【正文】 ap to our deepest desires, it enables misinformation to run rampant, attention spans to run short and false stories from phony sites to run circles around major news have literally walked into traffic while staring at our , the good news: Many of your parents are probably taking you somewhere really special for dinner can do a little better than that I have presented some of the bad news, the good news is that there really is a the solution is each and every one of you will bee the new editorial gatekeepers, an ambitious army of truth seekers who will arm yourselves with the intelligence, with the insight and the facts necessary to strike down ’re in a position to keep all of those who now disparage real news, you all are the ones who are going to keep those people in ? Because you can push back and you can answer false narratives with real information and you can set the record you also have the ability and the power to give voice, as Dean Bay was saying, “to people who desperately now need to tell their stories and have their stories told.”And this is what I do know for sure because I’ve been doing it a long time: If you can capture the humanity of people…if you can just capture the humanity of the people of the stories that you’re telling, you then get that much closer to your own you can confront your bias and you can build your credibility and hone your instincts and pound your can use your gifts – that’s what you’re really here to do – to illuminate the darkness in our this is what I also know that this…this…this moment in time, this is your time to though you can’t go anywhere, you can’t stand in line at Starbucks, you can’t go to a party, you can’t go to any place without…where anywhere you turn, people are talking about how bad things are, how terrible it this is what I know: The problem is everybody is meeting hysteria with more hysteria, and then we just…we’re all being hysterical and it’s getting I’ve learned all these years is that we’re not supposed to match it or even get locked into resisting or pushing against ’re supposed to see this moment in time for what it ’re supposed to see through it and then transcend is how you overe that is how you overe the sniping at one another, the trolling, the meanspirited partisanship on both sides of the aisle, the divisiveness, the injustices, and the outandout use this moment to encourage you, to embolden you, and to literally push you into the rising of your to borrow a phrase from my beloved mentor Maya Angelou: Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tide, just like hopes springing high, you will your job now, let me tell you, is to take everything you’ve learned here and use what you’ve learned to challenge the left, to challenge the right, and the you see something, you say something, and you say it with the facts and the reporting to back it ’s what you have to do: You make the choice every day, every single day, to exemplify honesty because the truth – let me tell you something about the truth – the truth exonerates and it disinfects and it truth has always been and will always be our shield against corruption, our shield against greed and truth is our saving not only are you here, USC Annenberg, to tell it, to write it, to proclaim it, to speak it, but to be the the I want to get down to the real reason we’re here about an hour and a half, you’re going to be catapulted into a world that appears to have gone off its I can tell you I’ve hosted on the Oprah Show for 25 years, number one missed a missed a five years, 4,561 I know how to talk, I can tell you that, but I was a little intimidated ing here because graduations, it’s tough, it’s hard trying to e up with something to share with you that you haven’t already can I probably say? Because I know inspiration or guidance I can offer is nothing that your parents or your deans or professors or Siri haven’t already I’m here to really tell you: I don’t have any new don’t have any new I often think that it’s not the new lessons but so much as it is really learning the old ones again and here are variations on a few grand themes beginning with this: Pick a problem, any problem, the list is are just a few that are at the top of my ’s gun violence and there’s climate change, there’s systemic racism, economic inequality, media homeless need opportunity, the addicted need treatment, the DREAMers need protection, the prison system needs reforming, the LGBTQ munity needs acceptance, the social safety net needs saving, and the misogyny needs to to you can’t fix everything and you can’t save every what can you do? Here and now, I believe you have to declare war on one of our most dangerous enemies, and that is when that little creature sinks its hooks into you, it’ll cloud your clarity, it’ll promise your integrity, it’ll lower your standards, it’ll choke your sooner or later, cynicism shatters your you hear yourself saying, “Ah, it doesn’t matter what one person says, oh well, so what, it doesn’t matter what I do, who cares?” when you hear yourself saying that, know that you’re on a collision course for our I understand how it’s so easy to bee disillusioned, so tempting to allow apathy to set in, because anxiety is being broadcast on 157 channels, 24 hours a day, all night everybody I know is feeling these times, these times, are here to let us know that we need to take a stand for our right to have hope, and we need to take a stand with every ounce of wit and courage we can question is: What are you willing to stand for? That question is going to follow you throughout your here’s how you answer put your honor where your mouth your honor where your mouth you give your word, keep it, show up, do the work, get your hands then you’ll begin to draw strength from the understanding – the true knowing that history is still being ’re writing it every wheel’s still in what you do or what you don’t do will be a part of