There have been many moments already where I find myself overjoyed that I decided to join the honors program at Stockton. The freshman convocation was one of those moments. After reading Trust me I’m Lying I came away with a view of the author Ryan Holiday as an intelligent media manipulator but also an arrogant man. After hearing him speak however my opinion has completely reversed. What I perceived as an arrogant tone was actually a frustrated one. While he had manipulated the media into spreading free news for his clients he does regret how he contributed to the flawed media system. Overall the convocation was revealed a lot about Holiday and Trust Me I’m Lying that wasn’t in the book.

Holiday started off the convocation discussing how he got to where he was when he wrote Trust me I’m Lying. He described the people he got to work with in pleasant ways but he wasn’t proud of everything he had done. He also talked extensively about how much he wanted to be an author. This gives good context to Trust Me I’m Lying that we didn’t have before reading his book. The more he talked the more is frustration with the media came through.

His frustrations were clearly voiced when he talked about Help A Reporter Out, a service that allows reporters to search for ‘experts’ to be sources in theirs stories in exchange for free publicity. Shortly before the release of his book Holiday used the service multiple times to lie his way into stories. However instead of stopping their reporters from using the stories, multiple major newspapers simply put an amendment of the story towards the end of the article. This was the exact opposite of what Holiday expected to happen. He had also not expected the media to attack his books either. Hearing him speak about the media’s reactions both allowed him to reach the freshman class and tell us his view in a way we could not have gotten otherwise. He truly didn’t take pride in what he did to the media through the release of his book or his HARO experiments. Holiday was trying to help expose a problem so the media could fix it not to criticize or make fun of the media. He also talked for a short portion about the prevalence of fake news and how shadier characters and even governments are using strategies like his to promote hateful ideologies. Holiday didn’t seem arrogant or mighty when it came to manipulation instead disgusted that he contributed to the harmful system of blogs.

The most reveling part of the convocation was the question and answer portion. My question was the final question he answered. What did he think was the ratio of people who used his book for bad compared to good and did people using it for bad concern him? He answered repeating the sentiment something he had said earlier in the convocation as well. Although the book was market as a tell all from an uncaring media manipulator, this was far from the truth. He answered my question saying he didn’t feel good knowing that people could use his book in the wrong way. It was clear he thought that the message of the book was more important than the few who would use the book maliciously.

Ryan Holiday’s message came across loud and clear to thanks to the freshman convocation. He was frustrated with the media’s practices and wanted to do something about it. His book was a product of frustration but also provided him an exit from the media industry he was disillusioned by. Holiday seemed actually content discussing his farm, his animals, and writing novels. Holiday has found a new life away from manipulation and if Holiday can escape this cycle of manipulation then maybe we all can.