Media Creates Entertainment Narratives
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Sam Parr and Shaan Puri share their perspective on modern media, particularly how news organizations operate more like entertainment companies than pure news sources. Their experience, both as content creators and consumers, has led them to be skeptical of mainstream media accuracy.
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Media is Entertainment First:
- News organizations operate similarly to WWE and NFL - creating storylines for entertainment
- CNN and other news outlets are essentially "reality TV" - loosely based on reality but dramatized
- The line between entertainment and news has become increasingly blurred
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Creating Content Changes Perspective:
- When you become the content creator, you see how information gets distorted
- People often cite casual conversations or rough estimates as concrete facts
- Context frequently gets lost when information is repeated
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How to Consume News:
- Treat news as entertainment rather than pure information
- Apply severe filters to what you hear
- Cross-check important information personally
- Take casual claims with "a grain of salt"
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On "Fake News":
- It's a real phenomenon, not just political rhetoric
- Easy to create and spread misinformation
- System encourages shortcuts in information gathering
- People often don't have time to verify everything personally
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The Reality of News Creation:
- First-hand information is difficult and time-consuming to obtain
- Many stories are based on loose facts rather than thorough research
- The system prioritizes entertainment value over accuracy
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.