Discerning the news

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The radio in my old Mazda pick up finally gave out a couple of months ago. It was stuck on one station for years before that, but even that quit working altogether. The station it was on was one of those loops that played the same songs over and over. It got to the point that I had the loop memorized and knew which song was next.
When it comes to MSM news, whether TV, radio, print, or online, it's getting just as predictable. Aside from weather and traffic accident reports, it's all the same BS day in and day out. I can predict what they will say about most current events.
They have made it too easy. Now everything I see, hear, or read is fake, mis-information, dis-information, mis-direction or outright lies.
And, ironically, a lot of omission.
It wasn't always this way.
When I was nine or ten (late fifties) I used to watch the evening news every night. My favorite part was the "editorial" at the end of the broadcast and the required rebuttal (Fairness Doctrine) from an opposing viewpoint.
George Putnam dominated the L.A. market, anchoring the news segment on four stations. His conservative views and gruff authoritative delivery irritated me to no end. It was said the character Ted Baxter of Mary Tyler Moore show fame was modeled on him.
But the most valuable thing I learned from him was to always seek out the other side of the story. George Putnam is responsible for the eternal critic that I am.
I heard and understood the political humor embedded in the Rocky and
Bulwinkle Show. The Smothers Brothers subtle digs at the establishment. Joe Pines biting commentary and loud back an forth with his audience.
With the demise of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, I have become the opposing viewpoint in everything fed to me from any direction, especially since the Democrat Party has joined the Republican Party in a kayfabe tag team against us all.
In the course of a week I visit dozens of websites from all sides of the debate and watch many English language TV newscast from around the world in an effort to dice and slice what is real and what is fake.
It's not often easy, but it gives me a sense of being involved, by just being informed.
So where do you get your news from?
The thread is open.

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twitter accounts and other internet sources.

I haven't cut the cable yet as watching sports offers a distraction from MSM balderdash. I also check out sources from both sides of the spectrum. For the most part I chuckle at what the stenographers of the MSM try to pass as news.

As far as twitter is concerned it offers a broad selection of information and disinformation as we find out from the 'twitter files". I find it easy to differentiate between bot sources or those that I consider worthwhile.

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earthling1's picture

@humphrey
but never use it.
I use this forum to express my views as it (C99%) is a much more sane environment. I don't sense it is a bubble as there are dissenting voices here.
Sites like Breitbart, that I sometimes visit, I consider the other side of the same rebel coin where I am often the dissenting voice.
As Sun Tzu wrote: "Know your enemy and know yourself. In a hundred battles you will never be in peril".
Thanks for the post.

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8 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1

I only signed up so that I could follow accounts that that would block those from viewing them as they were being overrun by bots.

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sequel to Bill Murray's "Groundhog Day".

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earthling1's picture

@humphrey
I know it's been around a long time. Seen a couple of revolutions I think.

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7 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1

Are all part of the propaganda machine although sometimes worthy information occasionally slips threw.

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8 users have voted.

see the light of day in the mainstream media.

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9 users have voted.
earthling1's picture

@humphrey

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7 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

the following newsworthy.

I will now take a break in order to find out what else is happening out there.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@humphrey

Latvia you need to study their history starting with the "northern crusades", if not before.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

earthling1's picture

@humphrey
And it can go on and on forever really.
Appreciate the range of info.

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5 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@humphrey Carry on.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

reporters and editors and they were decrying the decline and state of things decades ago. Some died and others retired. They wouldn't consider today's news media to be news, just media. I skim a few mainstream sources' web pages and web news, check out the Duran and rely a lot on this site, reading the various linked articles and watching linked videos. I used to read the Asia Times religiously, but after they parted ways with Pepe Escobar I quit and never started back up. The truth is, I largely don't give a shit and I've watched so many iterations of this damn movie that I can almost tell what the news is or will be before it is printed or filmed until something really new happens, a whole new context and all, and then I pay attention until it becomes predictable.

be well and have a good one

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11 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

earthling1's picture

@enhydra lutris
I pick him up all over the intertubes. A lot of people are listening to him.
He is funny also.

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8 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@enhydra lutris

f*ck all this propaganda bs
used to listen to Cronkite and Rather when news was real
nowadays none of this shit is real
Do look at RT, debt rattle and naked capital mostly daily
all are pretty much on the same wave with the EB, so
what do we have to learn?
homoniginized margarine is not good for the flow
of information to the brain, contrary expressions -
like Caitlin, Snowden, RFK, Jr, Doc Cambell, and such are
precious sources to tend to our exposure to reality

tanks for the oh tee

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earthling1's picture

@QMS
and cuss a lot.
Question.
Will I go to hell for cussing at evil?
Thanks for stopping by.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

most of us here peruse.
I did run across the debut of a show on Sputnik. Pepe was in Moscow, the show host was raised in DC. FWIW, I discovered I had been mispronouncing Sputnik since my youth. The host, Dmitri something or other, an American sounding last name, pronounced it like this: Spootnik.
I will miss Lira. Damn.
Great OT, e1.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

earthling1's picture

@on the cusp
as in "buttnik" since 1957, and so has every American far as I know. Hard to break a nearly 70 year habit.
Pepe has been in Moscow for a few weeks I believe. If I were him I'd try to stay there vs. ending up locked up like Lira, Assange, or Khan.
Thanks for the post.

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7 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

usefewersyllables's picture

from the voices inside my head. At least then I can agree with it all...

Is that wrong? (;-)

Actually, I get a lot of stories from Apple News on my iThings. Then, I know that what is *actually* newsworthy is all the stuff that they don't report. Sort of a reading-between-the-lines voodoo thing, I guess.

Then there's the Beeb, Al Jazeera, and so on, just like everybody else. The voices in my head are a lot more interesting, though.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

try to glean the truth somewhere in the mix.
Tucker was that fireball truth teller, stick it to The Man guy, and now, he is going into biz on Musk's Everything App.
Taibbi likes/trusts Elon Musk, but all his contracts and profits come from government agency contracts. Like the 3 letter type agencies. Musks' app gets us even closer to cbdcs.
Tucker has, for years, been considered a CIA asset.
The only truly valuable statement St. Ronny ever made was, "Trust, but verify."
I smell dead fish. Pew.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Sima's picture

2001, or so. Right after 9/11. I lost a lot of hope then, and tons of trust. I knew exactly where the country would be heading, and sure enough, here we are.

So I get all my news from the web. I go to local news stations websites for local news. Go to the Beeb, RT, Sputnik, telesure, Le Monde, etc to get international news. I get a lot of info here, love this site!

I watch videos too, like Breaking Points and others. So there's that at least!

Hope you are prepared for the heat wave that's gonna hit us. I am, as much as can be. Got the watering set up for this year Smile

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so