OPINION:
Very few authors—with a straight face—can claim that they have saved the world. Jesse Watters of Watter’s World and The Five on Fox News may be the only one to come close (with a bit of a smirk). After all, as proof, even the dust jacket of How I Saved the World by Jesse Watters claims that the book has “a reasonable chance of winning a Nobel Prize in every category, even chemistry.” High praise (and expectations), indeed!
Nonetheless, conservatives will find “How I Saved the World” hard to put down; leftists will find the book hard to pick up.
I found the book hard to put down, although I typically read and review technical books. And, I was looking forward to some more relaxed “summer reading” with “How I Saved the World.” But, how could I review a genre I was not so familiar with? Let me give it the old “college try.”
I can relate to the author because Jesse is a patriot like (hopefully) most Americans. In fact, Jesse reveals that he is “a patriot above all else” and that everything he says is “based on true love for the country, and true love for all the citizens of the country.”
He demonstrates his love by confronting people who often get off with horrendous actions against compatriots—actions that too frequently get a pass from mainstream media reporters who seem obsessed with ambushing only conservatives.
Perhaps the most notable example of Jesse’s estimable accomplishments, one he is most proud of in his professional career, is “Jessica’s Law.” This law is named after nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was abducted, raped, and murdered by a twice-convicted sex offender in 2005.
Jessica’s Law mandates a minimum 25-year prison sentence for adults convicted of sexual assault against young children. All but a handful of states have adopted versions of the law. Going after the culpable witnesses in the Jessica Lunsford case, Jesse’s tenacious, mic-in-the-face journalism early in his career with The O’Reilly Factor, along with a persistent national campaign against child sex offenders by The Factor helped to focus national attention on a gapping judicial problem that left so many of our vulnerable youngsters at great risk.
Much of Jesse’s professional life story contained in How I Saved the World is told with exceptional wit. And he gets quite pensive at times. Some of what I would dub “Jesse’s Jems” include:
Regarding leftist tactics: “The reckless rhetoric deployed against Fox reveals how desperate the Left has become. Delegitimizing their opponents through mob tactics, race cards, and boycotts demonstrates how the Left has lost their intellectual rigor.” And, “[m]ost liberal arguments aren’t arguments at all; they’re juvenile rhetorical traps to prevent an argument. But the more facts and information you acquire, the less sense liberalism makes.”
On capitalism and free enterprise: “We can travel, communicate, and produce products in a faster, safer, and more intelligent way because of one thing: energy. Entrepreneurs have unleashed an energy revolution that has raised the standard of living throughout the world. The human race is living longer, we’re safer, we’re wealthier, and we’re better-looking than ever before.”
Regarding the popularity of Fox: “Most people who hate Fox don’t ever watch it; they just see out-of-context clips online.”
On bad policy: “After Colorado legalized recreational marijuana, Denver saw a sharp uptick in homelessness.”
Regarding perceived threats: “The menace today isn’t war; it’s words. Very dangerous words. We used to spill blood to fight the English, but life is so comfortable now, we just fight the English language.”
On our history: “American history needs to be learned, not destroyed. Knowledge leads to growth and understanding; ignorance leads to hate and violence. The arc of American history has always been toward more freedom, justice, and equality.”
This last point comes from Jesse, a degreed history major from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and a patriot, so he has some legitimate perspective.
Via his dogged journalism for Fox, Jesse has done a lot of saving in his lifetime. In How I Saved the World, Jesse clearly and unabashedly demonstrates how he saved the Great Outdoors, Hard Work, Children, Journalism, Prime Time, the Internet, DC Nightlife, Nude Beaches, Christmas, Hollywood, America’s Cities, the Environment, the Primaries, 2016, and the most-recent Presidential Election. Heck, he even saved his Mom’s Texts.
And now, with so much confirmed salvific material, we can add: Jesse Watters Saves Book Reviews. (Like this one.)
Why not? He’s saved everything else.
• Anthony J. Sadar is an adjunct associate professor at Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA, and co-author of Environmental Risk Communication: Principles and Practices for Industry (CRC Press, 2021).
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How I Saved the World
By Jesse Watters
HarperCollins, $17.64, 320 pages
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