A new breed of documentary

To get down to brass tacks: Get to the real issue; deal with the task at hand.
- New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 3rd. ed., Houghton Miffler, 2002

Brass Tacks is a new series of audio documentaries that seeks to give people the essential understanding of the big issues in around an hour. Download each episode and comprehend - on your way to work, at home, in the gym. Obtain extra information, and check sources, on the web. Comment and suggest questions for followup episodes.

Brass tacks believes in a better, more rigorous but less limiting model of objectivity to meet the needs of today's audience. For a better idea, see the statement of principles.

Over time, Brass Tacks will cover such fundamental issues as climate change, the conflict in the middle east, and the welfare state. But for the first episode Brass Tacks is addressing the issue that has dominated the world's media, and in particular the minds of young people, over the last year or so - Africa. Track the progress at African Development for the Completely Bloody Ignorant.

Statement of Principles

The media is failing to meet the needs of a new generation of news consumers. Ever-more-partisan news reporting, and the increasing dependence of newspapers on celebrity commentators, mean a succession of screaming voices dominate debate. "Both sides of the story" are always presented, usually making opposing, incompatible assertions, quoting irreconcilable numbers, and failing to answer the questions raised by the other side. Established consensus, bones of academic contention, and matters of personal philosophy are dangerously muddled together.

Brass Tacks believes in doing things differently. Brass Tacks reporters will work according to these principles:

1. Make your personal political affiliations, opinions, and instincts known to the audience.

2. Clearly identify any assumptions made in the investigation of the issues.

3. Allow no assertion of fact by an interviewee to go untested.

4. Allow no statement of principle by an interviewee to go unexamined.

5. Analyse not only problems but the proposed solutions.

6. Provide full documentary evidence from your research on the Brass Tacks website.

7. Endeavour to reach a personal conclusion on the facts and proposals surrounding the issue, and explain and justify the conclusion in full to the audience.

8. Inform the audience of action they can take in support of either or any significant campaign related to the issue.

Brass Tacks will deliver documentary that is unparalleled in objectivity, completeness and accessibility.