[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hi, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program, back-to-back, two leading members of the state legislature.

In a little bit, we'll be joined by Jon Bramnick, Senator Bramnick.

We kick off with Assemblyman Lou Greenwald, who is the Majority Leader in the Assembly.

Good to have you with us, Assemblyman.

- Thanks, Steve.

Nice to be back with you guys.

- You got it.

We're taping this a week after a very important election.

Governor Sherrill will take office January 20th.

Top two or three issues you believe she faces, we face as a state?

Go ahead, Lou.

- Number one issue we face is how do we navigate the cutbacks coming from Washington?

Significant impacts.

I know during the campaign, it was a common refrain of Jack Ciattarelli that, you know, these aren't New Jersey issues, but very clearly, cuts to Medicaid impact our number one employer, hospitals and healthcare, it impacts our residents.

Hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans rely on Medicaid plans to provide for their families, many of them are small employers.

That's the number one issue.

I think the second issue is something that has popped up recently, which are the utility rate increases that the governor-elect has talked about and starting to implement a plan.

I, myself, and my friend Craig Coughlin, have been meeting with industry leaders to start to put together a program to attack the rate increases, and make New Jersey a sending district for utility, as opposed to receiving.

And then the third is the ongoing issue in New Jersey, throughout my career and many of our careers, is the issue of property taxes that ties in directly to affordability.

- Yeah.

Assemblyman, one of the things about you that's always interested me is your interest in media.

This may not sound like a natural segue, but for those of us in public media, those of us in media, and understand the importance of media, you'll see a graphic that will come up.

It simply says, "Media matters," because we do, we do for a whole range of reasons.

But Assemblyman, what I'm fascinated by is you didn't just talk about it, you sponsored an initiative, which turned out to produce $2,500,000 for the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium.

What the heck is the Civic Information Consortium, why the money, and why do you care so much about the future of public media in the state, Assemblyman?

- Steve, it's a great issue, thanks for bringin' it up.

Again, this is a unique area where the cooperation between federal and state government is really, I think, being put under a spotlight.

President Trump and Washington have cut funding to programs like PBS and outlets to media, Journalism has been under attack.

journalists have been under attack.

That's a scary world.

You know, I've enjoyed my relationship in my 30-year career with journalists from papers across the state, many of them are gone today.

Ya know, the relationship that I used to have with press row, press row is not there anymore.

The opportunity to get public policy out to the public, to have elected officials be known by their constituents, to have candidates that just ran for office be able to be identified by their constituents in a way that they can share their ideas on public policy versus a 30-second commercial that maybe distorts who they are and what they stand for.

The reality is the Civic Consortium was a mechanism that Chris Daggett brought to me, I was proud to champion.

It's a bipartisan effort that has put, since 2021, $11,000,000 into building journalism directly in communities and grants that are sponsored by Chris Daggett and his organization under the Civic Consortium.

No government intervention of any kind, no weighing in, an absolute hands-off approach.

Ironically, Steve, when the program was started, there was a fear that government, much like you're seeing in Washington, would step in and pick winners and losers, and only award those who said nice things about us.

We have stayed completely hands-off on this and done a couple things.

One, try to encourage young people to go into this profession, as the profession changes.

The second is to invest in those local outlets, so that news, local journalism, can be directly conveyed through true journalists.

I tell young people all the time, newspapers used to be this resource that came to your home, left on your front step.

I was a paper boy back in the day, when I was a kid, and that's how we used to convey information with journalists.

I still love to hold a paper in my hand, Steve, and read the box scores, right?

- Yup.

- And the reality is that those journalists were trained professionals that had to get resource, they had to get sources that confirmed their stories, not just write opinions.

And the last thing I'll say on it is, look, we all watch the cable news stations of our choice, it's entertainment.

It's cloaked in news, but it's got opinions.

And they're good resources to spark your interest in something, but then it's left to you to dig deeper and do the research.

I've had a lot of friends say, "Oh my God, that's so boring."

Well, yeah, but that's what news was intended to be, it was supposed to be factual and 20 minutes that piqued your interest.

- So to the Assemblyman's point, and listen, I won't get on my soapbox, it's not my place, it's not appropriate, but I'll say this.

There's a reason why Lou Greenwald kicks off the program and Senator John Bramnick, a leading Republican in the state, comes after him.

Because folks know we don't have a horse in the race, we don't have an ideology, we don't have a point of view.

That's why different people with different perspectives, and opinions, and ideologies, and parties come on and join us.

There's somethin' to be said for that, but it's a lot easier to have people on who say rotten things about your, quote, "enemies."

And P.S., the President has called those of us in the media, "The enemy of the people."

I know you don't believe that, but finally on this... Excuse me, our graphic will come up, "Democracy in danger."

Without being too self-serving, Assemblyman, why do you believe calling those of us in the media "the enemy of the people" is dangerous for our democracy?

Assemblyman?

- Our most fundamental principle, our first amendment is freedom of speech.

And that freedom of speech needs to be conveyed in a nonpartisan way, in a factual base.

You're not my enemy if you disagree with me, and you're certainly not my enemy if you just are reporting facts, but I need outlets for people to be able to do that.

1/3 of people in New Jersey today, Steve, for your listeners, are getting their news from social media outlets, or friends and family; that's dangerous.

- You can get a quick, on TikTok, by the way, you can get an algorithm that tells you you're right about everything you think you believe, and that's dangerous why, Assemblyman?

- It's dangerous because those are based on algorithms, Steve.

Look, they're wonderful tools, I use them.

- Same here.

- I enjoy the entertainment aspect of it, but I know it's entertainment.

I also know that when I search something, it's based on an algorithm that continues to push similar content to me that is just reinforcing my belief, which may not be based on facts.

It is difficult.

And what journalists have always done traditionally is dissect those facts and present them to the listener or the reader in a way that allows you to form your opinion, not push your opinion to you over, and over, and over again to reinforce what may be a false narrative.

It has taken the curiosity out of the American people, and I think that jeopardizes our democracy.

- Assemblyman Lou Greenwald is the Assembly Majority Leader.

Next time he joins us, we'll talk about a whole range of other issues as we move into the Sherrill administration, and she, along with her administration and leading members of the legislature, attempt to tackle those issues.

Assemblyman, thank you so much for joining us, we appreciate it.

- Thanks for having me, Steve.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

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