Tangle - FULL EPISODE - The Friday Edition: Debunking some myths about Tangle (and me).

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

In today's Friday edition, Executive Editor and Founder, Isaac Saul, debunks some of the myths and misconceptions about Tangle (and himself). He outlines our company's principles and gives a candid description about our mission, our work, and the goals we aim to accomplish. Thank you to all of our readers and listeners and we hope this gives clarity to everyone. As always, please feel free to write in with any thoughts your have to [e-mail]. You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Hunter Casperson, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead. Our logo was created by Magdalena Bokowa, Head of Partnerships and Socials.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Dude, I'm standing right here. Sonic the Hedgehog 3, now streaming on Paramount+. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. Welcome to the Tangle podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul. On today's episode, we're doing something a little bit of my take. I'm your host Isaac Saul and on today's episode we're doing something a little bit different. We're going to talk about Tangle and I'm going to debunk some myths about what we're doing and about me personally that I think have been coming

up over the last few weeks. I'd like to start by doing something a little bit unusual. I'm going to share some information with you from an internal presentation that I gave to the Tangle team actually just this week. We were talking about our core values and our mission statement and there's a slide in this deck that I presented to the team that says why does Tangle exist? And the answer to that question is this. Tangle exists to deliver political news that can be trusted by the left, right, and center all at once. A snappier version of this is that we exist to deliver trustworthy political news. In the next slide in this presentation, I outline five values that are

core to this mission. Value number one is that we are a big tent media organization. Everyone is invited and we are for everyone. Value number two is to be human. Stay curious. Communicate like a person. Admit mistakes. Make it personal. Value number three is simple scales, fancy fails. We win with consistency, with rhythm, with pace. We work deliberately and smartly. No frills, no tricks, no complications. Value number four is that money unlocks the mission. If we want to win, we have to make money. We are building a mission-oriented business, not a passion project.

And value number five is to work hard, play hard, and rest regularly. We embrace the work and the play. There's no point to any of this if our team isn't having fun and we are in it for the long game. Obviously, not all of these values apply directly to our day-to-day editorial choices, but this is the news organization that we are trying to build. I want to produce political news that is trusted by a larger swath of the country than any media organization on earth.

I want us to communicate the news like the wisest versions of ourselves, with curiosity and skepticism and humility and open-mindedness. I want our content to feel informative and premium, but also personal. This deck is not marketing material. I actually never planned for it to go public. In fact, about four to eight hours ago, I specifically instructed my team to not share it

with anyone outside our company. This is not our outward-facing pitch to readers. These are the internal values I try to live by and that I invite my employees to live by. Trust, big tent media, curiosity, humility, skepticism, personal. Bringing Americans of different political stripes under one roof has always been difficult. In this hyper-polarized era, it often feels impossible. One of the biggest challenges we face at Tangle is that so many people regularly misunderstand what we are doing and why we are here. That makes sense. People come here at

different times and for different reasons and not everyone wants the same thing. At various points over the last five and a half years I've tried to restate our mission, especially when I feel the Tangle community and the country tearing a bit at the seams. This is one of those times. So let me start by clearing up five common misconceptions about our work. One, Tangle as an organization is nonpartisan and balanced. Central to everything we do is the idea that many Americans are living in a media echo chamber. Our goal is to get people out of their echo chambers. We want to create a destination

where you can find a plethora of views on whatever topic we are covering all in one place. The today's topic section is a neutral, just the facts breakdown. Then we share a wide range of opinions from the left, right, and center left or center right. Then someone from our staff, typically me, but occasionally another editor, shares their opinion in the my take section. That structure, we believe, creates balance. Not every time, but over time. We are nonpartisan because we are not biased toward any political group. That is why the top media watchdogs have rated us as balanced, highly factual, and nonpartisan. 2. I am not claiming to be unbiased. I, Isaac Saul, am a person. I have views and principles and opinions, sometimes strong ones.

I believe I have two qualities in particular that make me well suited to execute Tangle's mission. One is that I've been a politics reporter for over a decade, so I have the tools, sources, and experience to analyze the news thoughtfully. Two is that I'm a political moderate. I am deeply skeptical of both major political parties in our country and deeply exhausted by our political fringes. Every now and then I strongly align with one party on an issue, but it's relatively easy for me to oscillate between agreeing with one of the two big political tribes in our country, and I often find myself somewhere in the middle. Which brings me to number three. We are not centrist or heterodox. Centrism is its own

political ideology, no better or worse than liberalism or conservatism. Centrism is its own political ideology, no better or worse than liberalism or conservatism. Centrists straddle the partisan divide on principle, always looking for some kind of middle ground for moderation's sake. A centrist will look at point A and point C and say, we're going to take point B because it's in the middle. Heterodoxy is an ideology too. In the media, it's the act of looking around at the mainstream consensus or the majority opinion of the left and the right and then intentionally disagreeing with that consensus. Sometimes I will arrive at a heterodox opinion, but I never let a desire to be different guide

my analysis. At Tangle, we'll share heterodox and centrist views, of course, but we don't subscribe to heterodox or centrist ideologies. Number four, my take is an act of transparency. When I first had the idea for Tangle, My Take didn't really exist. The newsletter was just a short explanation of the main story with summaries of what the left and the right were saying. But friends and family I shared the concept with were curious what I thought. They felt like the newsletter raised a bunch of questions and issues and then it just ended. This feedback resonated, so I added the My Take section, which, according to reader surveys,

is now the most popular part of the newsletter. My Take is not about convincing you that I'm right. It's an act of transparency. It's me sharing exactly what I'm thinking, trying to call some balls and strikes, and hoping it helps you make better sense of things. You can take it or leave it, but I don't want you to ever feel that I'm dishonest about what I think. And finally, number five, I'm wrong a lot.

I get stuff wrong all the time. Sometimes I have bad takes. I hate being wrong publicly. People typically aren't very nice about it, but I'm relatively young. I'm open minded and I've got thick skin and I know my opinions will keep evolving. I know I have been wrong many times in the past, and I will be wrong many times in the future. I am comfortable with this arrangement, and I am married to very few of the views I hold,

and I believe that having evolving views, so long as they are evolving for the right reasons, is healthy and natural. People whose positions never change make me suspicious. I sincerely doubt all of your opinions are correct. While some of my opinions will end up aging poorly, I still might try to defend them when they come under attack. But if we ever make factual errors in the newsletter or the podcast,

we correct them promptly and prominently. We'll be right back after this quick break. With the Fizz loyalty program, you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan. You know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at Fizz.ca. Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Welcome home, my boy. Is now streaming on Paramount+. He is much more impressive than the hedgehog I fought previously. Dude, I'm standing right here. Sonic the Hedgehog 3, now streaming on Paramount Plus. Here's another way to think about what we are doing. We're filling a gap. There are news organizations just reporting the facts, quote unquote, though they are increasingly rare.

But the fragmentation of media ecosystems and the incentive structure from social media entertainment and partisanship have become the easiest ways to build a profitable media business. There are many news organizations that structure their coverage around criticizing or supporting one side or the other. If you want to read how Trump is an authoritarian leader who is going to usher in fascism in America, you can find plenty of left-leaning news organizations willing to tell you that

story. If you want to get non-stop opinions about how the media and Democrats are pushing a leftist cultural agenda, you can find a number of conservative-leaning news organizations telling that one too. But we aren't here to service a preset narrative. We cover one topic a day, typically an issue that is dividing the country and we seek out and publish a diverse set of opinions about that topic. That's it. It's really quite simple. MyTake is a feature to make our content more engaging and personal, see value number two, and I

understand that this is the part of the newsletter people are typically replying to, but it's just one of a collage of views on a given issue. If you're using MyTake as a resource to better understand the news, it should be taken with the same weight and value as the other several opinions we share. To steal from a piece I previously wrote on this subject, I'm not trying to moderate your views. I'm not trying to hold hands and bring everyone to the center and pretend we all agree. As I've said before, I think centrism is an ideology of its own and a rather poor one. I'm trying to do something even more basic and fundamental. I'm trying to do something even more basic and fundamental. I'm trying to tell you that you don't actually know

the best arguments out there yet, so you couldn't possibly have a holistic, well-informed opinion yet either. Tangle is about exposure, not coercion. It's about expanding the debate, not agreeing on the conclusion. You can land where you land. I'm just trying to make sure you actually get a chance

to fly on the plane. So that's why we are here. And in the era of Trump, we are probably not going to be the news organization lighting your hair on fire over all the bad things he does. We also probably won't be the news organization framing everything he does as some incredible revelation. Outlets that do that are everywhere. They're not only unavoidable, but often unhelpful and better understanding our country. You'll still find those opinions in our newsletter as part of a larger whole, but my take is an opportunity for our staff to analyze those arguments and also share our own unique analysis when we have it. If you read Tangle for long enough,

or you listen to this podcast for long enough, I promise that you will vehemently disagree with some of the things we publish. If not, then we are probably not doing our jobs very well. That's the hard part about the business model we've chosen, and we don't shy away from it. We could just tell you everything you want to hear, reaffirm your priors and rake in the cash, but then we'd be no different from Fox News or MSNBC or any number of the small and lucrative media outlets thriving in the cottage industries of telling their specific subset of the nation exactly what it wants to hear. In the last week, we've had readers cancel their subscriptions because we allegedly justified

Trump's shakedown of Ukraine for a potential peace deal and allegedly hate Trump so much we'd rather see thousands more Ukrainians die in the war than give him a foreign policy win. These responses were in reaction to the same newsletter. That's the nature of our challenge. So what am I asking of you? I'm asking you to be a part of this community with our values in mind. This is not your typical news organization and it's not trying to be. If you think our coverage is falling short, by all means speak up, leave a comment, send us an email. But please try

to address our actual writing and track record, not those of other media organizations. And try to be persuasive. Try to change our minds or the minds of the Tangle community rather than just score some partisan points. If something you read makes you angry, approach it with curiosity. Try to better understand the opinion you're struggling with. Ask questions. Inquire. Open your mind. And as a last option that I hope you don't take, if you really feel like you can't stand what we are doing, then feel free to leave. But maybe, first, take a break. It's okay to not read the news for a few days and come back refreshed.

This can all be exhausting for readers and reporters and as we continue to build this community, this next generation of news consumers, I want to encourage you to enter it with the goal of thickening your skin and opening your mind. If everyone quits the first or second time they get offended or annoyed, we'll never get there. So that's it. That's why we're here. That's what we're trying to do and these are the values we're trying to embody.

I know Tangle won't be for everyone, but I genuinely hope you all stay along for the ride and I'm excited to see this community continue to grow. And of course, as always, if you want to support this work, if you believe in this mission, the best thing to do is to become a Tangle member. You can do that by going to our website, readtangle.com and clicking on the membership page. If you already are, the best thing to do

is to just send this podcast or one of our emails to a friend and tell them to subscribe. Thank you for being here and please keep listening, keep reading. We'll be back on Sunday. Have a good one. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by John Wall. The script is edited by our managing editor, Ari Weitzman, Will Kadak, Bailey Saul, and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was designed by Magdalena Bacopa, who is also our social media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.

If you're looking for more from T and that makes you important to us. We'd like to know more about you, what you think of this podcast, and the other podcasts you'd like to hear. So, we've put together a super brief survey we'd like you to fill out. Complete it, and we'll give you a chance to win one of three $100 Amazon gift cards. That way, we can say thanks for your opinion. Just go to mypodcastsurvey.ca and have your say. That's mypodcastsurvey.ca.

With the FIZ loyalty program, you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan. You know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with FIZ. Switch today. Conditions apply.

Details at fiz.ca.