Mike Steel, left, and Russell Stroud of Noogaradio assemble an FM radio antenna in the station’s Hixson studio. (Photo David Tulis)
Russell Stroud is the news director of Noogaradio and is a story of how an intern becomes a partner.
Mr. Stroud, 21, of Ringgold, Ga., has never set foot in a classroom, having been home educated.
By David Tulis / Noogradio 92.7
But he’s a local newscaster and news director at a young age. His media education is cheaper than enrollment at a university; it is 100 percent practicum, training by doing, learning by helping.
He began at AM 1240 WSDT at 16 and has been helping and learning since Day No. 1.
City’s biggest pen
Today I am looking for a second apprentice, one who would assist me directly in reporting projects and operate this website.
This associate would learn real-life concepts, get reading assignments and provide useful services to this site and to me at Noogaradio — and I won’t charge him and his family a dime. Thanks to Noogaradio, I am the blogger in Chattanooga with the biggest pen (a 180-foot radio tower in a Soddy-Daisy valley, with more coming, in God’s providence).
The apprentice would help that pen record the doings of Chattanooga and the play of the free market and God’s providence across it. The apprentice would become part of a Chattanooga media platform that defends Christendom and espouses personal responsibility and self-government.
What an intern learns
Aside from learning nuts and bolts about journalism and radio, my associate will gain general knowledge and fresh presuppositions.
➤ That questions often matter more than answers.
➤ That technical knowledge is important in journalism, but more importantly that character be exhibited in the completing of small assignments, that the master can trust the servant, so that the servant becomes a son.
➤ That corruption, abuse of law, profiteering is visible in the paperwork. Helen Burns Sharp is a local heroine for doing this sort of dreary mining by open records requests and spending hours with casefiles.
➤ That capitalism flows from the gospel, with the entrepreneur obeying God’s command about putting others first, namely the customer. Capitalism is based on the template of Christianity. He’ll read Gary North.
➤ That constitutional government can be had by constitutional concepts living in the heart of the individual officeholder, secured there by his oath before God to uphold the law.
➤ That decentralization is the major goal for Christians and liberty-minded others (or should be), and that Christianity is the best system of life and practice bringing about that end.
➤ That Christianity and the Bible are the basis for Christian rebuilding and reconstruction, with the law of God a practical guide and binding today on individuals and states.
➤ That grace infuses the journalistic trade, with people quoted accurately, with the bad guys fairly represented, with the truth always in view. Reporting plays down the middle, editorializing makes a case.
➤ That free markets work, and that progressivism is a progressive disaster.
➤ That people should know their rights; we at Noogaradio and Nooganomics pay a lot of attention to interactions between the state and the individual. We break stories about police actions outside probable cause and warrant (abuse).
➤ That we serve our customers, these being the advertiser, the listener and the investor.
➤ That in the marketplace of ideas well argued and well proved, written text will have a long-term effect, especially books. Let’s think in terms of small books.
➤ That grace is the template for human interactions, and that force and coercion work only in the short-term, leaving much bitter and decapitalization behind.
But maybe everybody today is a journalist?
Would it not be exciting to work with a seasoned writer and journalist, helping him publish his texts and organizing his material for a two-hour-long daily talk show which focuses on local economy and free markets?
This is my pitch for an assistant who would help get Nooganomics.com before readers and viewers and in the meantime gain experience in the world of media and publishing.
I have high hopes for a journalist to come to my side from among homeschool families in the Chattanooga area. But I wouldn’t disesteem a young man privately schooled or even a public school son who is maintaining his faith and some sort of libertarian credentials while under the gaze of state monitors.
I know that in this digital age of social media everybody is always publishing. So a real publisher with a real product, who makes arguments at length and by volume, is hard to notice. The man who makes his living at words is hard to distinguish from one who just has a lot of them and puts them out there in great volume by way of opinion, reaction, verbal ejaculation and feedback.
If everyone is a publisher today, then everyone is a broadcaster and everyone is a talk show host and everyone is a writer. I get that.
Still, it would be wonderful to have someone who would take over this website, build circulation, snag any pennies it generates, and have new experiences and provide a real help.
Run a real website with a track record, build a resume connected with a hot news and talk radio company, get a recommendation, provide a real service, git some learnin’.
If you know a young man who fits this description, please contact me.
