up another issue. officer, somebody put his address and his house on the air. right or wrong? >> wrong. and they apologized. the officer in potentially in danger. that's my opinion.

>> had they shown the house and not shown, not put the address out, would that have been appropriate? don't think any kind of wilson's housen or car or any kind of thing, making --at's i love to get justice for things justice means to me is you do what's just. not doing what's just by showing his personal house or before the process is done. so i believe that's wrong. >> i'm not putting down the fact that we know his name, but i've cover candidate lots of officer involved shootings and i don't know any of the officers that, you know, took part in a the shot,r fired because that information is usually never released. i remember when the name, we that the name cast coming out, there was discussion in our newsroom like are we even going to report this?

far as --s >> people were telling me who the police officers was when i got there. and i would not confirm the name.r's but everybody in the community name.y knew the officer's >> i think it really important that the name come out. as much as i think it's wrong to take a picture of his house, i think it's absolutely important the name come out and should have come out sooner. lot ofati that had a problems about 12 years ago, there was a similar kind of shooting of a white officer shooting an african-american young man, and one of the things have changed is they

immediately released the name of the officer who was involved in citizen.g of a i think that's the way it should be. and sanw in oak land francisco they will release the name. readinghat, i was something in one of the national media, or maybe it was on know, but iton't was about, the post dispatch trying to find out whether or michael brown had a juvenile record. and they did a p.r.a. for that. that correct? >> yeah. absolutely it's correct. we didthe things that and continue to do is to find outeverything we can find about the incident, the tragedy, also all the, and ramification thanks we've been talking about. so in the course we have launched an robust effort. almost everyone this our

newsroom, and we're still i newsroom inrgest the st. louis region, and almost newsroom in some way has been involved in reporting what happened to were therown, what consequences, what happened variousds, all the trails of the story that we've been talking about. pursuits was sparked by another one of those false rumors. the false rumors being spread around on social media michael brown at the time of his death faced some charge.omicide i think it was second degree murder. it was a very specific and very might add, rumor, we never reported that. of in the course are figuring it out, michael brown was 18 years old when he was killed. when you're younger than 18 if you are charged with a crime it system.uvenile the juvenile system is not open, it's not typically open. person is a live.

once a person is no longer alive their records tend to be released. so we quite routinely as part of efforts toistic figure out everything, went and said hey we want to see any record that might excite exit on michael brown, knowing that goingwas this rumor around, and we were told no, you oftendo. that so, as we do, we do it every month lawsuity, we filed a saying, no, actually the law says you need to release, this is public information. just like the name of the public information and should be released. that.t explains we weren't trying to any way to or to slant itry one way or the other. that's not what we do. try to find the truth. as i said earlier. so that was part of it. storyll tell you the about the officer, we were talking about how it took them a

couple days to release the name officer, maybe several days. you know what we found after released the name of the officer? incredibly and mysteriously, his had disappeared from the internet. curiously, you just couldn't, it's like he existed. that's interesting, how did that happen? well, i don't know this for a i suspect that somebody went in there and swept out the information from various websites. if it is what happened and we it, we're going to definitely report it. >> i suspect you're doing a for all expenditures in the month of august for the department?

>> absolutely. take to you 2016, but that's a possibility. onwatching chief jackson and watching him on the believeg days, i do that, as with any situation, with having some knowledge of do want to cover yourself. so to say that do a coverup to a certain extent, for them to of situationy kind you're going to be in, you want tomake yourself look better, cover yourself in that situation. so it's a fact. kindcannot deny that any a job in p.r. has

would try to make ferguson look better or try to recover ferguson from the situation. so i believe there's definitely coverup that's going to be exposed. then the lawsuit regarding juvenile record, is there any juvenile record? nott this point they have released -- we're not sure there is a juvenile record, let's be clear. may not have one single thing on a record. we'rethe judge has said not going to release the record, but we will tell you that he did not face a major felony, and in face and evidence en as a juvenile, the two or most serious felonies, he was never charged with. climbs that lesser maybe he was charged with, they are continuing to keep that secret. so that's where it stands. done the same thing for toafs? i haven't seen much about his any other, if he has charges against him, any other allegations against him, whether at this department, the last

department? >> the one thing that's on his record that they made public is that he won an award. ofelief me, we have a team investigative reporters among their chief task is to figure on this officer, and they've been working and and it.ing last sunday the center piece 1-a story last sunday was the story of how it was that michael body lay there for like four hours and 15 minutes according to the official records, quote unquote. that was the product of this investigative team. ae previous sunday we had lengthy story again on a sunday on the front page, talking about witnesses who saw the actual shooting and how they described it. we worked on getting those days and weeks, trying to con shins r vince them to talk us to. efforts are going on, we are not stopping. up ont saw ay that came

twitter. this has to do with talking michael brown being akows akows -- of strong arm robbery. named strong arm robbery in the media? >> it may have been labeled a robbery because it looked from the video as if he owner.hing the store >> the police put it out there that it was a strong-armed robbery. >> i think it means the weapon right?used, when it strong-armed versus physical's just your presence. i wasanted to say that, mad with you guys for going ater the juvenile record of dead guy. it came off as if you were just,

i'm not going to say you, so it toe off as if they're trying tg dig up dirt. we know they cleaned the officer's record so was nothing found. mike brown and his family hasn't had that opportunity. to try to get a report that's becaused just because lookdead now to make him like, it did not sit well, and it came off really bad. so i don't know in the future that'sforward if something livively that could be saved. you did as a judge, that's what you do as a juvenile. going toea that you're open up all your record, if there are any, we need to take a this because it really comes off police if you're victim.o smear the lawz. and on the strong arm robbery, term, strong-armed robbery, that might be the legal

definition, a lot of us saw some shoplifting, like it just seems like there was really to try to make what that store more than what it was, and two, it actually had nothing to do with he was shot. so i reallies comes off as job.er smear why that got released, that outraged the community at a tremendous level. that was extremely irpons expibl that is really when people chief jackson's job. the term strong arm robbery was used, it was first. the police so it would be unethical for who are the journalism, journalists to change up the terms used by the police department. tryingans that they're to persuade, if the police

out a report,s your job is to report facts, and if there's a police report that says it was a strong are robbery that happened, that, you have to report that. that'ss up to the people watching that, you see the video, just because you see the words strong-armed robbery, that sighnot mean you have to it -- see it as a strong arm robbery. you have the option to have your opinion about it. but people in the immediate what theirhave to do tranning says to be impartial. to border line play devil's advocate, because sayingrs, we've been this over and over, we are in search of truth. people are asking us what's going on, what's don't we know, this is not adding up. how many times have i done stories, we don't know what led up to this, but we know right now all police can confirm.

us reporters kept going to the police, what happened, what led up to this, what led up to altercation in the car? we kept asking that. and then finally, i will never forget that interview, we were outside in the park, and then we were like why are you just now us this. and the chief says, well, you it. asked for you know, we were going to hold kept asking for it. i'm not going to say that was the right decision. try to findas to the answers to find out what happened, what led up to the death. doing earlier, what police knew that we didn't know. so was everybody happy with what they found out? i'm just playing devil's advocate. way the policee handled the re: lease of that video was very poor, they were to play defense for officer wilson, and they to drag brown,g

bad.him look on the other hand, i think it's relevant to what happened. it sort of depends on whether or not, and i don't think we know yet, whether officer wilson knew about the robbery at the time that he and brown had their altercation. i've heard it said one way and heard it said the other as well. so if he did know about it goes to sort of goestate of mind, it potentially to wilson's state of mind and also to brown's possible state of mind. so it could be real van and could even end up in a court trial. >> the chief said that he didn't know about the robbery before, i remember asking him that. >> my recollection is the chief said that at the time that he,

that wilson first told brown to get out of the street that he it.'t know about i saw it indicated that, the actual,the time that he had heard about it by the time the altercation and this was the reason that wilson had backed up and engaged him. i'm just saying there are different accounts. account about him knowing about it is true, then potentially relevant information. >> i think it important for citizens to be involved in or any kind of civil job. because the video was released and their initial story was that the officer encountered michael of the video. but then the retraction was aboutwell, he didn't know it. that shows you that you cannot be too trusting of certain things, you have to take things value, but do you rsh

beyond what is told to you. you have to be ready to dissect ever is told to you, don't just take things as face value. people, they rely on the media to be the voice. that's true, but at the same your own voice, your own mind, your own ability so ifd out about things. i tell you what happened on north st. louis, if you want to happened there, you can do your own research and find out what really happen haded. >> that very ever released the police radio calls? because i heard they released the video and then they said, but he didn't know about the stopped it and later it was, well, he did know about it. the policey released radio calls for the -- calls?9s11 >> there no indication that the police radio was recorded, so we

that exists. what was released was a guy was recording for his lady friend, and in the course of making this, what he intended to recording, it happened to be at the moment of the shooting. heard a bust of gunfire, a pause, and then another burst of gunfire. is reputed to be that shooting. sureldn't tell you for that that's with a that is, athough i did see a report that had authenticated it. i'm not sure if that's reliable. you call it,hat do probe active, if you're a lawyer -- probative. we don't know there were two of gun fire.sts there was a burst, then a pause, and then another burst. came fast.lets it was boom boom boom.

the doesn't mean that officer is guilty, doesn't mean that the officer is innocent, interesting. may i get back to patricia, because she was expressing her frustration at our decision to, and i heard some other people agreeing with that, and i just want to tell you, i hear you. try to i would never talk you out of your feeling about something that we did that feel is wrong. nation your feeling and that is val i. i'm not arguing, okay. but i will say this. deciding whatrt kind of information the public see, justever really be careful. be careful. because who decides in the end what information the public doesn't get to see, guess what, it's the government. so if you start as to say, well, now, don't let them see that what you're actually saying is don let us see. that then all a

they can say we're not going to release the name of the of ae officers, and all sue they sale you can't see those e-mails. what government wants to do. this is the natural inclination keep stuffnt is to secret. because it makes them look bad. makeey're afraid it will them look bad. what we try to do is get the information out, and again i'm not neglect ating your feelings about, that i'm try to explain where we come from on that issue'. >> i think there's also a time and a place to release information, and sometimes it's and other public times it should be done through the court of law, through those processes, because you dirty a potential jury pool. andle are watching the news when they get called to do jury erase what'snnot already been shown. so there is a time and a place

information, and we need to go through the proper channels things so theyse don mess up the justice process. let's say, but officer wilson had had four complaints in the last six months, and i'm making this up. this is not true, i'm making don't put this on twitter. i'm making this up. but let's just pretend that wilson had faced four different complaints of using force in the last, whatever, six months, and let's just say that the police department decided, you know what, that information could that grand jury that's hearing that case, we better keep that secret, because after want to be fair. oh my gosh, that would be a complete inscwhus is the to keep that secret because that might be relevant. apple andalking oranges. a juvenile record is that closed

dole somebody is living, i not think should be open just because they're dead and then to the public. >> fair enough. >> another question coming. there's a lack of trust between the peub and the police but also wean the public and the media. coverage change that relationship or does it? will anything change wean the public and the media? >> you mean this discussion here? today.iscussion >> i don't theo if our discussion today. obviously the coverage hasn't veryed the public's mind much since i think the media has this according to remington poll thanks they any has hurt more than helped. towe got a long way to go make people think we're doing a

good job. controlave the power to what you see. so if you are not liking what's going on, you can do something it.t a question on twitter that i wanted to ask, and it had to do, let me -- i don't want to get it wrong. it had to do with the emotions, know, when does your integrity come into play? question i can. and a panelist mentioned the role of the social media in making ferguson a national story. i guess a twitter hash tag or ferguson showed a post when the washington and other reporters were arrested. reportersatment of

spark national coverage, if not story to thee national media storage. that.k we already covered they let michael brown lie, he was shot six times. coverage keep the going about something that is so important. i haven't zone much more coverage on it. calls.ill get press i want people to know that the say the world, i seriously the world is still interested in how we're doing while everyone has less, i gill day,alls about every other whether it from national from international reporters wanting to know what's going on. so i guess it's not glared the cross trf kreen and on twitter all the time now, but people are

ebbing in because i don't want people to get the sense a the just wants their pictures, and i have relationships with what's theow, okay, next steps, how did the council nextng go, what's the protest planned, so the interest is still here. doesn't feel like much after what we've been through, but people want to see startuis and this region moving forward from this. >> absolutely. huffingtonle with post is to continue coverage on know,on, because as you ferguson is the case study of america. media mass twin delled off, the big news people are gone. need to betill coverage on it, i know locals are still going to be here and going to see what happens. we need to know how ferguson afters after the verdict, everything, so that every city in america that's going through

now what to do in wh it happens or how to heal. >> i don't think this is a story to die down any time soon, but just to give you as ak into my life reporter, i'm a general assignment reporter, and so every morning we're taking a look at what's happening in the city. and if the bigger story is today i was dealing with a double church inutside a river view. for that community that was the big story of the day, that does losing state of what's going on in ferguson. everything.llowing if tomorrow i need to be in ferguson, then i'll be in ferguson. if the other bigger story and the st. louis region is it and i'mlse, i get willing to do that. >> i agree that i don't think story will die down. last week there were all starts on national public

radio, about the actions to try wines -- the chai fines arethe way handed out. i think the national folks are eye on it.ir just think of all the stories that are out there still to do. there's going to be all the developmentings in the criminal case, whether or not there's an there's a, whether trial. if there's an acquittal or no a federal, there's investigation. meanwhile, holders announced, the attorney general has announced this patent and practice of investigation, it again or months about police practicees. and that's just on the police of things. what about the whole big issue mean, do we want to look at the schools in that area? that thea coincidence

school intrik wants s was uncredited. are we doing everything we need doing in those schools to education our students? there are a million related stories. >> i just realized this, but in my story at the beginning i'm talking about ferguson even though i'm in river view. it's not going to die down any time soon. >> this is a question for christopher. how does traditional media educate the public about where to go to get fair and unbuy

yassed nonpartisan news coverage? how do you combat the false reports? what are you doing to reach young audiences who tend to consume and share their news and the news they find on social media? >> that's a great question and a very complex one. we could talk a lot about it. i would say that we've seen in our society in the last five years especially traditional journalism challenged. i mean, mainly for economic reasons. the business model of journalism i'm sorry to use the coarse language but it's in the crapper. people don't want to pay for news. they think news should just be free. there's also an increasing -- especially among young people an increasing tendency to say if it's business news my -- it will find me.

how do we react to that? i would say the most important thing is reaffirm our principles of ethical traditional journalism. reaffirm the search for truth because if all that's left are those blow-hards on fox news who just want to give their opinion and msnbc who want to give their opposing opinion then where are the facts? how do you find out what's actually real? there has to be a place to go for actual information, a radio station, a television station, a news website, et cetera. so organizations like public radio, like the post dispatch exists to provide that unbiced and information. we're trying to get much better twitter and facebook.

they don't want to go searching for it. it needs to be there for them when they want it. that's one of the many things we're trying to do. we report fast. we push it out there on facebook and twitter. and so i would say visit on any learn what lets and we're doing. you don't have to agree with it, you have too be angry about it. i'm thrilled that you're angry about something that we did. that's actually good because you care. ou're

if i tell you the bathroom's on fire. are you going to believe that? are you going to believe the bath is on fire? tell you the b fire. are you going to believe that? are you going to believe the bath is on fire? >> it's a relationship. you grow a relationship with news orter or the

station. you get a trusted relationship. like i know i can watch kmlv and they're going to give me the facts. if you feel passionately then you're fine. if you see something randomly on twitter and you don't know who this person is, you don't know if this picture is accurate maybe you do need to do a little digging. of tier urth night gas, this is not tier gas, it's up to me and other people who were out there saying, no. we know what tear gas is we've experienced this, this is the fourth night. this is not smoke bombs this is tier gas. all of us, this is tear gas. this is not right. we're out here. this is tear gas all of a sudden the story changed. so there is a time for i guess citizen journalism and people using social media saying no you did not get that right. and that's how that works. >> i was up that night so you

have the police telling us it's smoke bombs. and so you're going to report what you think is true. that's why it's important for you guys to fact-check. well, if we're saying, if the police are saying it's tear gas and you're saying -- it's actually tear gas. so it's up to you to call the station or say this is actually what it is. this is actually what is really going on. >> you only have to smell that sweet smell once to know tear gas. outlets who allow them to help lead the story. s a history of rastist-drien comments on any story involving african american victims. do these encourage negative individuals as a follow-up? >> well, i completely agree with the premise of that story that some of our commentators clearly have opinions that they just need to keep to themselves

and i wish that they would. now, having said that, we allow comments on stories. that includes some comments that frankly piss me off. but i don't get to pick and choose just the comments i like. i don't have the time to do that. some stories have a thousand comments on them. we don't have the personnel literally to go through. however, abusive behavior and profanity and such we try to flag and get rid of those. but it's a tough question these comments. do they affect our editorial decisions about what we cover and how we cover them? absolutely not. >> this is one thing i would totally disagree with you on. i think the newspaper has the responsibility to take the racist comments off and has every agent to do that. and if they don't have enough people to do it, then hire some more people or don't run any comments. >> i think i would agree with

that. if some is being blatantly racist lift that off. we do. there's people here tonight who has killed how many 10,000 nasty awful comments? countless. so yeah, absolutely. we don't want to see that crap on our website. we think it's hideous. at the same time there's going to be comments that i disagree with but that's no reason to kill them off. but when you get to profant, racism, anti-social behavior like some of these comments i agree. >> i'm not sure, i guess after donald sterling had his rant and i was interviewed and they asked me whether i think it's a problem, it absolutely is a problem. there was once a time when it was not politically correct to throw the n word out there, to berate people for their race or

their gender or their sexual preference. social media has changed that because people now can hide behind a false name, a user name they create or -- and i think people's true feelings come out. so when people tell me we're in a post racial society, i say read the comments. >> we do force people to use their real names. we don't let people just have a fake name or a no name to comment. i guess those people are proud of their racist comments. >> a couple -- we kind this but what exactly do the images show? do journalists believe a robbery took place or something else? that's one of the questions. >> i would say and i did speak to some of that. when you look at the videotape some people are saying that may or may not be mike brown, there were different shoes, date stamp time, it wasn't him.

so i think that's where that comment may have been coming from. people said no he was wearing different socks. how did he have time to leave the store and -- or different shoes and socks. how all of a sudden from the time he walked from ferguson market he has on a different pair of shoes? so i think that may be where that question is coming from because i heard that a lot. is this even him? the guy looks heavier. i have heard that being asked. >> national media have been more aggressive covering and under-- uncovering issues. i'm not sure that's true. >> i disagree with that. i think what happens is i took just a quick look at the stories we've run concerning ferguson, brown, and events since august 9. today's the 17th. we've written like something

like 250 full-length stories and we've published more than 200 photographs in the newspaper. we've had more than 1,000 maybe in the thousands of photographs videos et cetera on line. we're just getting started. the last two sundays -- sunday is by the way if you're not a newspaper reader for us sunday is like the big show piece day we try to put our best work, our work we think is most important we give it a lot of space and attention. the michael brown story continues to be our focus on sundays since then and it will continue to be into the foreseeable future. >> so this is regarding michael brown -- darren wls' -- wilson's network. they are convinced that he was nearly beaten to death. i remember seeing a couple of weeks ago there was somebody

who talked to him and gave an account of what had actually happened. and the media played this up. this was on the national, the cable channels. michael brown, i forget who this person was. a friend. she had talked to him and it was a second-hand account of what happened that day. so are you responsible by putting that on the air when you don't know who this person is? >> i think you're talking about darren wilson. >> and was of his friends. >> so it was a woman who had talked to a female friend of darren wilson. so you're already like third happed. and i think she called -- dina, the conservative commentator. don't really think that it's responsible to use that. i was reading it because at that point we really didn't

have any kind of good idea at all of what the police account was. so i sort of read it for background information. but i don't think writing a would bout that was -- have been responsible. if you're going to write that story you certainly have to say this is third-hand account and no first-hand knowledge. i think it's a good rule for journalists to stick with what they can first-hand. >> is it ok to report unofficial tweet or retweet? what is official what is unofficial? every tweet is official. whether it's true or not is a different story. anybody? >> it's ok to report a tweet that has been proven to be true. >> how do you prove it's tru? >> so darren wilson was -- suffered --

>> let's say mike brown was wearing a red shirt. that's a tweet. well, if you look at videos and pictures you see mike brown was not wearing a red shirt. that's how you do your job to find out things are true before you report on it. >> a tweet may tick me off or an -- tip me off and i will take it and try to investigate it some. there are sometimes when i knew bradley and i knew his work and how he's been out there. so there will be times when i'm like, oh, bradley's out there. because i trusted him. but i didn't do that for everybody. >> tweets can be wrong like christopher's example of the eye socket. they can be the first place that news is reported. i think almost all the news about what was going on in ferguson would have been first

reported in a tweet. i got the idea of how powerful tweeting and retweeting could be in that i wrote a fairly pedestrian story about why it was nixon couldn't order wilson to be arrested. and through the tweeting and retweeting and where it was posted ended up with 100,000 hits which was a new experience for me as a reporter. so the tweets are also really valuable to magnifying the power of journalism. >> so this is a que that i had myself. what coverage or action will take place if there is no indictment? and will the media and the politicians pursue this? how can you? what can happen? i mean, the question i have is, you know the indictment do wre know when the indictment is coming down? >> nobody knows.

>> they've already pushed it off to january after the election. >> there are so many unknowns right now that it's not even responsible to give a full picture to even speculate what can happen. because i don't want to think that he is not going to get off. just from what we've seen there should be enough to question to move forward for a trial. and i certainly don't want to assume that any writing is going to tart again. because there are people on both sides who are going to be upset regardless of if he is gets an indictment or does not get an indictment. so it's kind of like we don't know what will happen. we don't know where people will come from and how they will be feeling to come out of the bag. and it's been very hard to try to think of a contingency plan for what if because you can't plan for everything. so what i will certainly say is

this is on the minds of just about everybody who cares about the public safety and we're just going through different scenario analysis of what to do but we're trying to be prepared for anything. >> i just wrote a story yesterday saying that he says he is going to -- if there is no indictment, that he is going to release the transcripts and the audio of the grand jury with approval of the judge involved. and he will do that immediately. now, that's highly unusual. and but i don't know that it's going to -- that it would convince anyone. >> the question was how are people supposed to trust the trance cripts? >> well, there's going to be both transcripts and audio. at some point you've got to trust something. generally court reporters do

provide accurate accounts of what is said and trials and they can in grand jury proceedings where they are recorded. so that's what would happen. now, if there's an indictment, then a question -- an interesting question is, well maybe the judge would open that to tv. mike wolf whose the dean at the university law school suggests that would be a good idea. if there's not an indictment the first thing you'll hear is ur investigation is -- for possible federal charges is going ahead full steam. so there will be that potential backup. again, i don't know that the combination of the transcripts of the grand jury and the audio of the grand jury and the promise of the federal government to pursue the case would keep people from wanting to be out in the streets.

but that's sort of -- and i don't think we know, even though the grand jury was extended to january i've heard people say that it could end up sooner. there was a story today that wilson testified for four hours yesterday. so i think that one might think it could wrap up before january. >> who else has testified? >> well, what their people have said is that -- and this is controversial and itself. that they are putting all the potential witnesses and the video and everything in front of the grand jury and they're letting the grand jury make their decision. and that they're not providing them with like a narrative here is what happened that you would normally expect a prosecutor to do with the grand jury. some people say, like dana, the "washington post" columnist

this is proof that the whole grand jury process is a farce, it's a fix. the fix is in to clear wilson because any prosecutor who really wanted to get an indictment would be providing a narrative and honing the facts to get an indictment. but then again i talked to a guy named david used to prosecute police cases in st. louis and he said it's a good idea to let the grand jurors hear all the evidence. and apparently mccullough is going to provide more legal guidance at the end of the grand jury once all that material is before them. that's the back and fortsd of it. >> when the curfew was in effect, most reports went into what i call the press play pen. an area far from the action. why did the journalists comply with this? those of you who were there can you talk about this? >> we didn't all comply with it. we were -- i mean, i was there

in the neighborhoods, getting stories, posting instagrams. there were a lot of times where i did go to the safe media area. and i'm a day sider so nighttime there was more tear gas and stuff like that. i know a lot were in that safe area. there's some reporters that wanted to be in the safe area that it's not just a safe area. that's where our equipment is, that's where we can put our videos together, where we can log our interviews, but that didn't stop us from going down into the neighborhoods and getting the stories and bringing it back. >> in reference to after midnight, the reason why i stayed in the area because i don't have a lawyer. when you have police that have guns and tear gas that threaten you, media stay in the area, or you'll be arrested. hearing that as a student still , you get kind of fearful. you don't want to get arrested.

>> absolutely. i went through a similar experience. that was the first night of curfew. i wasn't connected to a major organization yet and i didn't even have a press pass to get into the media staging area. all i remember is a policeman saying i can't help you if you're out of those ropes. so i was scared and didn't know what was going to happen. so i begged to get up in that media area and i got in it. >> if it's after midnight and there's a curfew and you're outside the media area, it doesn't -- the first amendment is not going to keep you from getting arrested and won't be a defense. >> but i will say there were -- i did not adhere to the curfew and i could have been in the media area. many other elected officials were there and other journalists were in the media area. but no, because the juicy stories were when they put you guys up in the pen.

and they were able to get -- >> i do believe that was a police tactic. i mean, it's obvious. because they saw the media as the ones reporting the stories that were exposing some of the police action. so let's, why not put them all in the area far away from the action so they can't report it what's really going on. i feel the tactic was used. >> they switched where the line was. ferguson avenue by the mcdonald's and the fergusonly quor mart is usually where the police mart had been. the night they started the police pin they left that open and kind of moved the line somewhere else and there was a push of the crowd away from the media area. towards can'tfield apartments. so i do know several journalists who did not adhere to this because they knew where the juicy stories were going to be coming from. they were hiding from bushes.

i was just crazy to be out there. but if you want a good story be prepared to hide in a bush. i wound up getting a bullet proof vest and a gas mask and the first people i saw putting that equipment on were the journalists especially the photo journalists. i was surprised by how much they put themselves in the line of danger just to get that shot. i have a whole new respect for the pictures that

this is not those countries that are going through wars. this is america. so it's kind of an odd thing in the way. >> photographs have to be able to get the photo. the same thing whether you're carrying a still or video camera. although i will say the video guys can usually stand back and get the video because they can zoom in. the same thing with the print photographs. but i'm a radio guy. in order to get the sound i've got to get close. so what are you doing about it? for the police to say this is your area, you have to stay here. i mean, it wasn't a crime scene. so how can they get away with that? >> well, you've got to remember here now the governor of missouri declared the cur few and made it law and gave the law enforcement the right to

arrest anyone who violated the curfew. so on the ground the commanders on the ground said ok it's it's mid night it's a curfew. you can stay here. you cannot be on the street. you have to stay in this area. so i think what bradley was saying is very -- it hits home. your choices are you obey the guy with the gun or you get arrested or worse. and those of you out there who are thinking about being journalists, this is real. these are thing that is journalists do. we had a couple who got decapitated because they were just reporting in a war area in the middle east. think about that. you mentioned our photographs. we had one who was taking a picture of the looting and totally focused in his job

have you done -- you've been trying to get this information. >> that effort is ongoing. it didn't help that they gave him time to scrub the record if that's what he did or someone did. but believe me it's continuing on. >> has the media told enough of officer wilson's story to be considered fair and balanced coverage? >> we've done everything that we can do as major investigative journalism operation. the biggest one in the region. we've done everything we can do. all i can say is it ain't over yet. this story is not going away and we're continueding on that path until we get to him and understand his record, his full record not the cleaned up record. >> why is it ok to tell children wikipedia cannot be used as a source but the media

uses twitter facebook and instagram as a source? >> you don't know who is saying what. so there may be lines that you don't know who put it out there. you can't -- that person that wrote whatever they did on wikipedia, if it's twitter and it's only 130 characters i can research who put this out. i can do some more investigative -- and i don't just take tweets and run with it. i'm tweeting it anyway. wikipedia you really don't know who put it out there at all. >> we're going to take for the media in st. louis to cover other important issues like the guy choked in new york city and the guy shot in california who was deaf. >> i think that my focus right now locally. it's so much going on in st.

louis right here that my focus right now just as a general assignment reporter is what's going on here locally. in the national media outlets can handle more the national stories because i can't do them justice in st. louis. >> and he was choked before the michael brown shooting so local coverage really is local. and there is national coverage at all the local media has national coverage. but if it's me, i want to spend my money covering local because there's plenty of national people. >> why do they want to cover the date. we covered that. how useful is utilizing ferguson as a moniker i think you mean a hash tag. giving recent events a different designation. i mean. >> where all the stories are kept is at a hash tag so we want to keep all the information to that one hash

tag. >> also gives you a way to catch up. >> you see all the tweets and stuff. >> i'm trying to find questions we haven't asked yet. can the media still be considered unbiased based on the coverage they convey to the world. why does it seem that media footage does not cover events that general residents are able to cover? the community sees it but the media does or chooses not to cover it. we all make decisions on coverage based on journalistic experience. you might think it's a really big story. like my radio station we have, who cares? and if it's one street that cares as opposed to a whole market, we're going to cover the story that the whole market

wants. >> i think that's where you hould tweet it or facebook it. why not coverage of powell? i don't know who that is. >> he was the guy that was shot , killed in the city holding the knife. >> did you say why? >> why there was no coverage of that. >> we covered that. >> we wrote about it extensively on line and in print. >> what also makes that a different story is it's also controversial but he did have something in his hands and he wasn't completely unarmed. >> we even took it to the next level. we ound out that the same type of situation happened on the south side and the roles were switched. the white -- black officers and the white guy. so we definitely covered it. is it to the extent of ferguson? no. but i think more so what our coverage was with ferguson is

not only the facts but the emotions and all the protests and stuff like that going on. so of course we covered it. but that wasn't happening with the stuff in st. louis. that didn't stop us from covering it. i know if you search three or four stories will pop up. >> if you can possibly respond to the medical examiner on the news stating the reason michael brown's body could not be picked up was that there was fear from the -- fear of life from the crowd. i guess they were afraid -- the crowd -- did the crowd prevent them from picking tup body? >> that's a controversial statement because the fact that he laid there for a while actually made the crowd more embattled so i think by him saying the crowd was -- they made it worse in my opinion. that's just my opinion. they made it worse by letting him sit there longer. so it's -- >> and i think there have been clear statements by police experts that there was no

justification for him to lie out there for that period of time. no police justification. >> we have run out of time. we have answered a lot of questions. i think we've got a lot of information. i can't thank my panel enough. >> up next on c-span labor secretary thomas pers talks about issues facing workers. and then former house speaker dennis hastert and former minority leader dick gephardt discuss changes in congress since their tenure.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] after his remarks he took questions from the audience at the national press club. this is an hour. >> good afternoon and welcome.

the national press club is the world's leading professional organization for journalists committed to our profession's future, to our programming with events such as this while fostering a free press worldwide. for more information about the national press club please visit our website at press press.org. i would like to welcome our speaker and those of you attending today's event. our head table includes guests of our speaker as well as working journalists. so if you hear applause, i note that members of the general public are attending as well so it's not necessarily evidence of a lack of journalistic object tivity. i would also like to welcome our c-span and public radio awsionses. you can follow the action on twitter using the hashtag npc lunch. after our guest's speech concludes we'll have a que and answer period. i will ask as many questions as

time permits. now it's time to introduce. i would like each of you to stand briefly. thomas sanchez. jimmy lay bay. . michelle jam riss co. u.s. economy reporter. matthew cutty. susan page. tom trainor.

thank you. timothy noah, with politico command guest of our speaker. marilyn, senior's nests editor of npr, and an npc board number. jennifer, president of espectability usa.org. our guest today has been the subject of rumor and speculation. for the last two weeks, since his name surfaced as a favorite to replace eric holder as attorney general. for now at least, thomas perez is still the secretary of labor. since being confirmed by the senate in july of 2013, perez has been everywhere. in houston, eating and bananas,

in memphis, and meeting with unemployed workers in cleveland yet another. on the first friday of every month, he is all over the airways talking about the nation's falling unemployment rate. when he is here in town, he is likely to be spotted at nationals park. perez has been traveling the country, preaching his gospel that hard work deserves a living wage. as head of the labor department, he is advocated raising the minimum wage to $10.10. pushed for paid parental leave, and worked to reduce the number of workers virtualized as contractors. he has been active on worker contracts. the department issued new regulations on wages, hiring, and chemical exposure. the sun of immigrants from the dominican republic who settled in buffalo, perez has a long history in washington as a efender of civil rights.

he was an adviser to senator ted kennedy, and spent many years in the justice department's office of civil rights. he led the division before president obama appointed him the labor department last ear. according to some press reports, obama is considering sending perez back to justice to replace holder, who announced last month he plans o step down. perez is not without his detractors, however. before becoming labor secretary, he endured a grueling confirmation process in which mitch mcconnell, the leader of the senate republican minority, called him a committed ideologue. ideologue or not, we look forward to hearing his thoughts on the economy, the job market, the vacancy of justice, and perhaps the nuts. ladies and doma, please give a warm national press club

welcome to tom perez. >> good afternoon. thank you for that generous welcome. i might talk about the buffalo bills, but we will say that for nother time. thanks to everyone at the press club, including my good friend allison fitzgerald, who lives in the neighborhood. we are overrepresented in tacoma park, but that is ok. thank you for having me. over the summer, something remarkable happened around new england. thousands of employers of the regional supermarket chain market basket walked off the job to protest the firing of their ceo. workers up and down the chain of command put their jobs on the line to help rally,

picketed throughout the summer. eight managers who spearheaded the first rally, some of them had been with the company for more than 40 years, were fired. loyal customers held their own rallies. merchandise sales started to dwindle, sales lag, vendors began to cut their ties with the company. the governors of two states stepped in to try and broker a deal. in the end, deal was reached, and he took back control of the company. just in time for labor day, the market basket employees went to ork. they have 71 full-service supermarkets across new england. they employ roughly 25,000 eople. these employees had one demand, they were calling for the return of their ceo. upon his return, she stood on the back of a pickup truck and made a very memorable speech, which i think is very relevant to what we are discussing today. this is what he said. you have demonstrated that everyone here has a

purpose. you have demonstrated that everyone has meaning, and no one person is better or more important than another. whether it is a full timer or a part timer, whether it is a stacker, a cashier, a grocery clerk, truck driver, warehouse director, store manager, supervisor, customer, vendor, r a ceo. we are all equal i working together, and only together do we succeed. they launched their protest because they wanted to work for a guy like him. someone who didn't treat him like they were another cost of doing business, but rather as a valuable asset. worthy of dignity. he understands the doing right by your employees is a great way to generate loyalty and productivity, adding value for customers and increasing your profit margins. he knows that in an economy that works for everyone, rosperity is shared.

as they were getting up and running, i had the privilege along with some of my friends in labor to travel with the president on labor day weekend o milwaukee. the president gave a speech in which he said while most every measure, the american economy and american workers are better off than when i took office. the data backs them up. september was the 55th straight month the private sector job growth, to the tune of 10.3 illion new jobs. that is the longest uninterrupted streak of rabbit sector job creation on record. unemployment is now at its lowest level since july 2008. all told, the united states has put more people back to work than europe, japan, and every advanced economy combined. manufacturing continues to make a historic back. we are making things in america. in sourcing is in, outsourcing is out. u.s. exports are up. since the first time since 2006, the poverty rate is own.

child poverty had its largest one-year decline last year ince 1966. the number of young people graduating high school is up, while crime and incarceration rates are down. reforming the health care system was a bd. thanks to the affordable care act, we reduced the number of ninsured adults. it is undeniably true that we have made progress in these six years, since the president inherited the worst economic crisis of our lifetime. 2 million jobs were lost. almost every indicator shows that we are better off now than we were on january 20, 009. that is not enough. the remember what the president said. almost isn't good enough. it's not good enough for me, it's not good enough for america.

it's not good enough for the man i met in new jersey who had a six-figure job in the advertising industry, lost his job, and now is struggling to ake ends meet. he said when i had cancer, that was easier than fighting long-term unemployment. almost isn't good enough for the 71-year-old woman i met in houston, who has been a janitor or 30 years. even though she helped organize her coworkers, she still struggles to keep her head above water. $8.85 an hour just isn't nough. and increasing the minimum wage would go a long way toward giving her some peace of mind. almost isn't good enough for the new mom from texas who wrote to us after we were doing our paid leave campaign. she had to go without a paycheck for six months in order to take time off to be with her daughter, who was born nine weeks premature.

all because we are the only nation in the industrialized planet that doesn't have a paid leave law. almost isn't good enough for the millions of people who are working hard and falling further behind. there is no dignity in working 40 to 50 hours a week and getting your food at the food pantry. for them, and for all of these other families who continue to struggle, the data points don't mean a whole lot. if the breadwinner in your house is out of work, the unemployment rate might as well be 100%. even if that breadwinner has been lucky enough to keep her job, chances are, she hasn't seen a meaningful raising years. even though she is contributing to rising productivity, and it growing economy with her hard ork. the pie is getting bigger, american workers helped take it, but they are not getting a bigger slice. their sweat equity is not translating into financial equity. we are on pace in 2014 for the best year of private sector job

growth since 1998. but the difference between now and then is that in the late 90's, the rising tide lifted more boats. it lifted the yachts and the rafts. it lifted the cruise liners and the dinghies. the principal of this business seems to me is to ensure that prosperity is broadly shared. that we built an economy that truly works, and meaningfully orks for everyone. some say these challenges are intractable, that the problem is structural, whether it is low wages or long-term unemployment. globalization, technological progress, create inherent and intractable inequities and opportunity gaps that can be held off. i don't buy it. structural unemployment, for me, that's excuse making. i'm not giving up. this president is in giving up, we recognize that low wages and lousy benefits are a choice.

they are not a necessity. and that is why i'm confident that we can construct a fair way to share prosperity in which everybody has a chance to live their highest and best dreams. that is what i want to talk to about. this stairway has a number of important steps. starting with tearing up the talking points. an understanding history. shared prosperity is not a fringe concept, cooked up by socialist. historically, both parties have embraced it in both their words and indeed, their actions. it is a principle that as american as apple pie, and a linchpin of a thriving middle class. here's what teddy roosevelt said. our aim is to promote prosperity, and to see that prosperity is passed around, and there is a proper division of prosperity.

don't take my word for it, listen to one of wall street's most powerful executives. lloyd blankfein, ceo of goldman sachs, who said -- he talked about the destabilizing impact of income inequality. too much of the gdp over the last generation has gone to too few of the people. standard & poor's recently issued a report explaining that income inequality is stifling gdp growth come at a time when we are still priming -- climbing out of the great recession. a rising tide lifts all boats, but a lifeboat carrying a few surrounded by many treading water risks capsizing. just three days ago, this is what janet yellen said. the extent of and continuing increase in inequality in the united states greatly concerns may. it is no secret that in the past few decades of widening inequality can be summed up as significant income and wealth gains for those at the very top, and stagnant living

standards for the majority. so people across ideological spectrum recognize that america works best when they feel the whole team at. and when the entire team shares in the sacrifices and the spoils. gilded ages are not and never will be golden ages in america. but in today's political climate, and the polarization, i feel like there are some who have regrettably lost sight of that. shared prosperity is a non-partisan principle. it is a key to long-term success. another step in the shareware -- stairway to shared prosperity is a familiar one. we have basic, commonsense tools our disposal that have worked in the past and can work again. we need to raise the men among wage. despite what you of heard on capitol hill, this isn't a radical concept. the congress, led by newt gingrich, passed it. every president except for two cents fdr has signed into

law. but we have been stuck at $7.25 for years. the purchasing power of the minimum wage is 20% less than it was 30 years ago. the u.s. has the lowest minimum wage as a percentage of median wage, the third lowest among oecd countries. the third lowest. if you look across the pond and see countries governed by conservative leadership, such as the u.k., where they recently announced an increase in the minimum wage to $11.05 an hour. why did they do this? they did it for that same reason that that flaming liberal, henry ford, did it. he doubled the wages for people on assembly lines because you said countrywide high wages spell countrywide prosperity. this is not a fringe idea. a strong majority of folks, and a majority of small businesses report increases -- support increases in the minimum wage, because they understand that generates economic growth.

and what businesses need more than anything is customers. they understand that 70% of gdp growth is consumption. let's stimulate consumption in order to strengthen the economy and continue to pick up the pace of recovery. we also need to have our in for structure investment. when you to rebuild roads and bridges, transit systems. these are opportunities to create middle-class jobs right away. and facilitate commerce for decades and decades account. yes, it involves federal spending. but it involves better role -- federal spending when dwight eisenhower crated the interstate highway system is one of his most enduring legacies. as a former local elected official and worked on transportation issues, i can tell you we can't build on it for century infrastructure when we are living year to year, month to month, on transportation budgets. that is why long-term planning is so critically important. we also need to fix our broken

immigration system. as you know, it is not simply a moral or humanitarian or national security imperative. it is an economic imperative. the cbo estimates that immigration reform will increase real gdp by 5.4% over the next decade. that translates into an additional 1.4 trillion of economic activity. adding jobs, putting upward pressure on wages, helping to stabilize the social security trust fund. these three ideas, when you think about them, they have worked in the past. they enjoyed strong bipartisan support in the past. we need to do them again now. they are critical to our nation's continued growth. we shouldn't stop there, and congress shouldn't stop there. the third step to shared prosperity is we need to continue to think big, and bold. comprehensive immigration

reform is big and bold. there are other ideas that we should be using as well. let me give you one example. this example, i have seen across the country. it is a sleeper issue that will sleep no more. that is the issue of paid leave. we stand alone as the only industrialized nation on the planet where paid leave is not the law of the land. our dismal record on paid leave, for me, was on prominent display when i recently traveled to australia for the meeting of the g 20 labor ministers. when you look at other countries, canada, australia, it u.k., germany, japan, the nordic's, others. they are all leaning in on leave. that we are way behind. they all recognize that paid leave is good economic policy, and good family policy. they know it is essential to have thriving businesses and flexible workplaces.

these aren't mutually exclive. these are inextricably intertwined and mutually reinforced. why can't we figure it out here in the u.s.? why are we making people choose between the job that they need and the family that they love? why are we giving people more tools to be attentive parents and productive employees? how can we say that we continue to be for family values, when so many people have to jeopardize their economic security to take a few weeks off to have a kid? that is not simply a matter of doing the right thing, it is also an important strategy for reducing labor force per dissipation. every first friday of the month, the most frequent the asked question i get is what can you do to increase labor force participation? let's talk about paid leave, and compare the united states of canada. the labor force per tip is -- participation rate for women aged way five to 54 in the year 2000 in the u.s. and canada was virtually identical.

today, canada is ahead of us by eight percentage points because they have affordable access to affordable childcare and paid leave. if we had kept pace with canada over these years, we would have 5.5 million more women in the workforce. the innovation economy would be enriched by this reservoir of human capital. sectors that have serious gender gaps, like the silicon valley, wall street, and elsewhere, would have additional talent to tap. i've said before, america works best when we field a full team a. there is a lot of female talent on the bench. that is not right. when you get those 5.5 million more women off the bench and into the game, we increase gdp by an estimated 3.5%. which translates into more than $500 billion of additional economic activity.

we are essentially by in action leaving significant amounts of money on the table because we are not leading on leave. the president convened a summit on working families. at a time when women are nearly half the workforce, the primary breadwinners in more families than ever before, anything that makes lives harder for women makes wife's harder for families and children. when women succeed, america ucceeds. there is no such thing as a woman's issue. this is a family issue, an american issue. the bottom line is, for the good of our family, and the strength of our economy, we need to lead on leave. and we can't simply leave talent on the bench. we need to cultivate talents. which brings me to another critical step in the stairway to shared prosperity. that is the issue of skill. just as we need to invest in our physical infrastructure,

and our transportation and for structure, we need to invest in our human capital and the structure. -- infrastructure. we built the railroads and the internet, and just we have done that, we need to have a skills ecosystem that meets the needs of our economy and opens up ront years for new growth. there are two very important pieces of good news in this area. first of all, there are millions of good middle-class jobs available for the taking right now. opportunities are growing. many of them require less than a college degree, although they tend to require more than a high school degree. everywhere i go, my life has gone that way. i have the same conversation with employers, and it is a good conversation. this is what they tell me. i am bullish about america, i want to grow my business, it might be manufacturing, health care, i.t., whatever it is. i want to grow my business. my biggest challenges i need to make sure that we have a pipeline of skilled talent to make it happen.

there are opportunities across sectors. about one quarter of the company's in fortune magazines list of the 100 fastest-growing companies are in the energy sector. that means a treasure trove of energy-related jobs, good middle-class jobs. we are working with the industry to give workers the training they need to fill those jobs. the same is true in other industries. i meet with utility ceos across this country. the utilities are in a process of dramatically expanding and modernizing the grid. what that means is, they will need more workers. these jobs start at $50,000 and above. i was with tom wheeler, the fcc chair, last week. we can't expand broadband without middle-class workers as well. that is an exciting development that creates opportunities. the list goes on and on. we need upwards of 100,000 more

computer support specialists in the coming years. estimates of over 65,000 dental hygienist, 30,000 more surgical techs. these are jobs that can support a family, saying between $40,000 and $70,000 a year. in many cases you get the necessary credentials at a community college, and then you build your way up the skills superhighway. that is the second piece of good news that i want to share with you. we are in the middle of a remarkably exciting transformation in the way in which we prepared job seekers of all ages for the middle-class jobs of today and tomorrow. we have gotten rid of what i have been calling the old train and prey model, where we train widget makers, and we pray that someone is hiring them. that is yesterday's paradigm. today's paradigm as we are focused on demand driven or job driven training. we are wor m