An Independent’s View from Inside the Nation’s Partisan Storm

COMtalk: What kind of adjustments do you have to make for the incoming Trump Administration?

Matthew Felling: When I was a public radio host, I interviewed [Gordon Livingston], an author who wrote a book called Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart, where he just put down lessons he had learned throughout life. One of the most compelling chapters was attached to a theme that if somebody’s gut tells them something, or if somebody’s observations have led them to something, you have to meet them where they are, hear them out and work with them.
 
You have to meet people where they are, have the conversation with the same shared values, same shared vocabulary, and hopefully communicate to them what is being done, what could be done.

COMtalk: Working for an independent senator in the coming Congress, what do you envision are going to be the challenges or the opportunities?

Matthew Felling: Being independent doesn’t change from Congress to Congress. In the Senate, you don’t have 50 friends and 49 adversaries. You have 99 potential colleagues and collaborators—which is a nice position to have. The important opportunity that we must seize every chance we get, is that negotiation, compromise, common ground should not be seen as scarlet letters, should not be seen as relenting in any political sense.
 
Being in the center is often overlooked, especially in our cable news and shout fest, food fight environment, but it’s also where the action is. And it might not generate high TV ratings or raise the eyebrows, but the sense of accomplishment one has hearing and addressing public concerns and needs is the essence of public service.
 
Without a doubt, things might seem initially as more uphill, but at the same time—and I don’t want to sound naive—this new topography creates new opportunities. The new members that we work with are new partners, and to the extent that we can continue to communicate the successes and the impacts of what we have done recently, that’s still a part of the job. It’s taking what we have done, building on it and building on it with new partners.

COMtalk: What are the things that you look forward to, in terms of what you can accomplish?

Matthew Felling: There are opportunities in energy development and energy diversity, and there are straightforward, commonsense ways we can address the rising cost of living. Additionally, there’s opportunity with reforming and improving and streamlining some government processes that might have gotten knotty in the past.
 
But as we crank up the dial on seeking accomplishments and seeking common ground, we also must crank the dial up to 11 on communicating and educating what Congress is doing and has done. We need to make sure that we are making our case every day. Persistence is key, because you don’t know what people are watching or reading at any given moment—so you’ve got to do the old communications mantra: tell people what you’re going to tell them, tell them and then tell them what you told them. We’ve got to share stories of the progress we’re making. Share stories of the promise these policies hold for viewers or Americans readers, and just weave it into everyday life in the language that Americans are using.
 
Take, for example, digital equity. You only have to drive 25 miles away from a metropolitan area until you realize that there are school children sitting in cars at McDonald’s to do their homework because that’s where they have Wi-Fi. Part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill was an enormous expansion of broadband deployment to small-town America and to rural America. What I try to do with Senator King and with my team is, every time a new town or a new community or a new nook or corner of Maine gets a connection that allows them to participate more fully in the digital culture that where we live, we make sure that people know about that.

COMtalk: Three weeks before the election, 16 percent of Americans approved of the way Congress has been handling its job. Is there something that people don’t understand about what goes on in the Senate, that people don’t see a lot of in their media diet?

Matthew Felling: I’ve seen the numbers and the same trend lines are reflected in media. There’s a lack of trust and a growing frustration with the news media. And I would separate those two. I would add that Congress and media often share one thing in common: People tend to hate the media, but they love their local paper, or they love their local anchor in much the same way people are frustrated at Congress, but they like their local legislator.
 
And I think that a big piece of this is that the congressional frustration is born of the fact of our media environment. The media ecosystem has been turned into a zero-sum game where we must win and have them lose.
 
You need to be able to say, you know what? Senator King is caucusing with the Democrats and is working with [Republican] Senator Ted Cruz to improve navigation in waterways for sport fishermen. He is working with [Rep.] Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, to address the affordable housing crisis.
 
Once we can start to convey that these are victories that benefit both sides, because of the efforts from both sides, we can begin to slightly increase the optimism and approval of Congress.

COMtalk: Given that idealistic note, how do you proceed after the next inauguration? It seems like it’s going to be a challenging time.

Matthew Felling: You’re absolutely right to ask that. But job number one is educating, and job number two is communicating. And if you are going to vote in a certain way or not approve of certain things, you need to really walk the viewers, listeners, readers, through the reasons why—and make it real. To the extent that we are also a hostage to the soundbite society, you must start from a tight message and then build it out. You must be able to do it as close to, Lord help us, 280 characters as you can. And then build it out from there.
 
It goes back to the inverted pyramid: Here’s the main thing, and then keep reading to find out more. Be direct, be convincing, compelling and memorable.
 
The upcoming months will be pressing for all of us, and we need to be able to sharpen our tools to do what we need to do, and make sure that people understand what we’re doing and why. It’s representative democracy. We must represent ourselves to who we serve.