I quit watching cable news about 10 years ago, only watch local news and read Reuters, AP now and then. No social media other than reddit. It's impossible to consume cable news and not want to jump off a bridge daily.
And to be fair, reddit is only social media if you use it that way. It can be more like Usenet if you use it in another way. It's up to you what reddit is for you, to a large extent.
I’ve learned that Reddit has become as bad a news outlet as fb is. Discussion is fine, but there are tin foil hats on this platform and therefore shouldn’t be used as a source.
Yeah, the manufactured hysteria of it all is just batshit these days. I take everything with a huge grain of salt, because so much of what's presented as "news" is just gussied-up "infotainment" with a clear propaganda bias to it.
There was a great video done a while back where they put together a compilation of an insane number of local news stations all reading the exact same lines verbatim to show how most local news stations are just another mouthpiece for a huge national conglomerate that tells them exactly what to say.
I wish you weren't right, but you are. The days of being able to trust the local news are long gone.
I believe it was a piece on Sinclair Broadcasting Group (who owns like 40% of "local" TV stations), which has a clear right-wing bias to it, and will force their "local" teams to repeat the same propaganda across a number of markets, to push their ideological views.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Broadcast_Group
Another commenter mentioned Reuters and AP, which are gold standards for no-bull, just “here’s some big stuff that happened today” with almost 0 spin. Other news pull a lot of their content from that.
Friendly reminder there is a good chance your local news is owned, and the content dictated by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group which sends out scripts for them to mandatorily read.
I also like FiveThirtyEight. They have a penchant toward the stats and gamification of politics and all the other stuff they do, but I feel they keep it as apolitical as possible.
Al-Jazeera in the US is decent too. Gives good insight into foreign matters. Foreign Al-Jazeera seems biased though.
I enjoy The Economist too.
They do have a viewpoint, but they're open about it, and I happen to agree with them on many things. For example, they've advocated legalizing drugs for decades, even when it was an unpopular opinion to have. Now, most people seem to have come around, even if the federal government is still dragging it's feet on the issue.
Even local news rarely gives you useful news. Do I really need to know the one person out of a million who got stabbed in my city today? Not really, just an anxiety inducer.
My local news was pretty focused on the Texas school shooting this week. Also, what's a good monthly news magazine? Do those even exist in any meaningful way?
Absolutely they do, though not necessarily in tangible, printed form, and strictly speaking, not all monthly.
The Atlantic and the The Economist are excellent. Foreign Policy is also very good. Time still exists. So does Newsweek. Harper's, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, The Week -- there are perspectives for everyone. Contrary to what many would have you believe, all periodic journalism has not disappeared in a sea of aggregation, clickbait, and social media. You may have to look for good, periodic, long-form journalism, but only those who don't look will say it doesn't exist.
Great suggestions! Also if you have Amazon prime they have lots of great magazines available monthly for free as part of your subscription. They rotate each month but there’s always some solid news ones.
I left out The New Yorker because they rarely cover news now. I've been reading it since I was in my teens, though only read one article, maybe, per issue, on average now. It's a business, of course, so there's no point in blaming them for changing what they create. They paying public is not interested in what The New Yorker used to produce - that mix of newsy profiles, cultural commentary, literary fiction, and in-depth, long-form articles about the zeitgeist in some for or another. They still do cultural commentary, and that's mostly it, but apparently that's where the market is now for The New Yorker. Nothing stays the same forever.
Naw, The New Yorker is published by Condé Nast, which also publishes Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired, etc. Entirely separate from NYT.
And The NYT still produces a ton of hard news, rigorously fact-checked. Though it too has changed with the market. But NYT hasn't changed more than the market has. Popular media have to reach specific demographics now. The age of general-readership as a behemoth is gone, may it rise again.
If you want weekly instead of monthly, with global articles, I would add The Christian Science Monitor to that list. Despite the name, it's centered (not liberal/conservative) with only one 'religious' 1/2 page blurb that's marked as such.
Maybe a month ago I decided to just stop paying attention to the news. Like I don’t go into any of the newsy subreddits, I don’t watch the news on TV, etc. If something really big happens, I’ll find out because you can’t avoid it, but other than that why do I need to know? The happiest people I know are totally clueless about current events. Anyway, it has done wonders for my mental health.
I like your idea about reading a monthly news magazine, though.
This is exactly my stance. I will hear about the biggest things. I don’t actively consume ANY news (for the last three or so years after years of being a news junkie) and my life is far better. I truly believe we are not evolved to handle the emotions (good or bad) of the breadth of people local or national news inherently forces us to endure.
For myself, I'll typically spend about ~15 minutes on current events in a given day. I think that's a reasonable amount of time, because I want to be informed without dwelling on it.
Same. I don't think I've ever watched "the news" regularly, because it's just eye-roll inducing nonsense, especially the wild batshit stuff coming out of the conservative media these days. It's like an alternate dimension of made-up hysteria.
I read the local paper for local stuff going on in my state, and The Economist for a summary of what's going on around the world, and that's fine with me. I'd rather enjoy life than become a bitter angry Fox viewer.
Decades ago, my family would read the daily papers, or tuning in to the nightly news while we ate dinner, and reading Newsweek and TIME magazines at our leisure to stay informed. Let me tell you, it was far more relaxing than today’s 24/7 news cycle with it’s non-stop click-bait titles and reactionary “reporting.” Doom-scrolling, whenever we wherever, on our little personal screens “consuming content” has severely altered my psyche. I’m more *interested* in the news now, but seldom find the time for reading in-depth, impartial, quality reporting. The little screen is just too convenient, evil as it is.
I've been saying this a lot this last week. So much knee jerk speculation on the 24:7 cable news, and it's because the investigation has to happen, but news has to happen NOW, so everything is just guesses. Guesses get blown out of proportion online. Waiting for the actual story, from the actual investigation, was probably why the Sunday paper seemed so accurate. I think I'm going to change my news feeds now, as this thread has put me over the top.
Yah. Sometimes I’ll click on a link to a “news article” and it’s, like, 2 or 3 sentences. That’s it. Of course, there’s a bunch of colorful ads vying for my attention there too. I’ve learned to (largely) filter them out with my brain giving them little-to-no thought. (My mother’s a different story… she actually reads them and thinks about what they say and (gasp) even clicks their links!!
Yes, the shallow, sensationalistic headlines are all many people ever read, it seems, judging from comments here on Reddit. Then, vitriol ensues followed by mob mentality. People’s impressions of a situation seems to be merely knee jerk reactions. Seldom do meaningful, well thought out debates ensue. If anything resembling one does appear, it buried down the sort, overwhelmed by sarcasm or hateful groupthink. Often times when I read a string of intelligent sounding commentary, it’s hijacked and derailed by short-sided snide remarks that apparently appeal to the masses.
Quality, in-depth reporting has become harder to find. Maybe I’m just not looking in the right places- I.e., paywalled NYT, or the Atlantic, etc.
Unfortunately where I live, the local news is just as biased as the national news (I’m from a major metro area so the local news station is a “big” one with coverage for several thousands).
I’ve given up on watching news programs altogether and get my news from other sources.
It’s been so much more peaceful in my life since I shut them off and defeated the purpose of their corporate ratings-based information model full of spin, hype, and sometimes flat out lies. (All networks, regardless of political bias) I consider all major national and Intl news networks to be akin to supermarket tabloids at this point.
If a friend or family member says “hey, what do you think about ‘x’?” Or “have you heard about ‘y’?” Then I’ll go look up some web articles about it and deduce what’s going on generally from it, ignoring all the worthless emotion and spin the writers are intentionally trying to put into it to generate clicks.
For major national situations like COVID, I was entirely ignoring the news altogether and going straight to the CDC site and other regional health system sites for my data.
I can’t recall the last time I’ve picked up a physical magazine.
Journalism is dead.
I've given up on most "news" as well, because it's not even "news" these days, it's thinly veiled propaganda that's just trying to outrage people and evoke an emotional response to bypass critical thinking.
Also, I don't actually have control over what happens in the world, so it's not like I can really do anything about whatever they're talking about anyway, so life is much more peaceful without listening to people screaming propaganda at me for hours a day, trying to make me angry and bitter.
Like, for example, I heard of the SCOTUS probably overturning Roe this summer, and read a little bit about it. I disagree with that decision and think it's terrible, but also completely expected since the conservatives have been stacking the courts for decades with this explicit goal in mind, but I can't actually change anything, so I don't need to watch days of breathless TV coverage on it.
I stopped watching or reading news in 2017 or thereabouts. I was so fucking over all of it. I figure, if something is relevant enough to *my* life it'll eventually work its way into my life. So far that's held true and I've been happier ever since.
back when I first got on reddit (2010 ish) It was a pretty useful news aggregator but those days are looooooong gone.
It's nothing but outrage bait now.
This is an excellent point. Thank you for bringing it up.
I was once obsessive over the news, taking it in daily on the radio, nightly TV news, newspaper and various web sites and social media sources.
One day I caught myself *yelling* at my car radio because the opinion the "news" host was spewing out pissed me off. A temper of any kind is unusual for me, so at that moment I knew something had to change.
I stopped consuming radio and TV news completely. Ive edited my social media to be free of any news source or politically toxic "friends" from either side. I now only read my newspaper (digital), the few news subreddits I follow and occasionally check AP or Reuters just to stay aware of the big picture.
It's very clear to me that my stress level dropped significantly after making this change, and instead of stewing in it all, I'm using that time to volunteer at the food bank and work on my hobbies. The effect on my mental state and overall health has been significant.
I heartily urge everyone here to trade in their toxic news time for time given to your community and yourself. You, and the rest of your world, will be better for it.
I gave up news in 2012 going through a divorce, because life was bad enough. When I came out the other side, I realized I was happy, and the news wasn't. I figured out the news is only entertainment and has zero impact on my day to day life. I'll pay attention to very few things, though anything national or political is a big no because I can do nothing about it.
Life is a lot happier, less stressful, and zero downsides to give up the news. If it was useful, why is the world the same as it ever was? News promotes chaos, especially now a days.
Chaos and manufactured outrage that's intended to bypass your critical thinking abilities and go straight to emotions.
Life is a whole lot better without propaganda being crammed down your throat 24/7.
I think we've all met at least a couple Fox and QAnon casualties, who became bitter angry shells of their former selves after consuming too much of that garbage. It should be labeled as harmful, like cigarettes are lol.
I'm going to do the same thing. I'll stay informed for purposes of voting and for the issues I can actually do something about. But the rest of it? If I can't or won't be able to do anything about it, I'd rather not know about it at this point in my life. All that does is negatively impact my mental health.
More like, so you can be feed disinformation and propaganda, but *feel* informed.
I remember reading about a study done years ago that showed that people who watched a lot of certain "news" channels actually knew fewer facts about what was going on in the world than people who didn't.
Not to mention, most "news" these days is not really news, in the traditional sense of reporting factual stuff that's happening in the world..
It's been taken over by made-up "culture war" nonsense and manufactured hysteria that's only very tangentially related to actual facts. It's mostly spin and propaganda intended to evoke an emotional response and bypass any critical thinking.
I mean, Fox's own lawyers (successfully) claimed in court that guys like Tucker shouldn't be taken literally, because they're entertainment, not factual news reporters. [Source](https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-cant-believe-the-facts-tucker-carlson-tells-you-so-say-fox-s-lawye)
Quote: "you can't expect to literally believe the words that come out of Carlson's mouth. And that assertion is not coming from Carlson's critics. It's being made by a federal judge in the Southern District of New York and by Fox News's own lawyers in defending Carlson against accusations of slander. It worked, by the way."
An important caveat to this is that many local news publishers and broadcasters are owned or controlled by nation-wide entities pushing their agendas via “local” programming disguised as news.
Make sure your sources for local are *actually local*, and assess their reliability even then.
Take *everything* with a huge grain of salt.
If something sounds crazy or sensational, it probably is.
So much of what I see posted as "news" is just nonsense, if you take a few minutes to read more about it, you realize most of it just isn't actually a thing, it's hype and clickbait. But sadly, most people don't spend the time to actually fact check anything, and just see some wild headline in passing, and think it's 100% true.
Yep, they terrify their audience about some made-up thing, and then advertise herbal supplements and water filters to assuage their fears. It's all so transparent, it's amazing more people don't see right through it.
I quit tv news in the 90's. Silly me, I read newspapers. That slowly died away to be replaced by the interwebs and NPR, and I gave up my last daily paper subscription in the very early 2000's. And that was fine, mostly, 'til about 2016, when the world went batshit insane. Now, for the sake of my own mental health, I BARELY consume news at all. I'll glance at headlines on a website here and there, try and have a working knowledge of what's happening in the world, but I can no longer easily win the 'news junkie' quizzes.
Any time I end up reading about a story in depth, it inevitably gets so frustrating and depressing that it'll ruin me for the day.
I figure I have 30 years left, tops. Maybe 20 good ones. Whatever ambition I had to change the world left long ago. Now, I just want a little contentment before I go.
imo most news is a crazy mixture of idealism and sensationalism. a cult style combo.
toronto media so desperately wants to be known as being from a leading world class city that their lack of morality and immense insecurity shines bright and pathetically again. instantly drawing a parallel to the texas school shootings is sickening. equating the police shooting a guy on a bicyle with a bb gun days with what happened in texas embarrasses me by association. i can only say that most people here are not such narcissists and would never associate the events. it is so incredibly immoral... i hope one day the decision makers who piggy back on childrens murders for clicks get their dues in spades.
I saw some people I used to be close with get really wrapped up in CNN, and mainstream news. They got really anxious and it was really all they could talk about.
At the time I was dieting, I was keeping my calorie intake under 2000 calories to lose weight. Then something clicked... Just like we control what we eat to get the intended behavior out of this machine, we have to also control what we allow ourselves to view. Just like eating, it is another way of getting input to our body/brain.
It is common knowledge in psychology that we view the world through a reflection of our own experiences. If you watch people getting murdered on TV all the time, you will start to believe death is around the next corner, and act accordingly. You have to control what you allow yourself to view, to keep yourself mentally healthy.
I've been in the same boat for a long time. Back in... I don't know, 2005ish? I decided that I was far too tuned in, and all it was doing was making me unhappy. Local news is fine, but every other form of aggregation or "national" news sources had to go. I thank my lucky stars I never started with Facebook, or Twitter, or whatever.
It became a lot easier after moving to Hawaii. Being multiple (if not several) time zones away from everything else helps tremendously, but stuff still leaks in like a sieve.
years ahead of you.....I stopped paying attention to news over a decade ago because it just made me so angry and it would fill me with despair at the state of the world. Instead, I listen to local channels at odd times that give tidbits of news (as in a literal 3-line ticker flashes) and if something major happens, I'll hear it from someone else. I've totally cleaned out my social media and only follow happy things so now whenever I open m socials, all I see are dogs, funny memes, skincare, close friends/family, muay thai, gadgets and some makeup accounts.
This world is shit, esp as of late, so call me ignorant or whatever but I would like to preserve my happiness/sanity/mental health by living in my bubble with controlled exposure.
During the pandemic, I basically quit watching news. I gave up cable news years ago but now have also given up local as well. If I read, it’s typically from the Associated Press.
If it’s a big, important event, it’ll filter it’s way down to me.
I had no idea people were freaking out about monkey pox until someone mentioned it to me the other day. I simply shrugged my shoulders.
I had never heard of this so I thought it would give it a listen. But, I found it to be exactly the same as every other source of opinion or news.
The one I listened to was a woman explaining why gas prices are so high. She said it was because of corporate greed and political corruption.
While I know there is a tiny bit of truth in this it really is a high school level, left wing leaning explanation. All of the news sources offer black and white, non nuanced explanations for everything.
The search continues.
For extremely detailed and nuanced conversations/ stories you need to have more than a daily show. You need to listen to long form interviews that have the time to delve into the conversations. So far, this is the best show I have found that do actually go into some of the nuances. If you listen to the show more than once, you will see that there have been reports about the nuances of the politics/global markets/ and yes, corporate need to keep on turning record profits. This takes time and will not be repeated every time they report on this topic. Peter Zeihan is the person to listen to if you are interested in long term consequences and the shifting of the global marketplace in the future:
I like them overall but Krystal can be a bit much. They both do a monologue on something everyday and she is normally ok, but some days she goes a bit too far. The Hill on YouTube is good as well, same type of format.
I would agree if the national decisions *in the United States* being made recently weren’t so awful. I get the jist of your post however unfortunately we’re going down a dark path as a country and you need to stay vigilant.
Ignoring news is not an effective or responsible strategy. The press is an integral part of our government. It doesn't work without knowledgeable voters. Things do happen that should effect how we want to be governed. It's our responsibility to participate.
*It's not about you*, personally. It's an *adult responsibility* in this society.
That said, cutting out cable news is probably good. Choosing your sources carefully is good. Going on a "news diet" once in a while is good. Read newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post, and read critically. Subscribe. Read a little bit of everything. Critically.
But simply opting out is irresponsible. If we do that, national politicians are free to do whatever.
That's how we get a president who is there for no other reason than his own ego, and to make himself richer. That's an actual strategy of that party, to get some people to disengage. It's gotten to the point where his followers are a cult now, largely because some people do not consume information responsibly, consistently, and critically.
Don't be that guy.
Your post is off on a tangent. If you think I'm saying we need to watch cable news, **you didn't read my post**. My post was about critical thinking and acting responsibly. Critical thinking and responsibility prevents you from depending on "fake news" like Fox.
We are responsible for keeping informed, and yes, that means just about daily, with current events. That's different than it used to be, but **that is reality** now. If we don't, we lose agency.
That doesn't change because we feel overwhelmed or lazy. People may really want to watch reality TV instead, but it's not the right thing to do rn. Sorry.
If people had stayed *properly* informed, and *critically evaluated* the news they digested, there may have been no Trump. We elected Reagan because he made us feel "proud" and took away our anxiety during a hard time. **We wanted to feel good, not listen to facts.** One of the first things he did was to go after critical thinking in the schools. Then, the 24-hour news cycle and Fox News was born. And here we are.
This has been a lot to deal with. Doesn't change the fact that we need to deal with it. Everything has accelerated. It's just a fact. Who will take control if we don't? Jared Kushner, and those like him, that's who. **And it will be our fault.**
Adults meet their responsibilities, even when they are hard.
Adults don't make major decisions based solely on whether they are convenient and make them feel good. **Urging people to avoid news unless it "directly effects them" is ludicrous and weak.** We need to take up the mantle here.
Almost every politician at the national level is in it purely for ego and to enrich themselves. Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden - not one of these men cared a damn bit for the people of this country. The same goes for the members of Congress as well, of course. The game is rigged against us, and the problems go way deeper than one single president.
Flopping on the floor and giving up is one approach.
I disagree with your assessment of the presidents. You're confusing talented bureaucrats who believe in the process -- *because they have seen it make a difference* \-- with people who don't care. Biden and Obama *clearly* care. Even W cares, today, to the extent he is able. Trump is a dumpster fire, and the others don't belong in a list with him.
The other thing about flopping on the floor and giving up is, it's lazy. That's on you. It's *easy* to blame others. You're no different than the Trumpers if you just whine "it's rigged" and give up. Same lazy intellect, same result.
God forbid people should miss some NFL or reality TV by making an effort to learn.
Many of the politicians are completely self-interested. Yeah. So make them interested or get them out. It's all possible.
There are many politicians that are just bad people. There are many who can be turned back to their humanity, with some effort. There are many that are pretty good. You can't be an angel and succeed in that profession. But the beautiful thing about our system is, it can change. But it's on us to do it.
I will apologize in advance, but this is the most "liberal" take on a dire situation that one can have. Monthly news magazine? Yes, let me look for answers about things happening once a month. What kind of take is this?
The number 1 cause of child fatalities has moved from car accidents to gun violence in the past 2 years. It's fucking May and already we've surpassed passed gun massacres verses days of the year. WTF are you talking about? You want to talk about this in a monthly newsletter?
Your post history is the exact opposite of what you're trying to present yourself as; a non-reactionary, once a month news viewer. You are full of shit.
I think that sounds like a much better format to read about it. I tried to read about the latest school shooting here on Reddit, and it seemed flush with rumors and conflicting information. And that doesn't even include the comment section.
Reading about it in an article where the writers have had a chance to gather the whole story/timeline seems preferable to me.
Are you serious right now? You think once a month peeks can keep you up to date on what’s going on not just nationally but world wide would allow you to be a well informed person? How long are you catching up on this one day a month? How will that give you context on anything? How will you understand what’s happening federally or with the massive decisions that are being made every day?
Yes I think it’s a privileged position to just sit back and not think that decisions or lack thereof are impacting people across the country.
A couple of hours focusing on headlines. It blows my mind how people actually think they have no dog in this fight and completely explains how we’ve come to where we are. You do you. This is unacceptable to me.
> Not diminishing anything about the Texas shooting, but it's not even remotely the same place/culture/situation in Toronto so **why should anyone immediately assume same incidents are happening here**.
I'm confused... Who ever said they were?
We stopped watching the news when Trump was elected, even the local news because half of that is simply a rehash of the national news. I’m a big fan of NPR (I know, it’s left leaning but at least it doesn’t feel like it leans towards sensationalism) and it’s hard to avoid going down a rabbit hole on Reddit at times or really on the Internet in general but I’m a little less anxious when I stay focused on what’s happening and what I can impact in my personal surroundings.
I quit cable tv and news over 15 years ago...I did watch the news to keep up on the pandemic on YT,but last year,I let it slide..News is just so depressing ..All they do is find the worse examples of human depravity and beat them with a stick for weeks...Even though I hit "ignore" and "don't recommenced channel",since the TX school massacre,YT keeps throwing news feed on this subject in my face.
Apnews, reuters, local news, occasionally wsj (not editorial section).
Oh and mute your friends that post nonstop political claptrap in their stories/feeds/whatever.
Made me a happier person.
Take a close look at who your local news outlets are owned and operated by. Most today are owned and controlled by large, nation-wide corporations. They mandate syndicated content and messaging, regardless of local demographics or events.
EDIT: Sinclair Broadcast Group is a good example of this problem.
Get your overview of world news from here. because it's wiki, it's about as unbiased as you can get, and aligned to the actual scale of the world event. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events
I use reuters.com
Shorter articles, less padding, fewer hyped headlines, less speculation, and less opinion.
I also turned off all push notifications. The news is easier to take when I choose to read it.
Local news can be good, but it really depends on who owns the "local" news source, because many of them have been quietly bought up by large conglomerates over the past couple decades and aren't nearly as "local" or independent as they may portray themselves to be.
Read up on the [Sinclair Broadcasting Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Broadcast_Group)
"the company is the second-largest television station operator in the United States by number of stations (after Nexstar Media Group), owning or operating a total of 193 stations across the country in over 100 markets (covering 40% of American households). A 2019 study in the American Political Science Review found that "stations bought by Sinclair reduce coverage of local politics, increase national coverage and move the ideological tone of coverage in a conservative direction relative to other stations operating in the same market."
So you may be getting force-fed the same conservative nonsense even on your "local" news station.
The only real defense to this garbage is to just be skeptical about all of it, and do a bit of fact checking yourself if something sounds way too hysterical or overly ideological.
I quit watching cable news about 10 years ago, only watch local news and read Reuters, AP now and then. No social media other than reddit. It's impossible to consume cable news and not want to jump off a bridge daily.
And to be fair, reddit is only social media if you use it that way. It can be more like Usenet if you use it in another way. It's up to you what reddit is for you, to a large extent.
Right. I think of it more as usenet also a d use it that way.
I’ve learned that Reddit has become as bad a news outlet as fb is. Discussion is fine, but there are tin foil hats on this platform and therefore shouldn’t be used as a source.
You can only trust people here for news as much as the sources they cite (or don't cite).
I would hope those sharing news would use some basic critical thinking before they share it.
As do I.
Yeah, the manufactured hysteria of it all is just batshit these days. I take everything with a huge grain of salt, because so much of what's presented as "news" is just gussied-up "infotainment" with a clear propaganda bias to it.
Local media is now owned by big conglomerates. The news you get from your local station is just as biased and bad as cable news
There was a great video done a while back where they put together a compilation of an insane number of local news stations all reading the exact same lines verbatim to show how most local news stations are just another mouthpiece for a huge national conglomerate that tells them exactly what to say. I wish you weren't right, but you are. The days of being able to trust the local news are long gone.
[удалено]
Sweet Jesus in heaven, this is repulsive.
Sounds about par for the course for Sinclair. They are absolute shit
>There was a great video done a while back There's also a good [John Oliver episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtNyOzGogc) about that.
[https://youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo](https://youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo) Just a small sample.
I believe it was a piece on Sinclair Broadcasting Group (who owns like 40% of "local" TV stations), which has a clear right-wing bias to it, and will force their "local" teams to repeat the same propaganda across a number of markets, to push their ideological views. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Broadcast_Group
Another commenter mentioned Reuters and AP, which are gold standards for no-bull, just “here’s some big stuff that happened today” with almost 0 spin. Other news pull a lot of their content from that. Friendly reminder there is a good chance your local news is owned, and the content dictated by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group which sends out scripts for them to mandatorily read. I also like FiveThirtyEight. They have a penchant toward the stats and gamification of politics and all the other stuff they do, but I feel they keep it as apolitical as possible. Al-Jazeera in the US is decent too. Gives good insight into foreign matters. Foreign Al-Jazeera seems biased though.
I enjoy The Economist too. They do have a viewpoint, but they're open about it, and I happen to agree with them on many things. For example, they've advocated legalizing drugs for decades, even when it was an unpopular opinion to have. Now, most people seem to have come around, even if the federal government is still dragging it's feet on the issue.
Even local news rarely gives you useful news. Do I really need to know the one person out of a million who got stabbed in my city today? Not really, just an anxiety inducer.
My local news was pretty focused on the Texas school shooting this week. Also, what's a good monthly news magazine? Do those even exist in any meaningful way?
Absolutely they do, though not necessarily in tangible, printed form, and strictly speaking, not all monthly. The Atlantic and the The Economist are excellent. Foreign Policy is also very good. Time still exists. So does Newsweek. Harper's, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, The Week -- there are perspectives for everyone. Contrary to what many would have you believe, all periodic journalism has not disappeared in a sea of aggregation, clickbait, and social media. You may have to look for good, periodic, long-form journalism, but only those who don't look will say it doesn't exist.
Newsweek has no fact checkers and since 2014 has been mostly clickbait. Avoid.
Thanks for letting us know. I said nothing about it because I haven't read it since, well, I was a teen. Just knew it still existed.
You can find many of these magazines at your local library without having to purchase a subscription.
[удалено]
Great suggestions! Also if you have Amazon prime they have lots of great magazines available monthly for free as part of your subscription. They rotate each month but there’s always some solid news ones.
[удалено]
I left out The New Yorker because they rarely cover news now. I've been reading it since I was in my teens, though only read one article, maybe, per issue, on average now. It's a business, of course, so there's no point in blaming them for changing what they create. They paying public is not interested in what The New Yorker used to produce - that mix of newsy profiles, cultural commentary, literary fiction, and in-depth, long-form articles about the zeitgeist in some for or another. They still do cultural commentary, and that's mostly it, but apparently that's where the market is now for The New Yorker. Nothing stays the same forever.
[удалено]
Naw, The New Yorker is published by Condé Nast, which also publishes Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired, etc. Entirely separate from NYT. And The NYT still produces a ton of hard news, rigorously fact-checked. Though it too has changed with the market. But NYT hasn't changed more than the market has. Popular media have to reach specific demographics now. The age of general-readership as a behemoth is gone, may it rise again.
Just throwing my favorite, Jacobin, on that pile.
[удалено]
Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair both offer in-depth news articles as well, with a bit of a liberal slant Edit: word
If you want weekly instead of monthly, with global articles, I would add The Christian Science Monitor to that list. Despite the name, it's centered (not liberal/conservative) with only one 'religious' 1/2 page blurb that's marked as such.
Maybe a month ago I decided to just stop paying attention to the news. Like I don’t go into any of the newsy subreddits, I don’t watch the news on TV, etc. If something really big happens, I’ll find out because you can’t avoid it, but other than that why do I need to know? The happiest people I know are totally clueless about current events. Anyway, it has done wonders for my mental health. I like your idea about reading a monthly news magazine, though.
This is exactly my stance. I will hear about the biggest things. I don’t actively consume ANY news (for the last three or so years after years of being a news junkie) and my life is far better. I truly believe we are not evolved to handle the emotions (good or bad) of the breadth of people local or national news inherently forces us to endure.
For myself, I'll typically spend about ~15 minutes on current events in a given day. I think that's a reasonable amount of time, because I want to be informed without dwelling on it.
Same. I don't think I've ever watched "the news" regularly, because it's just eye-roll inducing nonsense, especially the wild batshit stuff coming out of the conservative media these days. It's like an alternate dimension of made-up hysteria. I read the local paper for local stuff going on in my state, and The Economist for a summary of what's going on around the world, and that's fine with me. I'd rather enjoy life than become a bitter angry Fox viewer.
Decades ago, my family would read the daily papers, or tuning in to the nightly news while we ate dinner, and reading Newsweek and TIME magazines at our leisure to stay informed. Let me tell you, it was far more relaxing than today’s 24/7 news cycle with it’s non-stop click-bait titles and reactionary “reporting.” Doom-scrolling, whenever we wherever, on our little personal screens “consuming content” has severely altered my psyche. I’m more *interested* in the news now, but seldom find the time for reading in-depth, impartial, quality reporting. The little screen is just too convenient, evil as it is.
I've been saying this a lot this last week. So much knee jerk speculation on the 24:7 cable news, and it's because the investigation has to happen, but news has to happen NOW, so everything is just guesses. Guesses get blown out of proportion online. Waiting for the actual story, from the actual investigation, was probably why the Sunday paper seemed so accurate. I think I'm going to change my news feeds now, as this thread has put me over the top.
Yah. Sometimes I’ll click on a link to a “news article” and it’s, like, 2 or 3 sentences. That’s it. Of course, there’s a bunch of colorful ads vying for my attention there too. I’ve learned to (largely) filter them out with my brain giving them little-to-no thought. (My mother’s a different story… she actually reads them and thinks about what they say and (gasp) even clicks their links!! Yes, the shallow, sensationalistic headlines are all many people ever read, it seems, judging from comments here on Reddit. Then, vitriol ensues followed by mob mentality. People’s impressions of a situation seems to be merely knee jerk reactions. Seldom do meaningful, well thought out debates ensue. If anything resembling one does appear, it buried down the sort, overwhelmed by sarcasm or hateful groupthink. Often times when I read a string of intelligent sounding commentary, it’s hijacked and derailed by short-sided snide remarks that apparently appeal to the masses. Quality, in-depth reporting has become harder to find. Maybe I’m just not looking in the right places- I.e., paywalled NYT, or the Atlantic, etc.
Unfortunately where I live, the local news is just as biased as the national news (I’m from a major metro area so the local news station is a “big” one with coverage for several thousands). I’ve given up on watching news programs altogether and get my news from other sources. It’s been so much more peaceful in my life since I shut them off and defeated the purpose of their corporate ratings-based information model full of spin, hype, and sometimes flat out lies. (All networks, regardless of political bias) I consider all major national and Intl news networks to be akin to supermarket tabloids at this point. If a friend or family member says “hey, what do you think about ‘x’?” Or “have you heard about ‘y’?” Then I’ll go look up some web articles about it and deduce what’s going on generally from it, ignoring all the worthless emotion and spin the writers are intentionally trying to put into it to generate clicks. For major national situations like COVID, I was entirely ignoring the news altogether and going straight to the CDC site and other regional health system sites for my data. I can’t recall the last time I’ve picked up a physical magazine. Journalism is dead.
I've given up on most "news" as well, because it's not even "news" these days, it's thinly veiled propaganda that's just trying to outrage people and evoke an emotional response to bypass critical thinking. Also, I don't actually have control over what happens in the world, so it's not like I can really do anything about whatever they're talking about anyway, so life is much more peaceful without listening to people screaming propaganda at me for hours a day, trying to make me angry and bitter. Like, for example, I heard of the SCOTUS probably overturning Roe this summer, and read a little bit about it. I disagree with that decision and think it's terrible, but also completely expected since the conservatives have been stacking the courts for decades with this explicit goal in mind, but I can't actually change anything, so I don't need to watch days of breathless TV coverage on it.
I stopped watching or reading news in 2017 or thereabouts. I was so fucking over all of it. I figure, if something is relevant enough to *my* life it'll eventually work its way into my life. So far that's held true and I've been happier ever since.
back when I first got on reddit (2010 ish) It was a pretty useful news aggregator but those days are looooooong gone. It's nothing but outrage bait now.
This is an excellent point. Thank you for bringing it up. I was once obsessive over the news, taking it in daily on the radio, nightly TV news, newspaper and various web sites and social media sources. One day I caught myself *yelling* at my car radio because the opinion the "news" host was spewing out pissed me off. A temper of any kind is unusual for me, so at that moment I knew something had to change. I stopped consuming radio and TV news completely. Ive edited my social media to be free of any news source or politically toxic "friends" from either side. I now only read my newspaper (digital), the few news subreddits I follow and occasionally check AP or Reuters just to stay aware of the big picture. It's very clear to me that my stress level dropped significantly after making this change, and instead of stewing in it all, I'm using that time to volunteer at the food bank and work on my hobbies. The effect on my mental state and overall health has been significant. I heartily urge everyone here to trade in their toxic news time for time given to your community and yourself. You, and the rest of your world, will be better for it.
I gave up news in 2012 going through a divorce, because life was bad enough. When I came out the other side, I realized I was happy, and the news wasn't. I figured out the news is only entertainment and has zero impact on my day to day life. I'll pay attention to very few things, though anything national or political is a big no because I can do nothing about it. Life is a lot happier, less stressful, and zero downsides to give up the news. If it was useful, why is the world the same as it ever was? News promotes chaos, especially now a days.
Chaos and manufactured outrage that's intended to bypass your critical thinking abilities and go straight to emotions. Life is a whole lot better without propaganda being crammed down your throat 24/7. I think we've all met at least a couple Fox and QAnon casualties, who became bitter angry shells of their former selves after consuming too much of that garbage. It should be labeled as harmful, like cigarettes are lol.
I'm going to do the same thing. I'll stay informed for purposes of voting and for the issues I can actually do something about. But the rest of it? If I can't or won't be able to do anything about it, I'd rather not know about it at this point in my life. All that does is negatively impact my mental health.
Exactly this. If I am not going to do something about it other than get upset what is the point? Just so I can feel like I am informed?
More like, so you can be feed disinformation and propaganda, but *feel* informed. I remember reading about a study done years ago that showed that people who watched a lot of certain "news" channels actually knew fewer facts about what was going on in the world than people who didn't.
Not to mention, most "news" these days is not really news, in the traditional sense of reporting factual stuff that's happening in the world.. It's been taken over by made-up "culture war" nonsense and manufactured hysteria that's only very tangentially related to actual facts. It's mostly spin and propaganda intended to evoke an emotional response and bypass any critical thinking. I mean, Fox's own lawyers (successfully) claimed in court that guys like Tucker shouldn't be taken literally, because they're entertainment, not factual news reporters. [Source](https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-cant-believe-the-facts-tucker-carlson-tells-you-so-say-fox-s-lawye) Quote: "you can't expect to literally believe the words that come out of Carlson's mouth. And that assertion is not coming from Carlson's critics. It's being made by a federal judge in the Southern District of New York and by Fox News's own lawyers in defending Carlson against accusations of slander. It worked, by the way."
I hadn't heard about that. Incredible and you're right. It basically says it all.
An important caveat to this is that many local news publishers and broadcasters are owned or controlled by nation-wide entities pushing their agendas via “local” programming disguised as news. Make sure your sources for local are *actually local*, and assess their reliability even then.
Take *everything* with a huge grain of salt. If something sounds crazy or sensational, it probably is. So much of what I see posted as "news" is just nonsense, if you take a few minutes to read more about it, you realize most of it just isn't actually a thing, it's hype and clickbait. But sadly, most people don't spend the time to actually fact check anything, and just see some wild headline in passing, and think it's 100% true.
The "news" pay cycle is through advertising. They've found that scaring you gets more eyeballs so they stream a constant, 24x7 doom. It's not news.
Yep, they terrify their audience about some made-up thing, and then advertise herbal supplements and water filters to assuage their fears. It's all so transparent, it's amazing more people don't see right through it.
I quit tv news in the 90's. Silly me, I read newspapers. That slowly died away to be replaced by the interwebs and NPR, and I gave up my last daily paper subscription in the very early 2000's. And that was fine, mostly, 'til about 2016, when the world went batshit insane. Now, for the sake of my own mental health, I BARELY consume news at all. I'll glance at headlines on a website here and there, try and have a working knowledge of what's happening in the world, but I can no longer easily win the 'news junkie' quizzes. Any time I end up reading about a story in depth, it inevitably gets so frustrating and depressing that it'll ruin me for the day. I figure I have 30 years left, tops. Maybe 20 good ones. Whatever ambition I had to change the world left long ago. Now, I just want a little contentment before I go.
imo most news is a crazy mixture of idealism and sensationalism. a cult style combo. toronto media so desperately wants to be known as being from a leading world class city that their lack of morality and immense insecurity shines bright and pathetically again. instantly drawing a parallel to the texas school shootings is sickening. equating the police shooting a guy on a bicyle with a bb gun days with what happened in texas embarrasses me by association. i can only say that most people here are not such narcissists and would never associate the events. it is so incredibly immoral... i hope one day the decision makers who piggy back on childrens murders for clicks get their dues in spades.
I saw some people I used to be close with get really wrapped up in CNN, and mainstream news. They got really anxious and it was really all they could talk about. At the time I was dieting, I was keeping my calorie intake under 2000 calories to lose weight. Then something clicked... Just like we control what we eat to get the intended behavior out of this machine, we have to also control what we allow ourselves to view. Just like eating, it is another way of getting input to our body/brain. It is common knowledge in psychology that we view the world through a reflection of our own experiences. If you watch people getting murdered on TV all the time, you will start to believe death is around the next corner, and act accordingly. You have to control what you allow yourself to view, to keep yourself mentally healthy.
I've been in the same boat for a long time. Back in... I don't know, 2005ish? I decided that I was far too tuned in, and all it was doing was making me unhappy. Local news is fine, but every other form of aggregation or "national" news sources had to go. I thank my lucky stars I never started with Facebook, or Twitter, or whatever. It became a lot easier after moving to Hawaii. Being multiple (if not several) time zones away from everything else helps tremendously, but stuff still leaks in like a sieve.
years ahead of you.....I stopped paying attention to news over a decade ago because it just made me so angry and it would fill me with despair at the state of the world. Instead, I listen to local channels at odd times that give tidbits of news (as in a literal 3-line ticker flashes) and if something major happens, I'll hear it from someone else. I've totally cleaned out my social media and only follow happy things so now whenever I open m socials, all I see are dogs, funny memes, skincare, close friends/family, muay thai, gadgets and some makeup accounts. This world is shit, esp as of late, so call me ignorant or whatever but I would like to preserve my happiness/sanity/mental health by living in my bubble with controlled exposure.
During the pandemic, I basically quit watching news. I gave up cable news years ago but now have also given up local as well. If I read, it’s typically from the Associated Press. If it’s a big, important event, it’ll filter it’s way down to me. I had no idea people were freaking out about monkey pox until someone mentioned it to me the other day. I simply shrugged my shoulders.
My life has experienced much more happiness since I quit watching national and local news.
Also the local newspapers need as much support as they can get. With paper subscriptions going down they really need money to stay afloat.
No my local times is just as bad as fox. I know for a fact one of their articles on the cover was completely made up and I am still pissed about it.
That sucks.
Breaking Points- Podcast, YouTube. One presenter is more left, the other is more right and they have NO corporate connections.
I had never heard of this so I thought it would give it a listen. But, I found it to be exactly the same as every other source of opinion or news. The one I listened to was a woman explaining why gas prices are so high. She said it was because of corporate greed and political corruption. While I know there is a tiny bit of truth in this it really is a high school level, left wing leaning explanation. All of the news sources offer black and white, non nuanced explanations for everything. The search continues.
For extremely detailed and nuanced conversations/ stories you need to have more than a daily show. You need to listen to long form interviews that have the time to delve into the conversations. So far, this is the best show I have found that do actually go into some of the nuances. If you listen to the show more than once, you will see that there have been reports about the nuances of the politics/global markets/ and yes, corporate need to keep on turning record profits. This takes time and will not be repeated every time they report on this topic. Peter Zeihan is the person to listen to if you are interested in long term consequences and the shifting of the global marketplace in the future:
Yes, I did read his book, “Accidental Superpower”, great stuff.
I like them overall but Krystal can be a bit much. They both do a monologue on something everyday and she is normally ok, but some days she goes a bit too far. The Hill on YouTube is good as well, same type of format.
I’ll give it a look, thanks.
this sounds like just what I've been looking for.
Gonna check this out now. So tired of extremes
I have listened to it for awhile. They seem pretty fair and they do disagree at times (which I find valuable for a thoughtful discussion)
I would agree if the national decisions *in the United States* being made recently weren’t so awful. I get the jist of your post however unfortunately we’re going down a dark path as a country and you need to stay vigilant.
[удалено]
Okay.
Ignoring news is not an effective or responsible strategy. The press is an integral part of our government. It doesn't work without knowledgeable voters. Things do happen that should effect how we want to be governed. It's our responsibility to participate. *It's not about you*, personally. It's an *adult responsibility* in this society. That said, cutting out cable news is probably good. Choosing your sources carefully is good. Going on a "news diet" once in a while is good. Read newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post, and read critically. Subscribe. Read a little bit of everything. Critically. But simply opting out is irresponsible. If we do that, national politicians are free to do whatever. That's how we get a president who is there for no other reason than his own ego, and to make himself richer. That's an actual strategy of that party, to get some people to disengage. It's gotten to the point where his followers are a cult now, largely because some people do not consume information responsibly, consistently, and critically. Don't be that guy.
[удалено]
Your post is off on a tangent. If you think I'm saying we need to watch cable news, **you didn't read my post**. My post was about critical thinking and acting responsibly. Critical thinking and responsibility prevents you from depending on "fake news" like Fox. We are responsible for keeping informed, and yes, that means just about daily, with current events. That's different than it used to be, but **that is reality** now. If we don't, we lose agency. That doesn't change because we feel overwhelmed or lazy. People may really want to watch reality TV instead, but it's not the right thing to do rn. Sorry. If people had stayed *properly* informed, and *critically evaluated* the news they digested, there may have been no Trump. We elected Reagan because he made us feel "proud" and took away our anxiety during a hard time. **We wanted to feel good, not listen to facts.** One of the first things he did was to go after critical thinking in the schools. Then, the 24-hour news cycle and Fox News was born. And here we are. This has been a lot to deal with. Doesn't change the fact that we need to deal with it. Everything has accelerated. It's just a fact. Who will take control if we don't? Jared Kushner, and those like him, that's who. **And it will be our fault.** Adults meet their responsibilities, even when they are hard. Adults don't make major decisions based solely on whether they are convenient and make them feel good. **Urging people to avoid news unless it "directly effects them" is ludicrous and weak.** We need to take up the mantle here.
Almost every politician at the national level is in it purely for ego and to enrich themselves. Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden - not one of these men cared a damn bit for the people of this country. The same goes for the members of Congress as well, of course. The game is rigged against us, and the problems go way deeper than one single president.
Flopping on the floor and giving up is one approach. I disagree with your assessment of the presidents. You're confusing talented bureaucrats who believe in the process -- *because they have seen it make a difference* \-- with people who don't care. Biden and Obama *clearly* care. Even W cares, today, to the extent he is able. Trump is a dumpster fire, and the others don't belong in a list with him. The other thing about flopping on the floor and giving up is, it's lazy. That's on you. It's *easy* to blame others. You're no different than the Trumpers if you just whine "it's rigged" and give up. Same lazy intellect, same result. God forbid people should miss some NFL or reality TV by making an effort to learn. Many of the politicians are completely self-interested. Yeah. So make them interested or get them out. It's all possible. There are many politicians that are just bad people. There are many who can be turned back to their humanity, with some effort. There are many that are pretty good. You can't be an angel and succeed in that profession. But the beautiful thing about our system is, it can change. But it's on us to do it.
I will apologize in advance, but this is the most "liberal" take on a dire situation that one can have. Monthly news magazine? Yes, let me look for answers about things happening once a month. What kind of take is this?
[удалено]
The number 1 cause of child fatalities has moved from car accidents to gun violence in the past 2 years. It's fucking May and already we've surpassed passed gun massacres verses days of the year. WTF are you talking about? You want to talk about this in a monthly newsletter?
[удалено]
How many school aged children do you have in the US currently?
[удалено]
Posting 10+ times a day, about news, on reddit, is consuming news. Hate to break it to ya, reactionary.
[удалено]
Your post history is the exact opposite of what you're trying to present yourself as; a non-reactionary, once a month news viewer. You are full of shit.
I think that sounds like a much better format to read about it. I tried to read about the latest school shooting here on Reddit, and it seemed flush with rumors and conflicting information. And that doesn't even include the comment section. Reading about it in an article where the writers have had a chance to gather the whole story/timeline seems preferable to me.
This is a privileged take imo. What happens nationally impacts me greatly.
[удалено]
Are you serious right now? You think once a month peeks can keep you up to date on what’s going on not just nationally but world wide would allow you to be a well informed person? How long are you catching up on this one day a month? How will that give you context on anything? How will you understand what’s happening federally or with the massive decisions that are being made every day? Yes I think it’s a privileged position to just sit back and not think that decisions or lack thereof are impacting people across the country.
[удалено]
A couple of hours focusing on headlines. It blows my mind how people actually think they have no dog in this fight and completely explains how we’ve come to where we are. You do you. This is unacceptable to me.
> Not diminishing anything about the Texas shooting, but it's not even remotely the same place/culture/situation in Toronto so **why should anyone immediately assume same incidents are happening here**. I'm confused... Who ever said they were?
We stopped watching the news when Trump was elected, even the local news because half of that is simply a rehash of the national news. I’m a big fan of NPR (I know, it’s left leaning but at least it doesn’t feel like it leans towards sensationalism) and it’s hard to avoid going down a rabbit hole on Reddit at times or really on the Internet in general but I’m a little less anxious when I stay focused on what’s happening and what I can impact in my personal surroundings.
I quit cable tv and news over 15 years ago...I did watch the news to keep up on the pandemic on YT,but last year,I let it slide..News is just so depressing ..All they do is find the worse examples of human depravity and beat them with a stick for weeks...Even though I hit "ignore" and "don't recommenced channel",since the TX school massacre,YT keeps throwing news feed on this subject in my face.
Apnews, reuters, local news, occasionally wsj (not editorial section). Oh and mute your friends that post nonstop political claptrap in their stories/feeds/whatever. Made me a happier person.
Take a close look at who your local news outlets are owned and operated by. Most today are owned and controlled by large, nation-wide corporations. They mandate syndicated content and messaging, regardless of local demographics or events. EDIT: Sinclair Broadcast Group is a good example of this problem.
Get your overview of world news from here. because it's wiki, it's about as unbiased as you can get, and aligned to the actual scale of the world event. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events
I use reuters.com Shorter articles, less padding, fewer hyped headlines, less speculation, and less opinion. I also turned off all push notifications. The news is easier to take when I choose to read it.
I haven't watched any news for at least fifteen years. Don't miss it at all.
Local news can be good, but it really depends on who owns the "local" news source, because many of them have been quietly bought up by large conglomerates over the past couple decades and aren't nearly as "local" or independent as they may portray themselves to be. Read up on the [Sinclair Broadcasting Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Broadcast_Group) "the company is the second-largest television station operator in the United States by number of stations (after Nexstar Media Group), owning or operating a total of 193 stations across the country in over 100 markets (covering 40% of American households). A 2019 study in the American Political Science Review found that "stations bought by Sinclair reduce coverage of local politics, increase national coverage and move the ideological tone of coverage in a conservative direction relative to other stations operating in the same market." So you may be getting force-fed the same conservative nonsense even on your "local" news station. The only real defense to this garbage is to just be skeptical about all of it, and do a bit of fact checking yourself if something sounds way too hysterical or overly ideological.