Corrections_Today_May_June_2019

helping the inmates he worked with and said, “I honor and respect what you do wherever you are on the spectrum of the corrections business because I understand it, I watched it, I grew up with it and saw how important it was to my dad.” King expressed how lucky he is to do what he does now, because of his dad and all he sacrificed for his family. King said his job is to “tell you why, how, who was the compelling person who made it happen and, if we can, where is it going? Put it into context, take something that happened in Washington and attach it to your life where you live around the country. It’s much more of a ‘con- text’ business now than a ‘what’ business.” King jumped into the “why” of the then current govern- ment climate and put it into context. The First Step Act was passed in December 2018 as a landmark bipartisan effort. King said, “This is a big deal, and the president deserves credit for it because he stood up to his own party to get it done. ... Now we’re going to see how this works out, but some- thing that Democrats and Republicans have talked about for years is now the law, which actually proves that it can be done.” King then asked the question of why the month- long shutdown that occurred earlier this year. This, in turn, gave King the opportunity to tell the audi- ence why this was happening and who were the compelling people who made it happen, “The mak- ings of a compromise are there, the problem is the two key people right now are in no mood to strike it.” Then King put it into context, “(The Ameri- can people) would like this to be settled the way government is supposed to work.” King enacted, for the audience, his changing industry by reporting on the 2019 government shutdown. In his presenta- tion, King revealed varying polls but advised the audience not to invest in any one poll because, “if you do what I do for a living, to see, ‘Oh, I’m go- ing to keep an eye on that.’” King emphasized that polls are not the defining factor in what will hap- pen. King used the example of President Trump’s “magic” in the 2016 election when every number,

data and poll said he would not make it. King said, “Can he recreate that ‘magic?’All the numbers tell you probably not, but numbers told you probably not in 2016, which is why I think this is going to be pretty fascinating.” King asked another question, “So, what do the Democrats want in a presidential candidate for 2020?” King offered a few options that will most likely be on the minds of the Democratic Party. Will they want a political affiliation candidate or a blue- collar candidate? A candidate based on diversity or a candidate based on a new generation or a candi- date based on an older generation? “We don’t know, which is going to make it fun,” King said. The floor was opened for questions at this point, and Gondles asked King why it seems that on late night news, there is an obvious affiliation to one party over the other, and has fairness in the news gone away? King answered, “Our business has changed dramatically, I’m an old AP wire guy, I’ve covered, now, nine presidential elections. ... I was raised and trained ‘old school:’ listen to everybody, respect everybody, try to be fair.” He also explained why the industry is changing, “The business has evolved on primetime Fox, primetime MSNBC, it’s left and it’s right, it’s Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, that’s fine, there’s nothing wrong

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