Program: Gone are the days of only three news channels and one trusted newspaper in your hometown. Today we can learn the local news as fast as the breaking news across the globe from thousands of news sources, but which ones should we trust? Between 2015 and 2020, journalists and journalism were under relentless attack for "fake news" and labeled "enemies of the American people." But is there validity to the criticisms? Can anything be done to bring about an electorate that's informed vs. polarized? Novelist, Writing Coach, and former CNN Editor John DeDakis takes a look at the history of journalism and how technological advances have helped to shape the current toxic atmosphere of political discourse.

Presenter: Novelist and writing coach John DeDakis [pronounced: dee-DAY-kiss] is a former editor on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." DeDakis is the author of five mystery-suspense novels. His fourth novel, Bullet in the Chamber, is the winner of Reviewers Choice, Foreword INDIES, and Feathered Quill book awards. In his most recent novel, Fake, protagonist Lark Chadwick is a White House correspondent trying to walk the line between personal feelings and dispassionate objectivity in the era of “fake news” and #MeToo. Fake earned Honorable Mention for the Reviewers Choice Award and was a Finalist for Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award. DeDakis, a former White House correspondent, is a manuscript editor, and regularly teaches novel writing online and at literary centers, writers’ conferences, and bookstores around the country and abroad. He is also a jazz drummer. Website: www.johndedakis.com

The St. Mary's & Calvert Counties Chapter meets on the fourth Saturday of every month at 1:00 pm.