Wheeling native, former Intelligencer reporter and all-around friend and mentor Chris Stirewalt just released a book near and dear to my heart looking at the current state of journalism, news consumerism, and how to make it all better.

On Tuesday, Stirewalt released “Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back.” Stirewalt is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a contributing editor at The Dispatch, a political editor at Nexstar’s NewsNation and co-host of the Ink Stained Wretches podcast.

I’ll admit to being biased here. I only met Stirewalt in person last year at the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce annual meeting at the Greenbrier Resort. But we have similar backgrounds. I used to read his work in The Charleston Daily Mail. We both worked for the same news/TV station network in similar roles. I used to pen op-eds for The Washington Examiner when he was an editor there.

In short, I’ve emulated his career and consider him to be a role model and mentor. I followed his work at Fox News as politics editor, including the infamous (and totally correct) call for Arizona of President Joe Biden on election night in 2020, a call that ultimately led to him being fired by Fox. He is entirely ethical and stands by his principles. When I started the Mountain State Views podcast, Stirewalt was my first guest.

“Broken News” should be read by working news reporters, those who want to be reporters, and those who read news. It lays out a simple mission for reporters to return to as we strive to inform you.

“… We have a deep obligation to our audience and our country to fight for journalism that can unite instead of divide,” Stirewalt wrote. “America needs journalists committed to her principles and who take seriously our obligation to facilitate useful discourse in a healthy republic.”

I try my best to bring you stories about your state government in Charleston as even-handed as I can. I have my own biases and thoughts, but if you have facts and comments from as many sides of an issue as you can, you can usually drown out your own biases.

“The idea of perfect objectivity to which reporters aspired and journalism schools taught proved impossible to achieve in reality,” Stirewalt wrote. “But that does not mean we should not aspire to fairness and balance.”

Too many reporters don’t stop to think about who their audience is and who is opening the paper in the morning (or, more often than not, reading the paper online via their phones and computers). That should never affect the facts of your news story, but I do think that should affect the tone. Reporters need to be cognizant of how we’re communicating and who we’re communicating to.

“Of all the ways that the news business has weakened its relationship with consumers, the loss of a common language has to rank high on the list,” Stirewalt wrote. “And if we lose the ability to speak clearly, much trouble will come after.”

Too many reporters think their audience is who interacts with them on Twitter. In West Virginia, the number of people who are active on Twitter is very small and the ones who interact with reporters are even fewer in number. And those tend to be at various political extremes sometimes. I use Twitter to post my stories, retweet other stories, keep track of breaking news, and live-tweeting.

While I appreciate my Twitter followers, that’s only a very small part of my audience. Stirewalt is not a fan of what social media has done to reporters and its effects on news judgement. I agree, though I do still find value in sharing stories there.

There are many more great anecdotes and lessons Stirewalt offers in “Broken News.” I think the Ohio Valley can be proud of one of its own.

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Speaking of Mountain State Views, the most recent episode that dropped Friday features an interview with Ryan Frankenberry, the new executive director of the West Virginia Democratic Party. I told you about his appointment last week.

Having watched the Republican Party transition from loyal opposition to majority party with control of the Legislature and other statewide elected offices over the last 12 years, I am fascinated to see how the Democratic Party reverses these trends.

It took Republicans more than 80 years, since the beginning of the Great Depression, to regain majorities. Will Democrats have a similar experience in another 80 years, or will they be able to take advantage of opportunities and win voters back sooner?

It’s clear from changes at the top of the state Democratic Party, including Frankenberry’s hire, that the party faithful understands that the some old tactics just won’t work anymore. A healthy two-party system helps keep everyone honest and helps create better governing. Republicans should not take Frankenberry and the new leadership at the state Democratic Party for granted.