What news shows do you normally watch? I usually watch the local news before I go to work and my Sunday lineup consists of the following: Meet the Press, To the Contrary, The McLaughlin Group, and Fareed Zakaria GPS.
I have a problem with TV news. They don't make much of an effort to separate information from dis-information. Then there are the professional mis-informers; PBS's McLaughlin, Fox, and incresingly CNN and PBS News Hour. Has a TV news program ever explained about how government borrows from Social Security? When, during an interview, a congressman claims the trust fund is full of worthless IOU's does the interviewer ever call him on this common lie? It looks, to me, that TV news is mostly about the Presidential Horse Race to the exclusion of what we really need to know.
It is important to use a myriad of sources, yes. For me at least, TV is not the only source I use. I listen to NPR on the way home from work (which sucks btw, but it's either that or the country station) and read Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. For domestic political news I use Politico and Real Clear Politics. Perhaps I should redefine for people who don't watch TV much--what sources do you use for the majority of your news?
I redefined the parameters of the question. If any of you use any sources, feel free to post them. Even if it's the blog of Joe Pickaxe McLenny.
Until a few years ago our local paper was owned by Knight-Ridder. We had real information. Then it was bought by a company that fired the union employees and turned the paper into Fox lite. Now I subscribe to several magazines such as The Nation and the Progressive. I also read online issues of news papers. But I'm not sure how good their info is. Getting reliable information is not easy. That's plain to see when one reads some of the posters on this Forum.
Until a few years ago our local paper was owned by Knight-Ridder. We had real information. Then it was bought by a company that fired the union employees and turned the paper into Fox lite. Now I subscribe to several magazines such as The Nation and the Progressive. I also read online issues of news papers. But I'm not sure how good their info is. Getting reliable information is not easy. That's plain to see when one reads some of the posters on this Forum.
I can't speak of national networks but I know first hand how local news outlets distort or don't tell the truth. About 4 months ago a couple of kids stepped in front of a vehicle while they were on their cell phones texting in front of where I lived. I talked to 3 witnesses at the scene and they all corroborated that information. The news outlets didn't report that and acted like it was the guy's fault. They also lied and said the car was going so fast that it threw the one guy 50 feet. The body didn't look like it was thrown 50 feet. Basically the parents told a sob story about how the kids that got hit were high school sweethearts and how their lives were cut short, so they got a light installed at the intersection. Maybe they should have taught their kids to not cross the road while they were texting instead of implementing a government solution. Not having common sense gets people killed sometimes and the government can't do anything about that.
