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TRNN Senior Editor Paul Jay discusses the story behind the name


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PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Well, a lot of people think when we use the term ‘real news’ we’re mostly trying to accuse mainstream or corporate news as being fake news. And while, sure, that’s sort of part of the meaning it really wasn’t the main reason for doing it. The main idea behind it is that there is a real world. There’s an objective world. And it can be known. It can’t be known in any absolute way. Our knowledge is always approximate based on the stage of human development, what’s possible to know at any given time, and of course our own ability to grapple with facts and get to know it. But there is an it. There’s a real thing there. It’s not just a matter of opinion, what the world is. It’s not a matter of opinion whether there’s chronic poverty or not, or a matter of opinion whether the world is deteriorating economically for most people while a handful of people are getting very, very rich, richer than perhaps any elite ever has in the history of humanity. Well, it’s not a matter of opinion. Those things are real. So when we said real news, that was really the most important part of its meaning.

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Paul Jay was the founder, CEO and senior editor of The Real News Network, where he oversaw the production of over 7,000 news stories. Previously, he was executive producer of CBC Newsworld's independent flagship debate show CounterSpin for its 10 years on air. He is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with over 20 films under his belt, including Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows; Return to Kandahar; and Never-Endum-Referendum. He was the founding chair of Hot Docs!, the Canadian International Documentary Film Festival and now the largest such festival in North America.