Dear US Media,

I am a 23 year old military veteran that recently came to some conclusions that I wanted to share with you. Lets start with our relationship. Your job is to seek and report the facts of events around the world. You bundle everything into shows, interviews and articles before presenting it to me. My job is to pay attention to you. I watch your shows and read your articles in order to gather all the facts. Once I have the information it is my responsibility to form an educated opinion. If we both do our jobs than the general public is able to hold our government accountable, have interesting/informed conversations and sometimes even put the information into action.

Lately you have broken your end of the agreement. You failed me. Over the last few months you have neglected to report or tried to alter your reporting on a number of issues. I want to make it very clear that this type of behavior is unacceptable. In case there are any questions, here are a few examples:

-NBC edited a tape of the 911 call in the Trayvon Martin case. Do not give me or my fellow Americans the excuse that it was an edit due to “timing.” Let a court decide who is guilty and who is innocent, not you. I just want the facts so I can come to my own conclusions.

-Last week Notre Dame and other Catholic entities filed a suit against the Obama administration. ABC, CBS, and NBC neglected this historic lawsuit for three nights until other media outlets forced coverage of the events. Instead of reporting the facts you tried to hide the information from me and other viewers. This is unacceptable and creates an environment of distrust between us.

-A bill was voted on last week pertaining to abortion. Some media framed it as intending to jeopardize women’s rights. Other media outlets framed the opponents of the bill as proponents for gender-based abortions. Neither “spins” on the bill are correct. The truth is somewhere in between.

These are just three examples from the last three months. Here is something that you may not know – Facts do not belong to any political party. They are not Republican or Democrat. They do not belong to any religion, race, or income group. Every individual has the right to know what the truth is. Do your job and let us do ours.

To be clear, I understand that you have an opinion. Not only is this okay but I can respect your opinion. I don’t mind hearing your opinion…..after you have presented all of the facts. The facts have to come before your opinion.

Lastly I want to leave you with a thought to ponder. You are no longer the only source of information. In the world of the internet we are all connected. Platforms and services such as Twitter provide the everyday man with a real-time news feed. As traditional media outlets, you must get in shape before you erode the trust of the American people. Once you lose that trust we will never give it back to you. Media outlets with no trust end up becoming extinct. Get on board with the ideas of transparency, authenticity and accountability. Your future and profits depend on it.

Best,

Anthony Pompliano