I’ve been interviewed by Brent in the past. I remember the first time I met him, he came up to me at an event and shoved a mic in my face. 🙂 I had no idea who this guy was and I typically don’t like to do interviews like this because you never know how the interview will be spun and if the interviewer is pro vaping or not. (remember how Samantha Bee made us look on Full Frontal?) A couple nods of approval from the folks around me got me talking and I was instantly impressed by the professionalism, mannerism, and questions being presented.
Recently, he interviewed me again for his Canada based online program called “Regulator Watch“.
Here’s the latest interview:
Before I go any further, hey Mitch… is THIS what you call “sensible & reasonable”? AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAA HAA HAAA HAAAAAA. Oh my God, my side hurts. Your “protecting the public” with the “sensible & reasonable” (I still can’t stop laughing) regulation is going to create a WILDLY UNSAFE black market (You want to talk about wild wild west? Get ready!), drive a percentage of vapers back to smoking, and prevent many smokers from discovering vaping in the first place… not to mention the American jobs and businesses that will come to an end. So much for “protecting the public”.
Ok, sorry… back to Brent…
Brent has a unique style and is a true pro… you go through the interview with him and he later transcribes everything, looks for the most pertinent responses and he’ll re-record himself asking more concise questions and then use the original interview responses.
I wanted to know more about Brent, where he came from, why he does what he does and share it all with you, especially since he’s COMING TO THE US!!
RegulatorWatch.com is launching dedicated U.S. vaping coverage this fall
I sincerely believe he can help our cause. At this point, we need all the help we can get.
First, let’s learn more about “Regulator Watch”
- RegWatch is the only broadcast quality television news show covering the issues, controversies and impacts of vaping regulations from a pro-vaping point-of-view
- RegWatch has made a real impact landing exclusive interviews with top scientists and researchers, leading vaping advocates and industry trailblazers. Our content is seen by government, politicians and public health officials.
- In under a year, we’ve produced dozens of videos covering issues on vaping: the science, legal & legislative, advocacy & action, industry & stakeholders and the battle to ban the vape.
- With well over a million video views on facebook, we are officially launching our YouTube channel dedicated to our American audience.
We need your help to get this vitally important vaping coverage out to the U.S. audience. Please head to our channel, watch, learn, subscribe and share our vaping videos.
- RegWatch is the only pro-vaping media outlet that Facebook and YouTube allows to advertise and promote content. Why? Because we are a true news media outlet. This is HUGE! We can and do reach people outside of the vaping community with our paid promotions.
- We have some incredible U.S. focused content lined up, starting with a feature interview with Phil Busardo (coming this week) and an exclusive two-part series with Dr. Stanton Glantz, the man who beat big tobacco and then turned his ire towards vaping! And, more is on the way.
- Viewers can help us make this possible by supporting videos and promotions on YouTube and Facebook through a donation at: https://regulatorwatch.com/regwatch-donate/
DONATED! Thank you Brent and keep it up!
- RegWatch is created and produced by Brent Stafford. He is a 25-year veteran television news broadcaster that got fed up with the constraints of so-called “objective” news. He produces fact-based, incisive content that intends to counteract the misinformation promoted by the mainstream media.
Maybe at some point I’ll get to video interview the interviewer, but until then, here’s some more information for you about Brent himself and how Regulator Watch came into existence:
I’m 46, and born and bred in Vancouver B.C. True BC kid. Was called a surfer dude until almost 30. Got lucky and started making television in high school in the mid 80’s. When the first consumer cameras came out. I was a total creative nerd, yes they exist. I was a drummer in a rock band, played live shows etc… But also ran around my high school with a video camera and shot a video yearbook my senior year and sold it to students. Made 5 grand! Was a total computer nut (nerd). I had an Apple II+ when it was brand new (I’m old) and shot my first TV show when I was 15 was called “Let’s Talk Computers” in 1985. My mom would drive me to the local cable station and I hosted a three camera live show (huge nerd). Was lucky after high school to get a job at a CBC-TV affiliate (think NBC affiliate) and I started in the studio operating the camera and the teleprompter. Within a couple of years I was out in the community shooting news (called ENG – electronic news gathering) and doing my own interviews. I would bring back the footage, write the story and edit it. Often I was the only person that touched a story from start to finish.
For 7 years I worked the daily television news grind. Shot, wrote, reported and edited news. I’ve hung out of helicopters, been in the middle of forest fires, shot footage from a hot air balloon as we crashed and have been shot at while filming at a hostage scene. Oh, been in 4 world class riots 2 of them the Stanley Cup riots and was live on the air for one of them. ☺ And, I’ve interviewed several Prime Ministers of Canada and managed to get a response from Bill Clinton in a media scrum on one of his trips to Vancouver in the 90’s.
By 1995 I was fully set into my career in broadcast news. But I was missing something, an education. Since I started in news out of high school I felt that I needed better grounding. So I went to university and in 3.75 years I did an undergrad AND graduate degree in advanced communications theory. My Master’s thesis was a book and documentary called “Insert Coin: The Culture of Video Game Play”. Yes, my grad work was on video games (nerd). Up until about 5 years ago I was still one of the leading North American experts on video game and their impact on our culture.
http://shakyegg.com/videogames/insert-coin-biography/insert-coin-biography.html
I finished my MA and started my marketing/media company Shaky Egg Communications. I moved to Los Angeles and went into the world of branded entertainment. Quite literally when you see Star Wars or Lord of the Rings on a can of Pringles that’s my deal:
http://brentstafford.com/pringles/pringles-star-wars/
http://brentstafford.com/pringles/pringles-lord-of-the-rings/I’ve also done North American brand deals with the Super Bowl, Daytona 500, the GRAMMYs. I also did the brand deal that launched the G4-TV television network. Whew!
Then, the U.S. burned me out. Lol. There is only so much red carpet access a man can take before a trip to Betty Ford becomes a priority lol.
Moved back to Vancouver and said ok, I need to get back into creating content not just doing deals. I dove back into the hands-on. I taught film and television production for 6 years while working in the .com world. I slowly started investing in my own broadcast gear. Then my own studio, then started making my own passion projects. Under my own terms.
I created a series call “Aftermath of Murder Survivor Stories”. It was a two-year project that had me doing sit-down interviews with people who have lost loved ones to murder.
http://www.aftermathofmurder.ca/
I’ve interviewed family members from the biggest murder stories in Canada. The worst of them. The goal was to bridge the way mainstream media covers murders into new way that honoured the experience of the survivors.
From there, I built RegWatch. With a similar purpose. In that, the mainstream media (which I have been a part of for so long) had lost any claim to objectivity or truth for that matter. It is as you know all biased. And it’s always been biased. And I felt so strongly that the very tenant of objectivity in news is THE problem. It’s a myth. There is no such thing as objectivity and we would all be better off if the veil was stripped away and media was upfront about their bias. Bias isn’t bad, pretending that there is no bias is bad. It’s destructive. You can be fact-based and still acknowledge bias. So RegWatch is upfront with the audience. We are probably one of the only news organizations that publishes our news values. If you want to know why we cover some stories and not others. Or why we are say pro resource development over saving the little fishy’s in the stream, you can find out on our out page:
https://regulatorwatch.com/about-us/
When it comes to vaping, it’s simple. Government should not be allowed to infringe on an individual’s liberties unless it can be proven that their actions causes serious harm to others. If you can’t then you can’t ban it. We all have the right to put whatever we want in our bodies. We all have a right to manage our own health and make our own choices. So when the bans started happening and the excuse was well we don’t know but just to be safe we are banning it. Well that got me pissed off. I have a weekly political column in a top paper in Vancouver and I started writing about it. When RegWatch was up and running I sought out people in the industry and began covering it. Premium Labs and the Canadian Vaping Association are our top Canadian supporters. FlavourArt is coming on for the U.S. and we are looking for one more.
Whew! Hope that wasn’t too much.
I almost feel like I was just at a counselling session.
Cheers
b…
Here’s all of Brent’s information again should you want to contact him:
Linked In
Facebook
YouTube
Regulator Watch Website
Brent Stafford Website (work in progress)
Thanks very much for the information and a look at where Brent comes from! I sincerely appreciate what you’re doing and look forward to having you as a resource to spread the truth here in the US as well.
…oh, and if the counseling session helped at all, I’ll sent you my Paypal address!
Rock on you Old Surfer Dude Nerd! 🙂
THANK YOU BRENT!!
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