{"id":15863,"date":"2018-09-20T16:42:39","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T21:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/?p=15863"},"modified":"2023-12-07T20:28:12","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T01:28:12","slug":"hi-im-lorraine-grula-news-nerd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/hi-im-lorraine-grula-news-nerd\/","title":{"rendered":"Hi, I’m Lorraine Grula, News Nerd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who in the world am I, Lorraine Grula, creator of all this content on video making?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Well, I’m a proud, middle-aged Okie who grew up with a solid foundation of science and politics.\u00a0 Recombinant DNA <\/a>was dinnertime conversation at our house when I was a kid.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\"dna<\/p>\r\n

So was politics.\u00a0 That included major stories of the day like Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers, and Watergate.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

I grew up to enjoy a lengthy career as a TV journalist and video maker.<\/p>\r\n

Thanks to my job, I got to film a live birth.\u00a0 I also filmed an autopsy.\u00a0\u00a0I videotaped just about everything that might happen to someone in between those two pivotal life events.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\r\n

I considered it an honor, to say the least.\u00a0 It certainly was an eye-opening education in the totality of the human experience.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

I’m still a dedicated a news junkie, although retired from the business.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\r\n

If that all sounds a bit unusual, I think that’s because it is, which is more than OK by me.\u00a0 \u00a0Once you know my background, it’s easier to understand, and dare I say, make me seem normal?\u00a0 Nah.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

In the beginning…<\/h3>\r\n

Life starts with your parents, right?\u00a0 Well, I had something exceptionally rare, especially for the time.\u00a0 Both of my parents were PhDs in microbiology.\u00a0 Yeah, that and mom ran for U.S Congress in 1970 when I was in junior high.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\r\n

They worked together at Oklahoma State University, in Stillwater, OK, where I grew up.<\/p>\r\n

\"ed,
Mom and Pop worked side by side, so I assumed they were equals<\/i> at work. (Dad admitted she was actually smarter!)\u00a0 I didn’t realize until I was an adult she had a very low-paying job as his lab assistant. She wouldn’t have had a job at all if he hadn’t insisted on her behalf.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Thanks Pop.\u00a0 Women have come a long way, but we aren’t there yet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

I feel blessed to have grown up in such an enriching environment because if these two!<\/p>\r\n

My parents were masters at instilling a love of knowledge and a never-ending\u00a0 curiosity into all of us kids. (There were four; I was the youngest.)<\/p>\r\n

\"grula
My older sister took this picture on a family vacation around 1963.\u00a0 My folks were much more likely to take us to a wilderness area than a city.\u00a0 I am grateful for that and never found any reason to change my mind about the joys of nature.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Our house was full of books and the joys of learning.\u00a0 We read the encyclopaedia for fun, dang it!\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

OK, I admit it, we were total nerds. I am proud of it.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 It all seemed perfectly normal to me, and still does.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\"child<\/p>\r\n

I grew up with the core belief that intellectual curiosity was one of the most worthy of all human traits.\u00a0 Sound reasoning based on established fact was essential to all manner of thought and discourse, <\/em> <\/strong>or so we were taught in the Grula household.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Facts were derived from observation of creative experimentation, with the results put through objective evaluation and analysis, controlling for every conceivable variable and possibility which could bias the results.\u00a0 Any conclusions drawn after this lengthy process are retested and re evaluated to make sure.\u00a0 \u00a0That’s the scientific method of course.\u00a0 Most people call it overthinking.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\"alex
I am convinced that media figures like Alex Jones have zero desire to be truthful. He is one of the absolute worst.\u00a0 He loves to pretend he has all the secret knowledge, but I say Jones is nothing but a low-life, sleaze ball, con artist.\u00a0 He and his ilk are destroying our country.\u00a0 I am grateful Jones has finally paid a legal price.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Today, I am routinely amazed at the world’s lack of sound reasoning based on established fact derived from well observed empirical evidence.\u00a0 I am mortified by how many people feel disdain for science.\u00a0 But the earth is not flat.\u00a0 The moon landing wasn’t fake.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

I strongly believe the scientific method<\/a> – which is a process, as the best, most accurate, objective way to evaluate anything.\u00a0 As an adult, I’m grateful to have that way of thinking naturally, since it’s deeply embedded into my psyche.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\r\n

The scientific method has given us everything from instant video chats with somebody on the other side of the globe to cameras tiny enough to film vides inside your eyeball.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

I can’t help but look at the world through science-colored glasses.\u00a0 Trust me, there are lots of advantages to doing so.<\/p>\r\n

Today, facts are often thrown out the window in favor of wild speculation and agenda-driven lies. I feel like a large part of the blame for this lies with the sorry state of our news media. I worked in the news media for about 20 years, so have a lot of experience with this issue.<\/p>\r\n

To counter this disturbing trend, I am committing myself to the creation of information and videos online that will help cut through the crazy situation in America today.<\/p>\r\n

\"americanTAUGHT TO LOVE OUR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

I truly cherish the form of government founded in the American Revolution and the writing of the U.S. Constitution. Today I worry that many of those founding principles have been violated.<\/p>\r\n

America is supposed to be about individual liberty, but I believe power has been taken from the people. NOT by things like Obamacare, rather by law and order politics, moneyed interests and corporate power corrupting our democratic processes and therefore our individual freedoms.<\/p>\r\n

So many of us are wage-slaves in never-ending debt.\u00a0 One serious illness can destroy us for good financially.\u00a0 We have the highest incarceration rate in the word.\u00a0 Worse than China or North Korea!\u00a0 People are locked up over a plant.\u00a0 (Thankfully that is rapidly changing.)\u00a0 Laws are written by corporate interests, the public interest be damned.\u00a0 The list of problems in this country is long.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"
A newspaper article from the Tulsa World about my mother who was both a professional scientist and a political activist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

I started with politics early under the tutelage of my amazing and wonderful Mom, Mary Muedeking Grula, PhD. She was a dedicated\u00a0 Democrat and thought FDR hung the moon.<\/p>\r\n

One of my very earliest memories in life is\u00a0clinging to her skirt while admiring the red, white and blue curtain while she cast her ballot for JFK.<\/p>\r\n

How well I remember the many hours she spent on behalf of political causes.\u00a0 On the phone and on the street.\u00a0 Extremely active in the League of Women Voters, Mom was also the first woman county chairman of the Democratic party in Oklahoma.<\/p>\r\n

Mom made a gallant run for the U.S. Congress in 1970 when I was in the 7th grade.<\/p>\r\n

In the conservative 6th district of Oklahoma, Mamma got whooped, but we all hung on to the pride of her efforts and these awesome matches.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\"mary<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

I was the only kid at my junior high school whose mom ran for the United States Congress, but I actually had no real idea my mom was so unusual until I got to be an adult. After all, many of friends’ moms were also PhDs.\u00a0 With the university as the bulk of the town, Stillwater had lots of women PhDs.\u00a0 I grew up awfully naive about how unusual that was for the time period.<\/p>\r\n

When I was young, I frequently attended political events as a tag along with Mom.\u00a0 This all engendered a lifelong love of politics, but sadly, it also taught me that many politicians are sleazy, lying crooks out for their own interests, not ours.\u00a0 I hate to say, that but it’s true.\u00a0 \u00a0I am honest enough to say it outloud.\u00a0 The crooks are on both sides of the aisle.<\/p>\r\n

One of the first candidates I actively campaigned for, Oklahoma Governor David Hall,<\/a>\u00a0who served from 1971 to 1975, ended up convicted of bribery and extortion.<\/p>\r\n

OOOOPS!<\/p>\r\n

I still remember the jingle he used. DAVID HALL FOR OKLAHOMA DAVID HAAAAAAAALLLLL!!!<\/em><\/p>\r\n

\"david
David Hall, disgraced Oklahoma governor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Not real clever lyrics, but it had a catchy tune.\u00a0 Too bad I can’t sing it for you.<\/p>\r\n

David Hall’s downfall came about the same time as the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, two enormous episodes which further convinced me that politicians, and government in general, should not be blindly trusted.<\/p>\r\n

THE FOURTH ESTATE TO THE RESCUE<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

As an avid reader and newspaper lover, I grew up believing it was the NEWS MEDIA’S JOB to be the watchdog and expose the misdeeds and corruption of government.<\/p>\r\n

While most girls my age had a crush on Donny Osmond, I preferred Walter Cronkite.<\/p>\r\n

Yes, I admit to being a hopeless<\/em> dweeb, but I will never apologize for it.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

\"news<\/p>\r\n

I grew up venerating the news media-the fourth estate- essential watchdog on the government!\u00a0 Oh, weren’t the founding fathers brilliant for including a free press.\u00a0 They knew a king could chop your head off for criticizing him.\u00a0 That would never work for their American experiment.<\/p>\r\n

With a Woodward and Bernstein wanna-be complex (and a deep love of the Mary Tyler Moore show) into the news media I went, anticipating a lively career.<\/p>\r\n

I got my college degree at O.S.U. in Mass Communications in 1980.\u00a0 Dad wanted me to pursue science like my siblings, but I had to be the rebellious one.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\r\n