ABOUT MARTY

This blog is meant to showcase the skills and abilities I have developed during my time in the news business. My career started at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA. I enrolled after moving back in with my family after deciding I needed a fresh start and wanted to get my Bachelors degree in a field I would be proud to call a profession.

After finding my niche in the community college’s radio and television program, I knew working in TV was something I could pursue and be happy doing for the rest of my life. Once I earned my Associates degree in Digital Broadasting and New Media, I felt I did not need to go after my Bachelors degree and jumped right into applying for jobs at local news stations in San Diego, believing all I had to do was get my foot in the door, rack up some years of experience in different newsrooms and be set with a career. I was first hired as a part-time news writer at KUSI-TV in 2015 and left about 9 months later to work at conservative national news outlet One America News Network in the summer of 2016. It was at OANN where I developed a passion for politics and journalism.

I initially chose to work for OANN because of the money. The pay was great, benefits were great, friendly co-worker atmosphere, and decent work hours. But I really had to swallow my pride and forget about journalistic integrity at times. The network was conservative leaning and I had to write what the conservative viewer wanted. It was easy when Donald Trump won the 2016 Presidential election. All I had to do was produce hourly newscasts on whatever the Trump White House was doing and I could sleep at night. Sure, the partisan nature of the coverage weighed on my conscience all the time, but it was a job I was doing well and I got a sense of accomplshiment after every show I produced. Then January 6th, 2021 happened and all that changed for me. I had to cover the Capitol Riot as it happened live. I did the best I could at the time. We followed along our news video feeds as long as we could, telling an unbiased report based on the facts. And as soon as they switched news anchors on me to give a more skewed take on the event, I stopped caring about covering the insurrection. I knew what the company was doing and went home for the day. Afterwards, I felt I was part of the reason why Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building.

In the following weeks, I kept my head down and did the bare minimum of work. Then I was contacted by the New York Times. They were doing a report on the workplace culture of OANN and wanted an anonymous source. I agreed and told them that most of the newsroom team were liberal and worked for OANN for the money. I also told them that most of the producers did not believe the election fraud claims the network was constantly reporting. At the end, I was asked if I would be willing to go the record and put my name to my statements. At first I was reluctant, but the guilt from January 6th weighed on me, and I felt I needed to do the right thing and have my words mean something. I agreed to put my name in the report, knowing there might be some sort of retaliation against me from my employer.

I was scheduled to work the day after the New York Times piece came out. I went in produced one last show, and was fired shortly after. It was the best feeling ever. I felt responsible for a lot of the mess caused after the 2020 election and me going public on that report helped me get some of my journalistic integrity back. I have no regrets about what happened or how it went down. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I now work as a News Producer for KOGO AM 600 in San Diego. Newsradio is something I was able to fall back on from my college radio days. I have worked there going on three years now and I happy to still be working in the career I wanted to do in the first.

The opinions in this blog are strictly my own and not influenced by any financial or political interests.