We grew up on the same street in Michigan and have been having this argument since high school. One of us is a socialist. One of us is a hawk. Neither of us is who you would guess from those words, which is most of the point.
We are not former staffers, not Hill people, not journalists. We have never worked in the building. We have been paying attention for thirty-five years, we read everything, and we live in the North Texas suburbs that just flipped the state. That is the whole qualification, and we think it is the one most shows are missing.
We never attack a person. We never characterise a group. We never state a claim without a source, and every source is in the written edition of the episode. We take no campaign money. When we get something wrong we say so on air, every time.
Every episode's written edition lists every factual claim we made, with a timestamp and a link to where it came from. Opinions are labelled as opinions. If a claim isn't in that list, we didn't say it as a fact, and if we got one wrong you'll hear it at the top of the next episode.
Sign-off: balance wins. Writes On Balance and Dallas Desk.
Consistent since high school, which Matt finds annoying.