Investigative reporter Jon Rappoport was one of the first journalists to point out the proliferation of fake news in media back in 2001. In the first half of the show, he discussed his journey as a journalist who's not been beholden to special interests and has consistently exposed bias and inconsistencies. Mainstream news, he said, has long avoided certain topics that he's covered, such as the destructive effects of pharmaceutical medicine on the public. While there are fake news stories that are obviously fabricated, Rappoport argued that because the media giants avoid certain types of important stories, this could be considered a kind of fake news by omission. Part of this has to do with big media being concerned over losing their advertisers, he suggested.
There is a propaganda aspect to the entire operation of national television news, he indicated. It's "constructed as a kind of stage play to give you the impression that...this could not be anything other than the truth." Further, major news outlets have been accusing certain independent media sites as being purveyors of fake news, which has sometimes clouded the issue of free speech, Rappoport noted. One can sometimes discern if an online article is fake, he continued, if it contains anonymous sources claiming very preposterous ideas, and jumbled information or chronology.
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Realtor and mother of two young children, Cathy Byrd, never had aspirations of becoming a writer until an incredible story unfolded before her eyes. In the latter half, she revealed how her young son, Christian Haupt, began sharing vivid memories of being a baseball player in the 1920s and '30s, and what they discovered along the way researching past lives and reincarnation. The boy was touted as a baseball prodigy at the age of three (he threw the first pitch at a Dodgers MLB game), and began to recall memories of being the baseball great Lou Gehrig, such as staying in hotels every night.
At the advice of reincarnation researcher, Carol Bowman, Byrd showed photos to Christian, and he was able to identify Gehrig in a photo of the 1927 Yankees team, as well as the correct name of Gehrig's parents from a photo (see related images). Psychiatrist Dr. Jim Tucker who has studied children who remember past lives, interviewed the boy at age 5, and Christian told him that he picked out his current parents while in the afterlife state. By the time Christian turned six, his past life memories started to fade, which is what typically happens in such cases, according to Tucker's research.
News segment guests: Lauren Weinstein, John Curtis, Howard Bloom
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