Tuning out the news

[Ozz]

News has been "entertainment" and a political tool since 1987...

"The Fairness Doctrine"

Get multiple sources, check your facts, be skeptical and think critically....

[unterhausen]

It's a tricky balance between keeping abreast and getting too far into the weeds. I try not to get angry, especially at people that I might feel compelled to vote for.

[GonaSovereign]

A lot of people benefit when the masses tune out. It's almost as bad as tuning in to the garbage news.

Here's a handy news consumption chart (not mine). It's a straightforward and reasonably accurate guide to selecting a legitimate source. It's a bit like a nutrition guide: consume from both sides of the middle/top area. Don't be spoon-fed by the bottom. If you don't consume anything, you're starved of info.

[IMG]News diet

[Gummee]

Originally Posted by GonaSovereign

A lot of people benefit when the masses tune out. It's almost as bad as tuning in to the garbage news.

Here's a handy news consumption chart (not mine). It's a straightforward and reasonably accurate guide to selecting a legitimate source. It's a bit like a nutrition guide: consume from both sides of the middle/top area. Don't be spoon-fed by the bottom. If you don't consume anything, you're starved of info.

[IMG]News diet

I've read more than a few Washington Post articles over the years since I live outside DC and can tell you they tend to skew leftwards. All you need to do is read which adjectives they use when describing the news they print.

Some 'reporters' more than others, obviously

M

[beeatnik]

My favorite jam at 17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS7vu0IQhqE

I hear it every day on the radio
Somebody shoots a guy he don't even know
Airplanes falling out of the sky
A baby is born and another one dies
Highways fill with refugees, now
Doctors finding out about disease
With all this uptight pushing and shoving
Keeps us away from who we're loving (loving)

Progressive hardcore punk is so weird.

[makoti]

Originally Posted by choke

I haven't paid attention to mainstream news outlets for years....they're toxic IMO. And they all have a bias....

So you get your information from the fringes? That's not good.

[Peter P.]

Originally Posted by Ozz

Get multiple sources, check your facts, be skeptical and think critically....

Ozz pretty much sums up my approach.

Regardless of vitriolic it is, I feel it's important to be well informed and think critically of the information you take in. It is necessary to help us make good decisions whether it be voting in elections or inspiring us to take action.

To stick your head in the sand makes for an ignorant, gullible public.

[rnhood]

So much of the cable and over the air news is sensationalized to get more readers. Stick to papers or outlets like the Wall St. Journal and you will be well informed. That's what I do, and I am happy. Somewhere, somehow, some time ago many of our politicians lost the American way, or spirit it seems. Now they just sit around spitting and bitching, and conducting investigations. They accomplish virtually nothing.

[joosttx]

A nice you of tuning out the news is to get a subscription to audible.com- at least what I did. I dont listen to CNN as much and it has been a joy. I think there is a belief that one needs to be update with current events to be a good citizen that I disagree with.

[beeatnik]

Originally Posted by rnhood

So much of the cable and over the air news is sensationalized to get more readers. Stick to papers or outlets like the Wall St. Journal and you will be well informed. That's what I do, and I am happy. Somewhere, somehow, some time ago many of our politicians lost the American way, or spirit it seems. Now they just sit around spitting and bitching, and conducting investigations. They accomplish virtually nothing.

Is the THN a good periodical?

[choke]

Originally Posted by makoti

So you get your information from the fringes? That's not good.

Известия and Правда are hardly "fringes".

[bigbill]

I get my world news from BBC and my domestic news from Reuters, AP, NPR, and Fox Business. I spend very little time on current events.

I'm sick of the current situation though, I'd like everyone in DC to just shrug their collective shoulders and get back to doing their jobs.

[d_douglas]

I am dangerously clued out. I don’t own a TV and process to hate it, but I don’t have a balanced understanding of world news.

I often listen in on Trevor Noah, John Oliver and Stephen Colbert (my wife watches religiously) but realize that entertainment masquerading as news is as dangerous to follow as Fox or other biased mainstream news sources.

I am a left leaning guy for sure, but there’s so many trump jokes per minute that even I shake my head and wish for some middle ground.

Maybe I need a tv?

[Blue Jays]

Pleasantly shocked that nobody has invoked Godwin’s Law in this thread yet.

[jamesdak]

Originally Posted by choke

I haven't paid attention to mainstream news outlets for years....they're toxic IMO. And they all have a bias....

A letter from Thomas Jefferson in 1807:

So, so true. I even did a college paper years ago trying to prove that the mainstream media was unbiased and could not prove it. They are all just a mouthpiece pushing an agenda.