- Hi, everyone, Steve Adubato here.

We kick off the program with Chris Kelly, Vice President of Content at New Jersey Advanced Media, NJ Advanced Media, and you'll see NJ.com, one of our media partners that'll come up to find out more.

Hey, Chris, how are we doing?

- I'm doing great.

How are you, Steve?

- I'm doing great.

Listen, we'll talk about journalism, the role of the media, social media, et cetera, et cetera, but I just wanna acknowledge that "Father Wants Us Dead," which is an extraordinary podcast, which I just told you off the air.

- Yeah.

- That my wife and I, on a long trip there and back was 10 Hours.

It's an extraordinary podcast.

It was just voted as one of the top 20 new podcasts of 2022, Apple Podcast.

First of all, congratulations, Chris.

- Oh, thanks, yeah, we were super excited about that.

- Put that podcast in context, so people know what it is and why it's so compelling.

- Yeah, this was our first venture into narrative true crime podcasting.

It was a world we were always very intrigued by, but didn't know if it was a sandbox we belonged in and we decided to take a shot at it, and we re-investigated the John List murders, which is one of the most notorious murders in New Jersey history, a man who murdered his wife, mother, and three children, and then, skipped town and created an entirely new identity, and was finally captured.

I'm not spoiling anything, it's a pretty famous story, but we sent our reporters out and really wanted to try to look at the case in a really meaningful way and bring what local reporting can bring to these things, which is a real knowledge and intimacy of the community, and I'm a little biased here, because I produced it, but I think they did a beautiful job and we've just been thrilled, thrilled, thrilled with the reaction.

It's coming up on 5 million downloads and for an independently produced podcast, as this was, not with any of the big companies, it's been a real triumph for us, so, we're thrilled about it.

- And I should have made it clear that Chris was the producer of that podcast, and also, it's a story out of Westfield, New Jersey, but anywhere you live, entertaining doesn't begin, and it's a sad, tragic story.

It's compelling, it's interesting.

It'll keep you on board.

Hey, listen, shift gears dramatically please.

For us at our production company, the Caucus Educational Corporation, we are obsessed and I say that in all candor, we're obsessed with the role of the media, the role that we have to play, whether it's through public broadcasting or social media outlets that carry our content, that we have an exceptionally important responsibility in these very difficult divided polarized disinformation, misinformation driven times.

I'm off my soapbox.

How do you see it, Chris, your role?

- I see it as really hard for precisely the reasons you just articulated, Steve.

I mean, there is such a flood of information and no one knows what to trust and who to trust, and being at the middle of all that and trying to do what we've always done.

which is to report thoughtfully and fairly on what's going on, to expose wrongdoing, to shine a light where lights aren't being shown.

It gets harder and harder with each passing year with each sort of more noisy tweet, and so, I think what it takes is just a steady hand and a firm belief in what you're doing and not wavering in your mission.

Not easy though.

- And as you check out NJ.com, compelling content every day, it's one of the first go-to sites that I go to along with countless others who care about what's going on, and this is an interesting question that I've been thinking about a lot.

I often say on the other quote, "We have no horse in the race," meaning if you look at a whole range of websites and social media sites combined with so-called news organizations, you know where they stand, they lean, our leaning is toward trying to the best we can to provide perspective on complex issues and policy matters that impact people's lives.

NJ.com Advanced Media has no horse in the race, and if it's not a candidate, if it's not a party, what is that in fact, horse, and is it not truth?

Loaded question, I know.

- The truth, yeah, you sort of teed me up for that, but, yeah, what we see as the truth, obviously, there's subjectivity involved in all of these things.

We sit down and we say we think this is really important, but that comes from our guts, that comes from being residents of the state.

It comes from being parents.

It comes from being from being people who are taking care of elderly parents.

It comes from people who have friends who are police officers or family members who work in the medical field.

We're not coming from any ideological perspective with our agenda, with our stories.

We're coming from the perspective of we think this is really, really important and you need to know about it.

You can make up your own mind.

You may not ultimately agree with the way we see the story, but, hopefully, you can't disagree with us that this is important and it matters, and people need to know it, and at the core of that is what we believe to be the truth, and that a core truth isn't unshakable.

You don't just get to choose what your truth is.

You get to choose what the story is and what you're gonna shine the light on, but the truth is the truth.

- And the other piece of that, Chris, you've talked to our producers about this, you've said it publicly, that having a more diverse staff of editors and reporters is part of the process of hearing different perspectives.

Please, 30 seconds before we have to go.

- Of course, you've gotta check your blind spots.

I know what I know, because I grew up as I did and have the concerns that I have, but I don't know what everybody else knows, and so, really building out a staff that really reflects every perspective.

That doesn't privilege one perspective over another.

It just says that every perspective's gonna get a shot at being heard and being thought about before we make those decisions.

That's the real, real important essence of a diverse staff.

- Okay, they just gave me another minute, so, I'm gonna take advantage of this.

You talked about growing up, where'd you grow up?

- I grew up in Staten Island across the bridge, so not very far, but spent a long time in Texas in my journalism career and it was a whole new world for me, and taught me a lot about different perspectives coming from the more traditionally liberal east coast to a deep red state, so, really, it was an experience that really informed a lot of how I view things now.

- And media and journalism matters greatly to you personally as well as professionally, because?

- Because it is enormous, it is an enormous privilege to get to lead the conversation about a place and an enormous responsibility, and so, on a very selfish level, it's fun.

It's fun to be a part of that conversation.

It's fun to help guide that conversation, but on a bigger and more civic responsibility level, it's essential that we have people looking at these issues, looking at what's going on, what's being done wrong, who's breaking the rules, who's bending the rules, and calling attention to that.

- Well said, Chris.

There are a whole range of us.

I wanna believe that there are a whole range of us who are in this business.

Even though we come at it from different perspectives and different platforms, that would've said something very similar to what you just said.

It is a privilege and a responsibility, and we don't take it lightly,.

and so, Chris, Kelly, to the team at Advanced Media New Jersey, NJ Advanced Media, NJ.com, one of our media partners, we thank you for joining us and keep doing important work.

Thank you.

- Thanks, Steve, an absolute pleasure.

- You guys stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Holy Name.

Seton Hall University.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Adler Aphasia Center.

MD Advantage Insurance Company.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Johnson & Johnson.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

And by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Promotional support provided by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

And by - Hello, I'’m Dr. Luke Eyerman, a family medicine specialist at Holy Name.

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