The Making of You with Deante Young S2 E3 (Still Standing)

In this episode of The Making of You with Deante Young, Deante sits down with legendary investigative reporter Carl Monday to uncover the family, faith, relationships, tragedies and chance encounters that formed the man Cleveland came to know for confronting people no one else wanted to confront.

Long before the trench coat, the I-Team and nearly five decades of investigative journalism, Carl was Carl Stalinsky, a kid growing up in Cleveland’s Slavic Village in a deeply Catholic Polish-American family.

He was an altar boy at St. Stanislaus, sometimes attending church more than a dozen times in a week. His parents taught him that some things were simply right and some were wrong—a moral distinction Carl believes followed him directly into the work he eventually chose.

His family also carried extraordinary hardship.

Carl’s father had served on the front lines during World War II, returned home carrying shrapnel, left school early to help support his family and worked multiple jobs. Before Carl was born, his father accidentally struck and killed two women during a snowstorm, was convicted of vehicular manslaughter and spent years dealing with the financial and emotional consequences.

Carl watched a father who continued working and providing anyway.

From his mother, he inherited something different.

She could talk to anyone. She was kind and gentle, but Carl remembers that she could also be a fighter when her children needed one. Carl believes much of his own ability to communicate came from her.

Then history changed his direction.

Carl entered Kent State interested largely in music and radio. But in May 1970, he witnessed the upheaval surrounding the Kent State shootings. Seeing a national tragedy happen in his own backyard changed the way he saw news and ultimately helped redirect his life toward journalism.

From there came a succession of people who helped build him.

College friend Greg Benedetti pushed him to get serious about news instead of entertainment. Mike Drexler gave him an almost unbelievable on-the-spot audition at WERE and put him on the air minutes later. That station’s aggressive “People Power” approach helped Carl develop the confrontational reporting style that would eventually define him. And legendary news director Virgil Dominic heard Carl’s work on the radio, took a chance on him and brought him into television.

Carl would spend 22 years at what became Fox 8.

Along the way came hundreds of confrontations, lawsuits, surveillance operations and stories that became part of Cleveland television history—including the infamous showdown with George Forbes over an unpaid water bill.

But there was a cost to doing that work.

Carl says he still experiences what he calls “TV PTSD,” including nightmares about confrontations and being chased. One investigation became so dangerous that two police departments warned him there was a hit on his life, the FBI monitored his home and Carl lived with security for months.

Behind the reporter was also a husband and father.

Carl and his wife Sandy have spent more than five decades together, through the intensity of television journalism and losses that no career could prepare them for.

In 2022, Carl and Sandy lost their only daughter, Melissa. Carl says losing a child is something a parent never truly gets over. And when his mother died years earlier, he described her simply as “everything to me.”

That is what makes this conversation about much more than famous investigations.

It is about where toughness comes from, what a lifetime of confronting wrongdoing does to a person, who gives us permission to become who we become, and what remains when the cameras finally turn off.

Carl estimates he was involved in thousands of stories during his career.

But when asked what he wants his enduring legacy to be, he doesn’t mention the awards, the mustache, the trench coat, or even his own name.

He hopes the work did some good for the people who trusted him to help safeguard their community.

🎙️ Watch more episodes of The Making of You with Deante Young:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEpgmvTsuQJw

✅ Connect with Carl Monday:

https://www.facebook.com/carlmondayinvestigations

✅ Follow Deante Young:

LINKEDIN: http://www.linkedin.com/in/deanteyoung

INSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/deanteunlimited

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/authordeante

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📖 Learn more about Deante Young: http://www.deanteyoung.com

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