A recent article of mine described a better model of news reporting and how it related to the TDG. That show is called Inside Olympia and airs on the Spokane affiliate of PBS.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has created a new news show called About That. Journalist Andrew Chang explains complicated issues succinctly and pleasantly.
While Inside Olympia is an elevated news program, it requires a relatively well educated audience to understand it. In contrast, About That is, I believe, more able to reach average people, while not dumbing down the content.
Format
About That is breaking two informal rules in political journalism.
The first rule is that there are no qualified experts. Andrew Chang is the only talking head. While he does not give the impression that he is the expert, his demeanor exudes a lot of credibility — at least with this viewer.
The second rule of analysis journalism is to keep math to a minimum. Andrew regularly breaks this rule with lots of math vocabulary and grammar to explain the points. When putting numbers on a whiteboard, he is often using phrases like “subtract this number from that number” and “multiply that number by this number to get ______.” Most news editors would cut out such dialogue.
Despite breaking these two rules, About That seems to be drawing enough viewers for the CBC to continue funding this program. This show is in its second season. CBC would have pulled the plug if the ratings were not there.
Although Andrew Chang is the face of About That, there must be a team of clever writers, researchers, and media specialists who know how to present a complex message to retain “numbers people” like me yet be attractive enough to inform people with an average education.
One advantage of About That is that its production costs are probably small. The show does not have travelling journalists and camera operators. No experts to organize. The same studio is used in all the shooting. All the team members probably work in the same building. The team is probably working on several projects at the same time, which creates both chaos and efficiencies.
Examples from About That
About a year ago, the premier of Alberta floated a trial balloon that Alberta would remove itself from the Canada Pension Plan. The government of Alberta would manage the plan for the benefit of Albertans. Well, About That went into some math to explain why this plan would be a lot more difficult than what the premier was saying. While the About That math may not have satisfied many economists, it did satisfy my curiosity. For sure, the math around About That was at a higher level than the premier’s math.
Another episode on About That was about whether Donald Trump is a master negotiator or just a noise maker. Chang presents the “facts” for both cases. While most of us probably won’t change our minds, we have been exposed to contrary perspectives that have some reasonable backing. Things just might percolate later.
In another episode, Andrew Chang used some business math to point out how difficult it would be to enact the auto tariffs imposed by President Trump. I suspected this. While the mainstream media focused on the economic theories around tariffs, Andrew went into the details of the actual implementation. Most news shows would never get into any accounting stuff.
This YouTube link lists at least 600 episodes of About That. I invite my lukewarm fans to inspect this new kind of journalism.
So where is this advanced media going?
News shows like Inside Olympia and About That will have important roles to play in a TDG society.
First, these shows will be useful for elected TDG representatives. When they encounter an issue outside their expertise, they can gain a much better understanding with a half hour of viewing. They can take that understanding into TDG deliberations. This is much better than bringing only their former knowledge or following directions from their political handlers.
Second, these shows open up lines of questioning that were not there before. Advocates for one side and the other side will have to deal with these questions.
Third, these shows will satisfy the curiosity of people like me. We may not be decision makers, but we feel included when things are not dumbed down. We need to know that serious discussion was employed and the final decision had some rationality behind it — even if we don’t like a particular decision.
Fourth, these shows will, directly or indirectly, train citizens that the world is not based on either/or dichotomies. Rather, our decision makers have to balance trade-offs to find the better decisions.
Fifth, these shows will be more able to find a higher degree of public unity to make a controversial decision. With this unity comes a better likelihood of successful implementation.
Conclusion
Compared to mainstream journalism, creating news analysis shows like Inside Olympia and About That takes a lot of thought and preparation. We will learn how to make these shows better.
Maybe the secret is to focus on “what is the decision” rather than “who gets to make the decision.”
And yes, there should be several independent outlets creating these kinds of news shows. We should not rely on one or two sources of this advanced journalism.
Published on Medium 2025
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