My news feed on Feedly includes a number of sources from "mainstream" news outlets, high (NY Times and Washington Post, NPR), medium (Reuters and AP) to low (Yahoo, ABC). It also includes international site, science sites, business sites, etc. I even have few of those still rare but steadily growing "independent" news outlets, such as the Intercept. Reviewing my feed today I noticed an odd thing. What they cover and what they do not (especially what they do not) varies a great deal. In other words, the reality they present is not the same one that most of us live in.

For example, what do the one percent care about? Those investors and business executives who read the Wall Street Journal and Business Insider? What is important in their reality? News like this: a multi-billion dollar bidding war by and among Apple, Google and Amazon to acquire a semiconductor unit. It seems Toshiba is in dire straits, thanks to its nuclear power subsidiary going bankrupt (i.e.e, the one responsible for the ongoing Fukushima disaster) so they're selling off some of their prime assets. In the world of business people and investors, this is their reality. Anything to do with money and how to benefit from information about it.

Not that they don't tease their wealthy audience with juicy, gossipy crap about the Russia/Trump conspiracy, as well. But to be honest, if you look at the stories they cover the majority are about a reality most of us know nothing about - the world of high finance, trade, business deals, and so forth.

The mainstream news folks, of course, are all over Trump, Russia, Putin and every little little piss-ant political insider baseball narrative that you can imagine. Here are some headlines from today's mainstream news sources to give you the flavor of the reality they care about (links not provided as I didn't deem them necessary):

Washington Post

White House social media director misused official position by going after GOP lawmaker, ethics experts say

Top Democrat on intel panel accuses White House of trying to draw focus from Russia probe

Trump remains the center of attention, but he’s increasingly isolated politically

Yahoo News

Former Defense secretary: U.S. 'would destroy the North Korean regime' if it came to war

Jon Karl: 'We're a long way from Mike Flynn getting any kind of immunity, if he ever does'

ABC News

Ash Carter: A US pre-emptive strike on North Korea could lead to 'invasion' of South Korea

Sen. McCain calls Michael Flynn’s request for immunity 'unusual'

Reuters

Trump talks healthcare with Republican critic on golf course (i.e., Rand Paul)

Now, I'm sure some of those are important stories to some people (okay, probably very few), but to the folks I see working two jobs because management forbid anyone get full-time hours, those trying to finish their Bachelor's degrees after 20 years (or four), the unemployed and under-employed, and others not sharing in the bonanza of our growing economy, these reports don't even begin to scratch the surface of their day to day reality. I looked through my news feed from traditional or "trusted" news outlets for any stories about the struggling lives of people who are not benefiting from our amazing economy and I found nada. Only happy talk news andscary gobbledygook such as this story:

Commentary: For economy to grow, take on entitlements

... Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other guaranteed annual spending programs are the most significant long-term threat to U.S. fiscal stability. They increasingly drive up the federal debt, which limits our economic potential and hurts our global economic competitiveness.

These federal entitlement programs represent 60 percent of the federal budget and 12 percent of GDP. Medicare is projected to exhaust its reserves by 2028. Social Security is projected to be insolvent by 2034. In their current incarnations, these programs are projected to consume three-fourths of the federal budget in a decade.

And then, of course, there are those who peddle fantasy as America's economic reality:

New election theory: Did “working-class whites” switch from Obama to Trump because the economy was better?

New voting data suggests that some white working-class voters are only Democrats when they're down and out
Amanda Marcotte

Distraction, sensationalism, conspiracy theories, fear and bullshit - this is the norm among the news sources and their payed pundits who keep harping about "fake news." As for any reporting on the truly dangerous threats to the world from man-made climate disruption to war to the increasing degradation of our food and fresh water supplies I found nothing. You have to look hard in off the beaten path websites to read news stories about that "reality."

Thinning Arctic Sea Ice Prompts Algae Bloom Study

It's not too late to conserve water resources in rapidly urbanizing areas

What is ocean plastic pollution and how can we reduce it?

As for stories about people desperate to hear any message of progressive values, ideas, policies, etc. well as they say in Brooklyn, "Fuhgetaboutit!" Instead you get crapola like this:

Wasserman Schultz to Sanders: Dems are already a grassroots party

“Respectfully to Sen. [Bernie] Sanders, we are already a grassroots party,” Schultz told MSNBC’s “For the Record with Greta.”

Sanders (I-Vt.) called for newly elected Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez to focus on the grassroots and for Democrats to fight for working people.

Wasserman Schultz, who previously served as DNC chairwoman, said Democrats would not have been able to defeat the GOP’s healthcare measure had it not been a grassroots party.

“If we were not, we would not have been able to help bring down the absolutely abhorrent healthcare repeal bill that would have knocked 24 million people over 10 years off of their healthcare.”

And you wonder why so many Americans, especially young and economically disadvantaged Americans have tuned out and turned off "the news." Maybe it is because the reality our (dis)information providers doesn't fit with the reality they see every day. Not enough good paying jobs. A climate that is out of control and making a sharp turn into the the worst case scenarios that were not anticipated to be happening this soon. A world where the lives of the rich and famous and what they care about are presented as everyone's reality, or as a distraction from our own misery and suffering.

Well, we can either accept the "realities" that are provided to us by "legacy" news, or we can look for other outlets that don't lie, deceive or mislead us. The real question is how quickly and effectively news sources that provide an objective look at our reality can establish themselves, or if any attempt to replace the "propaganda" arm of the One Percenters and the Deep State is already doomed in our land of the not very free?