Transposing the News

Over a year ago, I submitted a book proposal about the failures of corporate media. No one wanted to touch it because corporate media would promote it. So I'm releasing chapters here for free.

This chapter is called “Transposing the News.”

Recently, someone asked me what I do for a living and I didn’t know how to answer. As a member of Generation X, I’m supposed to be able to describe what I do in a word or two, but what am I, and why is that question something we feel compelled to answer so succinctly? I could say I’m a podcaster, but there’s a whole lot more to it than that. I could say I’m a Network CEO, but the collection of bad ass podcasts I have the honor of working with are independently owned and operated so it’s more like a co-op of ideas than an org-chart governed corporate network. I could say I’m a journalist, though I really just assemble the news and present it in the best way I know how. I translate legal pleadings in easy-to-understand, relatable language (including a little swearing when appropriate.) I was truly stumped by the question, so I started thinking less about what I do, and more about why I do it, and how I got here.

Something you may not know about me is that – among other things – I’m a classically trained musician.

Aside from the nurture aspect of music lessons I was subjected to as a kid, music runs in my family. My dad was a pianist and a composer, and my mom was a vocalist who majored in musical theater. Going back even further, my great, great uncle Harry Reser was a band leader at the Clicquot Club in New York, and was regarded by some as the best banjoist of the 1920’s. He also played saxophone, and was primarily a violinist – but he was best known for his comedic banjo compositions and by 1934, he and his orchestra began a weekly broadcast on NBC Radio. That DNA explains why I’m so drawn to the likes of Steve Martin, Weird Al, and Dr. Demento, and why I began writing nonsense songs, poems, and parodies at a very young age.

My dad started teaching me piano when I was 3 years old, and I was fully engaged in lessons by age 5. I was also learning to sing and sight read, and by high school, I was accepted into regional and state choirs, and winning awards in solo and ensemble competitions across the southwest region. My greatest accomplishment was being 2^nd chair Alto in the State Choir.

I dabbled in opera, violin, and eventually decided that the nerdery of choir didn’t support my new wave/post punk persona, so I picked up the guitar. I took a semester of classical lessons in high school to learn the basics, but eventually began employing my knowledge of music theory to transpose the songs I wanted to sing – by ear -into the key of G Major. My vocal range fits squarely in the key of G, and all those lessons taught me to instantly recognize intervals and gave me the ability to take complex chord structures and translate them into easier fingering patterns so I could avoid more difficult barre chords and progressions. This allowed me to not have to think about what my hands were doing so I could concentrate on the delivery of the rhythm, the lyrics, and the message. If you name a song, and I’ve heard it, I’ll have it in the key of G and performing it for you in under 30 seconds. I’m certain my parents are proud that I employed my many years of expensive music lessons and training just to be able to belt out Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes on demand at parties.

Almost instinctually, that’s what I do with the news.

I deconstruct angry cable network talking heads, strip away the noise, and present the facts in a bed of context that’s easy to listen to. One audience member described my podcast as a “shitshow lullaby” – the horrible news of the trump years presented in a calming and straightforward manner that allows folks to consume the news without spiraling into depression and despair. By far, the most common refrain I hear from people is that I helped “keep them sane” during one of the darkest chapters in American History, and because of my background, I was uniquely situated to do just that. Name any current event and I’ll do my best to give you all the facts from a refreshing and consumable point of view.

I have a tendency to pick up a hobby, become obsessed with it until I perfect it, and then move on to the next thing. As a result, my resume is all over the place, which makes a biography difficult to write. I dread every time a promotor or producer asks for a short bio because I have no idea what to include and what to leave out. A Veteran, Doctor of Health Administration, Comedian, Musician, Podcaster, Federal Civil Servant, Non-Profit Executive, Network CEO, Weirdo with Tattoos and Piercings – it’s a cacophony of hobbies turned pro more than anything else.

Since the grass is always greener, I have always envied those who have one focus. When I spoke to my friend Ben Folds in preparation for this book, I told him I was insanely jealous of his life-long focus on music. “I’m a piano player. But never forget, you created a job that didn’t exist when we were kids, and that’s the most bad-assed thing I can think of,” he said.

Countless times I’ve asked my friends, and even my talent manager “WHAT AM I?” in hopes that I could pick a thing and lean into it, but no one could give me a straight answer. It was something I would have to figure out for myself. Until I began podcasting and drawing on all of the different pieces of me, I would often wonder how I would marry these disjointed aspects of myself into one identity. And to complicate matters, most of the different iterations of my life happened totally by accident – and I’ll get into that later. But that’s what makes members of the New Media so valuable: that we present facts through the lens of our varied lived experiences. And that means we can come from anywhere, not just journalism school or network jobs. The diversity of the voices in this movement is what makes it elemental in filling in the gaps left by the ever-consolidating legacy media market. Mega-corporations buying up local newspapers and television leaves news deserts that are now being filled by everyday people with assorted backgrounds and a microphone. Trouble is, the gaps are also being filled by disinformation and poisonous rhetoric. It’s become an all-out battle for the soul of the fourth estate.

Independent journalists provide context and nuance, and that’s what makes New Media less of a science and more of an art form. Some of the best in the business are storytellers, supplementing corporate news that’s been relegated to blasting headlines designed to elicit rage and fear to gin up engagement and generate revenue. We know this to be true when we look at how the handful of elites that own the media run their operations. We learned from a congressional investigation that Facebook, for example, gives seven times the weight to an anger emoji than it does a like or love emoji when selling advertising. They call it doom scrolling for a reason. As we consume social media, we have been conditioned to spend more time engaging with posts that upset us. That makes us the product and not the consumer.

On the other hand, too many people have given up on following the news because it’s either too depressing or stressful. Honestly, I sometimes think that’s the point. Steve Bannon once said the goal is to flood the zone with shit in an attempt to exhaust consumers, making us more susceptible to the messages they want us to receive. Me? I bury myself in the news because for me, knowledge is the enemy of anxiety. I figure the more I know about what these autocrats are up to, the less I’ll be surprised by the abhorrent shit they do. It doesn’t always work out, because without a dark heart and a blackened soul, it’s difficult to predict what evil people are capable of. Regardless, I found myself in a position of having important information that people were actively avoiding, putting me in the unique position to deliver the news to them in a way that didn’t send them into a doom spiral. It naturally followed that there had to be a better way to get the news out there.

When I set out to write this book, I wondered how I would subsume a memoir in a book about disrupting the status quo. For a broader perspective, I set up interviews with both members and consumers of the New Media. I recently spoke to author and activist Wajahat Ali, and he emphasized that we should be encouraging a diverse media the same way we fight for a multi-cultural democracy. After all, our fourth estate should look like our electorate just as our supreme court, federal bench, cabinet, classrooms and boardrooms should all be representative of the citizenry. That’s the necessary response to the consolidated mainstream media owned by a handful of elites intent on maintaining control of the message and focused solely on the bottom line.

Recently, I rewatched one of my favorite movies from high school: Pump up the Volume. A relatively obscure cult classic that I brought it up in my conversation with Wajahat. In a great bit of synchronicity, Waj had recently watched it himself and laughed that I had even mentioned such an old, bizarre, yet still relevant film. “Yeah, that shit holds UP” he said.

This alt movie stars Christian slater as a troubled and somewhat dark, counter culture kid who sets up a pirate radio station in his basement and starts a broadcast to speak to his fellow ennui teens. His irreverent show is a combo of philosophical angst, nihilism, and love peppered with alternative music including Concrete Blonde, the Pixies, and the Descendants. HI DAD, I’M IN JAIL! I LIKE IT HERE!

Eventually, the town’s parents would catch wind of this rogue DJ putting radical ideas of independence and rebellion into the ears of their impressionable children, especially when one of the students dies by suicide after calling in to his program. They grab their figurative torches and pitchforks and set out to find and silence Happy Harry Hard-on, our rogue DJ’s anonymous pseudonym derived from the initials of his school - Hubert Humphrey High.

I won’t spoil the ending, but it does include a montage of kids eventually setting up their own pirate radio stations in solidarity and flooding the airwaves with their truths. The more voices, the harder it is to find and silence them. Filling the void left by corporate consolidation, and the democratization of the media, is only possible with as many voices as we can muster.

That’s why I’m here. Not just to tell my story, but to help you tell yours. No longer is a degree in journalism from Columbia necessary to be a member of the media. I went from a comic with a microphone in my kitchen to the front row of the January 6^th hearings and a membership in the white house correspondents’ association. What sets us apart from traditional journalism is that we curate the news through the lens of our lived experiences. Once you stop chasing the headline and start telling the story, the news becomes relatable – and relatable information is so much more consumable than angry pundits and sensational headlines. And not only that, but whittling the story down to a soundbite leaves too many details on the cutting room floor. I’ll give you an example.

The crux of the contrast between New Media and Legacy Media is as stark as the political divide, and we see it play out on a daily basis. One of the clearest examples in recent memory is the reporting on the arraignment of Donald Trump in Miami for criminal charges arising from his retention of national defense information and his conspiracy to obstruct justice. I know, I know, there are so many criminal cases it’s hard to keep track of, but this is the one the legacy media refers to as the “classified documents case”. By law, no cameras are allowed in federal courtrooms, and taking that a step further, the judge in this case wouldn’t even let reporters bring in their phones. This restriction forced reporters to take notes, run out of the courtroom to relay news to a runner, who would then tweet it out or head to a camera to report live from the scene.

Donald Trump was arraigned in Miami on June 13, 2023, but ahead of that arraignment, his lawyers had told the world he was going to plead “not guilty” to all 37 felony counts against him. I was listening to the live coverage on MSNBC in my car on the way to an appointment at the VA with my Primary Care Provider (who is an Nurse Practitioner. May all your PCPs be Nurse Practitioners.) Andrea Mitchell was in the anchor chair and correspondent Ken Delanian was in the courtroom watching the arraignment. Ken Delanian blocked me years ago on twitter because I dared contest his interpretation of the Mueller Report as having “exonerated trump”, but he was the guy on the ground for MSNBC as one of their Justice Correspondents that day.

At one point during the broadcast, Dilanian ran out of the courtroom, and as breathless as Axl Rose after running out to the mic during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction of Guns and Roses, he broke the “news” that trump had pled not guilty. Something we all knew he was going to do, and had known for days.

Mitchell asked him if there were any bail conditions set by the judge or requested by the Department of Justice Prosecutors. Ken did not know because he had dashed out of the courtroom to tell us about the plea. Mitchell then asked if trump’s co-conspirator Walt Nauta had been arraigned. Again, Ken did not know and repeated that he left the courtroom as fast as he could to report the not guilty plea. That went on for a few more questions – the questions that we were all actually waiting to have answered – but all he had was the guilty plea.

That’s the impact of for-profit legacy media: sacrificing critical details in favor of being “first”, and generating headlines for mass-consumption. News for people who never listen to the B sides and deep cuts. Top 40 news. And that shift from informative to marketable has resulted in a less educated electorate hell-bent on being dazzled or enraged. In fact, one of the number one critiques of Robert Mueller’s testimony to congress in July of 2019 was that he simply didn’t have enough pizazz. Americans want their Russian election interference and obstruction news with spirit fingers, and legacy media rushing out to give us a piece of news most of us already knew but can get clicks in the heartland has done a great disservice to us as a citizenry.

Enter Anna Bower – a JD from Georgia with fire engine red hair who doggedly covers justice for Lawfare. Two days after the arraignment, she wrote what I consider to be the quintessential piece on the arraignment entitled “What Actually Happened at Trump’s Arraignment: And why did the press line up 27 hours before it started.” Ms. Bower stayed in the courtroom after the not guilty plea, and then took time to process her notes, and write a thoughtful piece on all aspects of what took place that day. Artfully done, and I’m smarter for having read it. Juxtapose some of it to Delanian’s post-sprint “he pleaded not guilty” reporting:

“The parties, for their parts, introduce themselves. On Smith’s side of the courtroom, for the Justice Department, it’s David Harbach of the special counsel’s office. He is joined by his colleagues in the National Security Division, Jay Bratt and Julie Edelstein. For Trump, it’s Chris Kise, the former Florida solicitor general to whom Trump reportedly shelled out $3 million to hire last year, and Todd Blanche, a white-collar defense attorney who is also on the former president’s criminal defense team in the case brought by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg. For Waltine Nauta, Trump’s “body man” turned co-defendant, it’s D.C.-based attorney Stanley Woodward, who recently made headlines after he reportedly alleged prosecutorial misconduct on the part of Bratt.”

Bask in the glow of all that context for a moment. Reminding us that Chris Kise cost $3M, that his other lawyer Todd Blanche represents him in another criminal matter in Manhattan, and that Walt Nauta is a “body man” repped by an attorney who alleged prosecutorial misconduct in the case. She then grants one line to the not guilty plea:

“Trump’s counsel enters a plea on his behalf: “Your honor, we most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” Blanche declares.”

That’s the point at which Dilanian dashed out of the courthouse. Leaving the rest to reporters like Anna, who shared that the judge announced he’d be issuing a Brady order – a normal part of the process in which the court requires the prosecution to hand over any evidence that would exculpate (be helpful to) the defendants. Then the judge noted that the government had only requested two of the five standard conditions of bail – something we were all waiting to read about beyond the plea. After the arraignment, the mainstream media had been reporting that there were no bail conditions, which outraged a lot of people. But Anna gives us the full story, in context, and with nuance. She reports that while DoJ only asked for two of the five standard conditions – likely out of a desire to avoid delay caused by trump filing motions against them – she noted that the JUDGE in the case presented a condition of bail: that trump not be allowed to discuss the facts of the case with a list of witnesses he asked the prosecutors to provide to the court.

Because that detail was left out in favor of racing to be first with the plea, it became the job of the independent media to push back on the mountain of rage caused by the incorrect reporting that there were no bail conditions set. Further, when the DoJ submitted a list of those witnesses that trump wouldn’t be allowed to speak to as required by Judge Goodman, those who still had no idea about the bail condition were either 1) confused as to why DoJ was submitting a list of witnesses and asking for it to be submitted under seal or 2) printing headlines about the sheer number of witnesses and leaving out the why.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and the brazen “if it leads it bleeds” attitude of the corporate news conglomerates have created a market for a robust generation of citizen journalists to fill in the gaps and beat back the confusion left by a total lack of context. So grab a microphone and pull up a chair, because I’m about to tell you how I did it, and how you can do it, too. I take the headlines, strip out the anger, add a symphony of context, and transpose it into a listenable melody in my favorite key.

That’s what I do.

I transpose the news.

~AG