Ep.73 Unfiltered Truths w/ Chrissy Clark

Independent journalist and host of “Underreported Stories,” Chrissy Clark, joins Programming Lions to discuss America’s cultural issues that aren’t covered on your typical news station. Listen to her unfiltered perspective on current events and why she tackles news that doesn’t get high press coverage. 

Links:

IG https://www.instagram.com/thechrissyclark/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@thechrissyclark

X: https://x.com/chrissyclark_

TIMELINE

00:00 Intro

02:26 Underreported stories

07:42 TP chapter lead

11:59 Dr Seuss

14:21 MAHA

16:06 Haters

19:23 Rapid Fire

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the programming lions podcast today. Chrissy Clark is with us, independent journalist, turning point contributor, host of the underreported stories podcast, social media influencer, and more. This was such a fun interview. Buckle up, let's get into it. Yeah.

CHRISSY_CLARK-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_326ms-StreamYard: 0:23

Christy Clark, we are excited to have you on the Programming Alliance podcast. You have a background in Turning Point programming. Contributor. Yep. And then you also run your own podcast called underreported Stories. Yes, sir. And so we want to hear more about all of that. Maybe you can just give us a minute on your background and how you got to doing the work that you're doing and then the boys have cultivated some really great questions for you. Oh, good. I can't wait. I got started when I, not, not this young, but I was seven, 18 years old when I got involved with Turning Point USA, which is back in 2016. So. Very much at the forefront of politics with Donald Trump coming into office and all of that. I got involved at a chapter level and I knew I wanted to be in media. So I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna dive all in and I'm learning in this era of my life. I'm not gonna be, we didn't really have TikTok, Instagram was so new. It's not like people were doing reels, that didn't exist. So everything that I thought I wanted to do, I thought was gonna be in traditional media. And then in 2019, I was actually told by a company that I was working for. Not to use TikTok. And I was like, okay, well, maybe I should look into this TikTok thing. If someone's telling you not to use it, that's usually where I go. Yeah, right? Okay. Just a rule breaker. It's how I've always operated. Don't take my advice. Don't do that, okay? Yeah. Max, Max knows all about that. Yeah. Yeah. But I did, I went on TikTok and and I just started talking about stories that I thought were underreported. Stories that if you turn into CNN, MSNBC, or Fox. You just weren't hearing about her, not hearing about a lot. And I woke up one day with 100, 000 followers, and I had no clue. I just had videos going viral left and right, because people were craving authentic, talking about the news. And I just did it on my phone. Very low budget editing and everything, and over the years as I got more developed, I, you know, got a studio, started doing it long form, and turned it into a career, and this year I went fully independent. So, yeah. But I've always had a turning point. Maybe we can get some tips, guys. We're trying to grow our channel. Tips and tricks. Tips and tricks. Yes. Yes. Well, very cool. Yeah. So, can you tell us more about your, podcast? Yeah. So, Again, those were the under reported stories that I was just doing on TikTok. I then turned it into a long form podcast, and it's taken a really long time to shape what it was, but if I could give you guys any advice over the years, it's just, when you're young, and again, I'm not as young as you, but I'm still young, okay? You are. You are. I can, I can verify you're still young. A lot, a lot more than me. They're looking at me like, who's this old lady? But But I I would always listen to other people, and I was like, Oh, I want to be the next Megyn Kelly or something. Sure. So I'd always consume Megyn Kelly. And I kind of one day woke up and realized I can't be the best Chrissy if I'm trying to be Megyn. Right. So, I stopped listening to podcasts last year. And all of a sudden, my own views and my own opinions, Weren't always popular with the people that I talk to. I just have no problem doing it now because I actually know that behind closed doors, I believe it and I'm going to say what I believe. And I found that all of a sudden the audience started coming because they weren't watching Chrissy trying to pretend to be Megan, they were watching Chrissy just being herself. And people, they come clamoring to people that want to be real. Yeah, authenticity is important in social media, I think. Well, yeah, and I actually, can I ask you guys a question? Do you guys feel like you're better than your parents are at snuffing out authenticity? Like you just kind of know who the, the normal, the cool, like you have like a, you can see it on a phone. Cause your dad and I probably like, I feel like it's not as easy for us to snuff it out because we weren't really around the internet as much. But these guys, I'm just so curious, like what, do you feel like it's easy to be like, oh that person's just selling me something? When you're on the phone. Wait, selling yourself? Not just on the phone. I do realize that a lot. Like, here. Basically, a lot of the people are trying to sell stuff? They're not here for the actual stuff. They're here to sell us something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They only want the money. Right. I mean, you guys can snuff that out. When we were that age, we didn't really have, that wasn't on our radar. Yeah. Yeah. I just think it's interesting. It's a good skill to learn. You gotta learn to hone your instincts and People reading skills, because yeah, there's a lot of, a lot of that. Yeah. Well, anyway, about their podcast. Yeah. So how do you find your stories? Because obviously you said they're not on CNN and Fox and stuff. Yeah. And how do you decide what you do want to cover? Yeah, great question. I definitely start by going and watching CNN, MSNBC, and Fox so I can make sure that whatever I cover is not being covered. And I read a lot of left wing news outlets. I read Axios, Politico, all the boring, awful people. I do go and read. And then, I've worked at a lot of these places. I went and I worked for the Federalist there's a place called the Washington Free Beacon. It's not as popularized, but you know a lot of the people that work there. We've all done our kind of due diligence there and it's a great place to work, probably one of my favorite. I went to the Daily Wire, I went to the Daily Caller, I kind of worked at all the places. So then I go where I know, I've been in the industry long enough and I'm like, I know that, you wouldn't know his name, but Aaron Savarium over at the Washington Free Beacon does good. Honest reporting and I'm like, okay, so I'm gonna follow Aaron and I just kind of know these people I'm like, I trust his reporting and I know he's done his due diligence on it So I can take it at face value without having to do all this research because I'm a one woman operation over You guys get it being in like media like this. It's a lot of work So I try to find reporters that I can trust and then continually go back and see what their work is really my show Yes, it's called under reported stories, but it's just giving to really good journalists who aren't getting the credence in the industry. Okay, okay. And so when you find a story and you cover it on your podcast and maybe promote it through social media and bring awareness to it, do you then get brought into Other outlets like Daily Wire to cover the story for them or kind of help them bring exposure to it on their platform, or how does that work? I mean, most of these places have much bigger platforms than me. They don't necessarily need me. It's more of rounding it up from multiple news sources. So I'll do like, you know, one from the Daily Caller, two from the New York Post, one from the Free Beacon, all these places. And I kind of put it all together because you can go get that story at the Daily Wire and then one from the Post and one from, I don't know, the Free Beacon. Yeah. But you don't get it all in one spot. So it's kind of like a one stop shop of like aggregating. I see. And that's, I think it's really hard to do anything other than aggregating when you're a one woman show. But it's really an aggregation of all those stories. And finding the ones that interest me. Cause I'm just looking to make friends. Like that's really all I'm doing. I'm like, hey I like it, maybe you will too. Yeah. Yeah. And you, and you take from liberal outlets as well. Yeah. And, and try to, yeah, marry up like what is really happening. Well, yeah, there's, yes, to a degree. But also sometimes outlets. Generally speaking, it can be bad. Those bad outlets have good journalists. And I, very recently, I was just doing an aggregation and I was like, you know what? I went and I read the New York Post and I read the Freebeacons and I read CNNs and CNNs was the best. It's just true. And so I go and I'm like, you know what? This aggregation is the best. We're gonna read it because it gives the most details, the most facts. I'm gonna use that. So, I don't really care too much where it comes from. I just need to trust the journal. That's suing it, not necessarily the outletter entity. Right, okay. Alright, so moving away from this topic, um, what's it like leading a turning point chapter at a liberal college? Yeah, yeah, so I was, when I was in college, Was it in Michigan? Yeah, I went to Michigan State it was a really fun time, we're very bad at Very bad at sports now. So, but we were really good when I was there. Yeah, Max, remember they used to have a good football team. Yeah. Michigan. Michigan State. Didn't it have J. J. McCarthy in it, and we picked it up? That's Michigan. Or the other one, or the green one. Yeah. Green one. You know, the Spartans. Oh! I thought it was like the Michigan Wolverines. Yeah, they No, those are our rivals. I mean, they used to have really strong football, but they've had a few tough years. Yeah, yeah. We'll get into why. Anyway, but moving on. Yeah, yeah. Your turning point track. No, yeah, that's what I did. I kick started a chapter at school and I just got involved and it was a blast, like really it was just fun getting to run it. It's not like a high pressure, high stake thing but it just taught me why I believe the things I believe. I think I, I was really quick in my youth to jump and label myself as a Republican and not really realize why I was that. And so in college I spent that time trying to understand, why do I, Believe the things I believe, instead of, believing things and coming to a conclusion. I kind of did it backwards. I believe what I believe now. So you came back to the point where you thought you were? Yeah. Okay, that's good. Yeah, yeah. I'm a full circle. I don't identify as a Republican anymore. I'm an independent, but I'm conservative. So, I definitely tend to vote Republican. Someone has to earn my vote. I don't just dole out my vote because you have an R next to your name. Yeah, we have a similar belief. Obviously, like, lately, I feel like Democrats are so far this way that there's no option, but we talk a lot about our conservative values, even on our channel, and, you know, you've got the face of conservative kid, he's been sort of labeled conservative kid now online, but but we talk about conservative values, and that doesn't necessarily mean Republican. It means that, yes, we probably match up more with that, those ideas and policies more so, but it doesn't mean that we Promote and endorse everything that they do and so that's why some I think people got to get over that even even liberalism, there's a lot of good aspects to liberalism, but Then when you go to actual politicians, the ideas and everything could be Kindest sweetest hearts we just have it used to be we used to have different ways of coming to fix a mutual problem We can agree on the mutual problem and we just have different ways of coming to a solution and When it comes to, like, the economy, I think we can agree on that. Yep. Unfortunately, when it comes to some of these, like, really difficult issues, like transgenderism or something, like, we're just We don't even recognize what the same It's far apart. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What the same problem is. And so I think that's where it's, it's really difficult. It's the cultural issues that are really pulling us apart. Yeah, I, I agree. And then, even on, on the economy, we both kind of want the same outcomes, but different methods to get there. Right. Right? Yeah. And some are Ours is right, but that's fine. It is, yeah. It promotes more personal accountability versus handouts, but but I, we do think it's interesting, and we talk about that a bit. But, you know, the social issues are where I feel like just sort of leagues apart. Yeah. And I don't know how to get back, I don't know how to get back. We're gonna, you know, try to have different guests of different sides on our podcast to see if we can, you know, bring some common ground, but it's difficult. I do feel like revolutionizing women is actually a really good place to start. Obviously our young men are getting more and more conservative and it's awesome to see them grow and blossom in this way, but young women are being disaffected to the left time and time again. And I would never advocate for pro choice positions, but I've been saying time and time again that the pro choice movement is actually going to become one of the best things for conservatism. Because, it's based on lies, and the second that somebody does any research on being pro choice, they wake up and realize, oh my gosh, I'm being lied to, like, a lot. Like, not a little, like, a lot. There was a whole campaign telling young women that if Roe vs. Wade got overturned, abortion would be illegal nationwide. And people still think that to this day. And so when they go and do research, it's like a red pill moment for them. So I'm like, yes, of course the pro choice movement is not my cup of tea, but They're going to be red pilling a generation of women, just give it time. Yeah, yeah, interesting. Yeah, that's my predictions. You are, I guess let's say famous for breaking the Dr. Seuss story. And so, I'd like you to tell me, is Dr. Seuss a bigot? Ha ha, no! Oh my gosh. Is the good doctor a bigot? I know. That was one of the craziest days of my life. I tweeted, I don't like wokeness here or there, I don't like wokeness anywhere, and I woke up with 30, 000 followers. I was like, for one tweet, for one tweet, for one tweet. That's a clever tweet though. Thank you, yeah, I'm proud of it. But yeah, it was a wild story to break, but that was work I was doing, I think I was at the Daily Wire, I was at the Freebeginner of the Daily Wire, I forget where I was. But yeah, I mean, that was a wild story to break, but I really miss doing that like on the ground journalism and having that, but That was such a fun time in my life because I was actually, it was a student that tipped me off to that, so You guys be vigilant in what you're doing and find a reporter, you can always message me, your dad can always message me but yeah, you gotta keep your ears to the ground on the crazy things you see at these public schools Yeah Do you feel like your schools are really liberal? Yes Not, not a lot At least my grade, like, fifth grade is kind of Oh, the fifth grade is really liberal? We don't allow politics at school. But sometimes I debate, I normally debate some people on the liberal side. So you're saying that it's more the kids in your class are more liberal. Yeah, a lot of them. But the teachers, cause we actually really like the school. We're a charter school, and they're pretty neutral. They don't get into politics. Until high school, they have some things that the kids can get involved with, but it's pretty neutral. What do you think, Will, being in seventh grade? A lot of our, a lot of the teachers are neutral. Like, they basically did not react at all after the election. Nonetheless, you're right, like, keeping your ear to the ground, because sometimes when your gut tells you something and your instincts, like, that that's not quite right, then really think about it. Trust your instincts, because sometimes your mind sees things that you can't quite articulate or, or wrap into, and then bring it up to somebody and be like, hey, did you see that? Does that make sense? And invariably you'll get to a, you'll get to a good answer. I have a gut feeling every time I eat. Yeah, I know you do, Max. Yeah. Make your gut more happy with you. Look at your little Make America Healthy again. Yeah, well in fact we're going to have somebody on to talk about that in more detail later today, which will be fun. That's been a movement that we've been following really closely. And actually that maybe brings up a good question from your perspective as being a little bit, you know, more like, journalist, independent. Yeah. Maha has been this polarizing, partisan thing, and I don't, like, we can't really figure out why. Because one person says something that makes sense but is healthy, it's become a partisan thing. Because it's, coming from Trump's campaign, perhaps. It's a resistance to change, though. Like, you're not, your average person, you go on the street and you ask your average liberal, they're most bought into Trump and republicanism over the Make America Healthy movement. I actually think it's just like the very online fatty people and like, these are people, sorry, I shouldn't be that mean and judgmental, but. We've heard much worse. Yeah, yeah. Like, it's just like these fat women in their 30s that are unmarried that want to go on a tirade online. Okay, let them. And it's actually elite institutions that, again, they like the way the status quo is. They like the way they make money. They don't want to change it. And so they're going to buy people off. Like, take for instance in San Francisco, they just hired a fat consultant. To help with weight neutrality or something like that. I don't even know what that means. But they hired it using taxpayer dollars to fund this position. And she's actually funded by Big Pharma. She's anti ozempic. She thinks that keeping people fat is a good thing. She wrote a book called You Have the Right to Remain Fat. And we know that obesity causes a litany of health problems. Yeah, it's the lion's share of our health care goes towards obesity. No, exactly, but people are trying to keep us that way. And so I think it's a handful of people that scream really loud. I actually do not believe her aver It's the same thing with the trans issue. I don't believe your average liberal believes that he can become a girl. Yeah, it's wild. Max, you don't want to be a girl? No? No, I do not want to be a girl. You're good? You're good? Yeah, I'm chillin I'm chillin as a boy. Your pronouns now. Her. She. When you cover some of these controversial topics, you must get a lot of, well, let's say, aggressive people coming in on your social media threads and comment sections. Tell us a little bit about that. How do you deal with it? Rationalize it. Do you take any of it seriously? No, if you don't know my heart, you don't know my position, like, my actual who I am outside of politics, which, I'm actually not a very political person. Like, my day to day life is hanging out with my husband, my golden retriever, and going to church. That is my life, and I don't really dabble in politics with my friends. It's my job. Oh, dude, he's perfect. Max loves dogs. Oh my goodness, I'll have to show you a video after. He's so cute. But that's my day to day life. If you don't know me in that day to day capacity, or we don't have an actual friendship, then your opinion doesn't matter to me. And I, I don't know, maybe it's just the way I'm built, but I just really don't care. I scroll through it. I also try to, I think a lot of people in like influencer roles, like they have a lot of followers, and they think like, oh, people just follow me. Like, I like being relational with the people that follow me, because I'd rather have a hundred thousand really engaged followers that actually like me, than a million who are just passively watching. So, in my community, like, we actually have conversation, I have, like, little discord groups and stuff like that, like, on Instagram, where we actually chat, and, like, I will respond to people's comments, and then once my video hits, I kind of make my threshold, like, in between, like, 15 views, I stop responding, because you just never know what's going to come with that, but the people that are initially responding in that first, like, hour to five hours are people that really like you, that tune into your stuff, and I want to be able to communicate with them, and I'm not going to listen to people that just say nasty stuff for the sake of saying nasty stuff. Ugh. Yeah. What's wrong, Max? I hate nasty comments. Yeah, we get a lot of that. That, for some reason, is something I think, Dad, you really need to work on. I do. Stop looking at the comments every time. Stop looking at them every single ten minutes. Well, Dad's building your channel for you, and you do need to do that. I know, but I'm just being honest. I don't think you really need to look at the comments. Every, like, ten minutes of your life. Oh yeah, okay. Well, not only that, I just, he, you look at Now I'm fearful to have kids. You look at You're nervous to me. You look at You look like You look at all the bad comments all the time. It gives you insight to the way people are thinking, I like that about it. But yes, there's a lot of trolls. And I think to your point, we have some People who really enjoy what we do, and they jump in right away. They have a notification or so, so okay We just posted so they get a notification. They'll jump in and View and have something to say, but then there's this like There's this like cesspool of other people that come in and yeah I call them the Yelpers because people go on to Yelp only I've only ever gone on to Yelp to complain about a bad situation And they're Yelpers They just want to come and they want to complain and the good people like you don't go on and be like this was the Best experience of my life like unless it was like yes The one in a million, reviews you do. Usually if you like it, your heart, boom, and you're on. Yep, and you're on, I know. So, it's not as much gratification, but why are we taking our gratification from the internet, you know? Yeah, I like what you said earlier though, in terms of who you seek advice from. Somebody wise, or maybe I saw a quote, but they said, like, if you wouldn't seek advice from someone, why would you care what they say about you? I've always thought, the people that don't like me, I'm like, I would never want to live your life anyway, so why am I offended? Why do I care what you think? Yeah, most, most of them, when you look at their profiles, it's pretty sad, actually. Yeah. But nonetheless, why don't we move on to a few rapid fire questions? Huh? Alright, shoot me, let's go. Okay, so you guys, you guys gotta answer the questions as fast as possible with no explanation. Okay. Yeah. Ready, guys? This is my favorite podcast ever. Oh, thank you. You just earned a new subscriber. Nice. From me. We need it. We'll start in 3, 2, 1. Go! Okay, what's the coolest invention in your lifetime? In my lifetime? If I say Google, is that off? ChatDBT. If you had one executive order as president, what would it be? End all abortion. If you had a superpower, what would it be? I don't want to fly, yeah. But only at like a mediocre level, like I don't want to be up in the sky high, just like, yeah, a couple feet. I'm afraid of heights. Fair enough. Would you rather fight a one 1, 000 pound duck or a 1, 001 pound duck? A bunch of little, like a bunch of little ducks. What is the best book you've ever read? Two Income Trap by Elizabeth Warren. Would you rather die from a great white shark or a flaming hot volcano? Great white shark. That would be a good meal. I have one last one. Have you ever been stuck in a bathroom still without toilet paper? Absolutely, but in girls bathrooms, we're homies, and I just said, Hey, can someone help me out? You do a little, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you do a little toss under. Ours is just like, if you ask, they're like, Hey, you don't have toilet paper? And you're just like, Yeah, and the men's room is very different. Sorry, loser. Yeah, and then they just start, like, banging on the stalls. You know, you'll meet your best friends in a girl's bathroom. Yeah. That's mine. Yeah, Max has had unfortunately, he doesn't look. He loves doing that question, but this time, I stole it from him. Oh my god. Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, that concludes Rapid Fire. Thank you for entertaining With that we'll kind of wrap up the podcast and we appreciate what you're doing. Keep up the great journalist work We'll definitely be following your work and we wish you all the success. Ditto now. Ditto. Yeah. All right. Appreciate it. Thanks so much. Thank you