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This is Later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast more What You Here

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weekday afternoons on the Drive. She's
the former host of twenty twenty and ABC

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World News Tonight, co hosting on
Good Morning America as well also an author

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of a memoir Between the Breaths.
Elizabeth vargas As new project is Elizabeth Vargas

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Reports. It's on News Nation and
Elizabeth what are we going to see?

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On Elizabeth Vargas Reports? Aren't you
proud of how original we are with the

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title of my show? Week long
and hard myself many times? Yeah,

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whe should we name the show?
How about just your name? And every

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day? It's going to be an
hour long, really in depth look at

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the biggest stories of the day.
I think by six pm Eastern is that

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I think is at four pm in
Oklahoma? Five Yeah, five good five

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team in Oklahoma. Most people have
seen the headlines already, so they don't

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need another headline show. We're going
to go very in depth on the handful

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of the biggest stories of the day, provide context to nuance and interview the

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newsmakers as well as smart analysts.
What you were not going to see is

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a lot of shouting, talking head
shouting at each other. I don't know

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about you, but when people start
shouting, I turn off the TV.

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I don't want to hear people shouting
at each other. And we're also not

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going to be We're really going to
be eighty percent of Americans who are center

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right or center left. I think
that the people who are far right and

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far left are already served by cable
news networks out there catering to those audiences,

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and the sort of largely ignored majority
of Americans who are somewhere in the

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middle needed a broadcast to give them
thoughtful information. And we're hoping to do

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that each and every night. Elizabeth
Vargas reports weeknights at five on News Nation.

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That's something that's really taken off lately. News Nation. What do you

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attribute that to? Yeah, we're
the only growing cable news channel, you

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know, the only one heading in
the right direction growing our audience. Now

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we're small because we're brand spanking new. So you know, I have no

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illusions about you know, the runway
in front of us. But you know,

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all I have to do is go
back and look at the news articles.

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In the first couple of years after
CNN was launched, or Fox News

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was launched, and you know the
headline, little watched Fox News. Well,

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Fox News turned out to be a
behemnus in today day. So we're

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patient. We'll grow our audience and
I think if we put a good show

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on every night, they will come. You touched on at a moment ago,

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how the state of journalism in our
modern modern era. I talk on

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this program quite often about it's no
longer about reporting the news, it's about

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marketing content. Of the of your
experiences in journalism, what's the biggest change

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you've experienced you think in the last
twenty years. Oh, well, hack

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zillion things from just the you know, explosion of places that you know people

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can get information. I mean,
I think that now in our schools we

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need to be teaching our kids courses
in information literacy because if I had a

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dollar for every time I told my
kids just because you read it on the

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Internet doesn't make it true, I
could put them through college. So that's

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the biggest thing. We now have
people on social media, which is just

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exploded in the last twenty years,
getting quote unquote news there which is nothing

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anybody can get online and on YouTube
or Facebook and write something and people will

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believe it. So it's used to
be very, very careful, and I

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think that the key to is explaining
that to our audience. You know,

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this is what we've done. You
know, this is who these people are.

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When you're watching our show, you'll
see me, do you know,

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conduct in depth interviews with newsmakers.
Our reporters will be on the scene.

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You know. One of the great
things about our new news network is that

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the owner of our network is also
one of the biggest owner of local television

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stations across the country. I've got
my start in local TV, and we

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were able to be on the ground
before anybody else, for example, in

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the trained derailment in East Palestine,
because we had a local station and a

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reporter there. That's really crucial and
really important. The other thing I think

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you've seen in the last twenty years, as we've seen cable news grow,

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is there's been more and more of
this movement toward opinion television. People are

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giving their opinions. I'm not saying
there's anything wrong with that. I do

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think it should be more obviously labeled
as opinion. And I can tell you

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my show will not be opinion.
I have never in my career told people

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what I think. My job is
to conduct tough interviews, pointed interviews,

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to get newsmakers and analysts to explain
their thinking, their points of view.

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And I think and it's important that
we get all sides represented because, as

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I said, eighty percent of America's
center right, center left. They're not

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the far right the far left,
and I think they're reasonable, smart people

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who want to hear what's happening without
having political talking points sort of shoved down

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the throat. You remember her from
twenty twenty ABC, which World News,

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to Night, Good Morning America,
and many others. Elizabeth Vargas is now

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on Elizabeth Vargas Reports, an hour
long weekday news program on News Nation at

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five pm Central Time. You just
now kind of touched on this as well.

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In your memoir, you speak of
having guilt about not finding balance between

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motherhood and your career. But it
sounds to me like you have found that

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balance. Oh no, it's always
a struggle a teenager. Teenagers are you

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don't have to be it's not quite
as hands on. He doesn't need me

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to do quite as much as for
him as I did when he was seven.

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But you know, as sixteen year
old and a freshman in college.

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You still have to keep your eye
on what's going on, especially raising a

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son in New York City. I
did not grow up and I'm an army

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brad. I grew up an army
basis all over the world and lived in

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the Midwest, went to college in
the Midwest. So it's tough, you

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know what I mean. You talk
to any working mom and they'll tell you

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the same thing. It's tough,
and a lot of it is self imposed.

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I think we need to give ourselves, you know, a little bit

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of permission to not have to be
at every event and you know, trust

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that whatever it's quality, not quantity. In other words, when you're working

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a demanding, full time job.
But it's it's a hard thing. And

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I think maybe a lot of dads. Working dads saw this during the pandemic

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when we were all home and you
know, sort of kept into our own

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houses and apartments and you could see
what was happening. But it's it's a

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very hard thing to be a working
parent. I don't it's you know,

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I really hats off to everybody who
tries it. It's it's difficult to balance.

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Elizabeth Vargas of Elizabeth Vargas Reports,
an hour long weekday news program on

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News Nation that will be at five
o'clock our time. We'll be watching and

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thank you for joining us. Thank
you so much, good to be with

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you. Thanks for listening to Later
with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,

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and remember to listen to The Drive
Live weekday afternoons from five to seven

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and Ihearts Media presentation