Amen. I stopped after the election. I've been binging and gorging on political news since 2015 basically. I think all of this has actually played a role in elevating my blood pressure. New policy for me: no news period.
I have found myself shouting at the television more and more.
How did all these uneducated, self-opinionated folks get the job of politician, journalist, presenter and editor?
Must find the on/off switch on the TV or hide the remote from "She Who Must Be Obeyed"!!
I miss the old days with only three TV networks doing the 6:00 - 7:00 news hour and a daily newspaper. This 24/7 constant jibber jabber is simply awful.
There is no more journalism....its all advocacy. Just pick your flavor. And the American people are more ignorant because of it
I read these comments and the remind me of a cartoon strip I read sometime ago...
The king ask the page, whats the latest news from the kingdom across the the bay?
Sir, they seem to be progressing in science and technology a lot faster than we are,
Hum... Send them some TV sets, reply the king.
I have been ignoring as much as possible for months. I have spent much of the time listening to Vietnam veteran oral histories in addition to some of the news stories by CBS during the war while I handle my stamps.
I also have been reading the US Marines in Vietnam series by the Marines to provide a base to understand the bigger view rather than the grunt view.
This is the very reason I have not had a TV since 2008.
Jackie
"There is no more journalism....its all advocacy. Just pick your flavor. And the American people are more ignorant because of it"
"This all bothers me a great deal. We Americans are living in trying times and we have nowhere to go for real facts"
"Last week my wife had CNN on and their reporter was interviewing a lady at a rally. No sooner did the woman say her piece, then the reporter turned away from her and said, "That's simply not true!""
There is so much misinformation out there right now.
A journalist can cite numerous experts and solid sources but, like Ernie implied, someone on a network with opposing views who doesn’t like what was said can call it a lie without citing equivalent experts and sources and they get away with it because they are saying what their viewers WANT to hear.
(Edit - I’m NOT taking sides here - this can be seen at BOTH ends of any viewpoint spectrum)
What we need is an automatic bull crap filter that gives you an instant honesty/truth/factual vs nonsense rating that runs on the bottom of the screen. Maybe a meter that goes from white to brown - the more brown the rating, the deeper the crap level!
""This all bothers me a great deal. We Americans are living in trying times and we have nowhere to go for real facts""
I'm like the most here. Can't watch the news anymore, so biased and opinionated. I am spending more time watching Ancient Aliens. More believable.
Actually they show lots of ancient building that I don't see on normal history shows of early civs. I'm not really a believer that aliens have been to earth, but I also have a hard time believing that we are it in the entire cosmos.
The following is my opinion about the US media.
I think that the US media (which now includes big tech) have sided with non-elected Washington establishment. Consider how the media and big tech played the US population into thinking that Russia was influencing the 2016 elections (like the US and many other countries don’t influence other countries elections). When GB was voting on Brexit the US government was over there pouring money into the outcome Washington wanted to see. Ditto for the last dozen or more Israel elections, the US spent large amounts of time and money into promoting certain outcomes.
The media and big tech promoted and pushed the ‘Russia’ story year after year even though Russia’s economy is not even on the radar; even Italy's GDP is larger than Russia’s. Meanwhile, the media and big tech played down the evils of China’s Communist Party at the same time. Why? Simple. Look around your house and see how many products you can find that were made in Russia. In my house I cannot find a single item in my house that was made in Russia. But I am ashamed to admit that my house is full of products made in China. This is why Washington, the media, and big tech are all supporting China and flaming Russia; there is BIG money being made with China and virtually no money being made with Russia.
For example, it is luscious to me that the NBA has ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign on the court and their jerseys but the players and league have no heartburn with taking billions of dollars from China. Oppression of any people is awful, yet the NBA is silent about China Communist party rounding up and mass oppression of Uighur Muslims. Some Uighur's are pressed into labor camps making Western products like sneakers. Where is the ‘Uighur Lives Matter’ signs on the court? Where was the media on this story over the last 4 years? A few mentions on the back pages but this was not covered anything like the way ‘Russia’ was pushed down our throats. When Google has billions invested in China is it any wonder why their search engine does not rank the Uighur stories highly? Google has no problems at all in supporting the China Communist Party in censoring Chinese internet users. Instead, we were treated to endless stories about Russia and why not, Russia has virtually no impact on the worlds economy, special interest groups, PACS, and politicians pockets. Russia is an easy target and negative stories have little $$$ impact.
In my opinion the US media no longer performs the critical function of keeping the powerful in check and in fact they are now working in tandem with the rich and powerful. They did this because once the internet became the preferred venue for Americans to receive information the media struggled to survive. Getting into bed with the rich and powerful, whether it was China, Washington, or big tech, was a survival strategy; the media needed their support. If they tried to run truthful, hard hitting stories on the rich and powerful they would be crushed like bugs.
A few days ago I saw a ‘reporter’ asking people on the street their opinions on a topic. One person stopped and answered her question; the ‘reporter’ cut away from them and said to the camera, ‘that person is wrong and what they said was not true’. Since when did we need a ‘reporter’ to tell us what we should think as opposed to letting us decide for ourselves? But apparently many consumers of the news hardly even blink when this now happens. In was educated in the 1970s and the one thing they drilled into our heads was to always look beyond what was on the surface and ‘follow the money’. The media (including big tech) has no interest in simply providing information, but they have a huge financial interest in manipulating us and telling us what to think. As consumers, we have fallen into only watching ‘news’ that agrees with our own existing opinions; we no longer watch news to become informed but rather only to be affirmed in what we already believe. This is incredibly dangerous.
Don
Edit; I understand why many folks say they are turning off the news. It sucks rotten eggs that our only choice is now 'be uninformed' or 'be misinformed'.
I get my "news" from various media.
I browse various TV Channels from around the world, read a variety of Newspapers and then form my own opinion.
As Don says too many people look or listen to those with the same beliefs as themselves. One must look at the other side.
Here in Scotland in 2014 we had a referendum on Scottish Independence, the "lies" we were told from both sides was unbelievable with the conivence of the media.
In 2016 we had the "Brexit" referendum and again we were "lied" to by both sides with the conivence of the media.
In Scotland we have a National Socialist Party governing us and the lies and manipulation through the media they give us reminds me of many of the tin-pot and dangerous dictators throughout history.
I collect Finland and often read articles about their country.
Here is one very well researched article with numerous fairly unbiased, non USA, non commercial media source citations for anyone interested in researching the topic mentioned above.
https://www.kremlinwatch.eu/countries-compared-states/finland/
Sources like this that are not directly under media control are good places to get facts. Any source that isn’t controlled by advertising monies is generally more factual.
A trained historian will tell you - go to the source documents! Read other’s interpretations of those documents and/or data with a critical eye because if they are not quoting the original source, it is only opinion.
Several weeks ago I deleted from my television set ALL "news" channels.
I have considered deleting ALL PBS channels as well. I am ready to do it when I find a good source for British and European mystery shows: Midsomer, Professor T, Endeavour, etc., and the British comedies.
As for staying sane, I have been watching YouTube raw footage videos from the end of WWII, specifically those available from Critical Past. NO SOUND, just videos showing how it really was during that horrific period of history. I am doing it specifically now, during a disturbing and uncertain time ravaged by Covid 19. It is good to look at other times when things were dire and people were resilient and hopeful, and built over the ruins of their homes, businesses, museums, churches, schools, parks, roads, and countrysides. It keeps you hopeful and sane, and unafraid.
Then there is the France Art on Postage Stamps Album project I have been working on for weeks now. That's pure and simple therapeutic. And, of course, my easy listening and classical music playing on the background.
Finally, the best, we take weekly drives to the beach, and we sit in the car and look at the unchanging ocean...
(There is a wonderful scene in the movie Never on Sunday when Melina Mercouri, Ilya the Prostitute, laughs out loud at the end of Medea, the Greek tragedy she was watching on Sunday. Character after character is murdered or dies, and ultimately Medea in a fit of rage slaughters all her children. Homer, the American professor who is also watching the play, is utterly confused and angry by her illogical reaction. He angrily tells her, How can you laugh at the gruesome killings and murders of children. Ilya, who has her feet planted on the ground, who sees life optimistically, says to him, "Because at the end of the play all the people and the actors go to the beach for a picnic and a celebration." That's Life, in other words.)
Stockflyer,
Your comment about "Ancient Aliens" got me to thinking. I haven't had TV for years for many of same reasons previously mentioned. The important stuff gets prominently mentioned when I click on YouTube or RealClearPolitics; if interested, I can check a few articles out to see what's up. But most days there is no real news being reported.
It is the little things that I find interesting, mentions that creep into the conversation in places like Joe Rogan and a lot of other little independent sites that have cropped up all over the internet. A couple years ago I had read where there were until the very recent past a second species of pronghorn antelope that had went extinct about the same time as all the other mega-fauna at the close of the last ice age (only 10,000 - 12,000 years ago). There still is not any type of consensus on why all these animals went extinct (North and South America were covered with so many large mammals that it would shame what is present in today's wild Africa), but with the extinct pronghorn it was postulated that the shrubs that it browsed upon went extinct, extinguishing its food source. Its larger cousin still present today is a grazer (grass eater) so a loss of shrubs wouldn't matter to it.
So why did the shrubs go extinct? At the end of the last ice age, the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere had dipped well below 200 ppm. These shrubs needed at least about 180-200 ppm of carbon dioxide to exist or they perished. If the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere drops below about 150 ppm, all plants will die off, with all animals to follow.
Once started down that rabbit hole, there was all kinds of information to chase after. There is plenty out there waiting to be looked at, the problem is that it doesn't fit the global warming narrative that anything that produces carbon dioxide is bad.
I still remember the days back in the 1960's when I was in grade school. No one could really explain why there were mountains; plate tectonics had not been accepted as something that was actually happening at that time. The planet Venus was supposed to be covered with jungles while Mars was supposed to have water and life. No one knew that a massive meteor impact had decimated the dinosaurs. Much of what we presently know about the universe was unknown at that time.
I don't believe in ancient aliens, but the information is starting to pop up about a lot of human accomplishments that occurred up to about the end of the ice age, with all those accomplishments suddenly disappearing when the glaciers melted and the oceans suddenly rose. The consensus that human technological development has gone on a steady upward slope through history, with a few glitches here and there (the Dark Ages, for instance), is one of those things, like global warming, that cannot be argued with least you be labeled a wacko.
But there is just so much interesting stuff to chase on the internet; who needs TV?
A significant percentage of folks now get their information online and no longer use legacy media sources like TV, radio, newspapers. But the information online has just as much spin any of the traditional sources, perhaps even more so since Big tech also totally controls how we even search/find the information. (Even worse, they are simultaneously taking our personal information and selling it.)
No matter what the source, I think it is critical to ‘follow the money’. The competition for eyeballs and audience share is more fierce than ever and they are fighting for their survival. This means that things get published whether they fact check them or not, no matter how questionable the sources are…they will stop at nothing to get the viewers. This is about money, period. The media no longer acts as a check and balance against the rich and powerful, they are the rich and powerful.
Don
caution..... spoilers ahead.........
re: Must leave the T.V. off
Amen. I stopped after the election. I've been binging and gorging on political news since 2015 basically. I think all of this has actually played a role in elevating my blood pressure. New policy for me: no news period.
re: Must leave the T.V. off
I have found myself shouting at the television more and more.
How did all these uneducated, self-opinionated folks get the job of politician, journalist, presenter and editor?
Must find the on/off switch on the TV or hide the remote from "She Who Must Be Obeyed"!!
re: Must leave the T.V. off
I miss the old days with only three TV networks doing the 6:00 - 7:00 news hour and a daily newspaper. This 24/7 constant jibber jabber is simply awful.
re: Must leave the T.V. off
There is no more journalism....its all advocacy. Just pick your flavor. And the American people are more ignorant because of it
re: Must leave the T.V. off
I read these comments and the remind me of a cartoon strip I read sometime ago...
The king ask the page, whats the latest news from the kingdom across the the bay?
Sir, they seem to be progressing in science and technology a lot faster than we are,
Hum... Send them some TV sets, reply the king.
re: Must leave the T.V. off
I have been ignoring as much as possible for months. I have spent much of the time listening to Vietnam veteran oral histories in addition to some of the news stories by CBS during the war while I handle my stamps.
I also have been reading the US Marines in Vietnam series by the Marines to provide a base to understand the bigger view rather than the grunt view.
re: Must leave the T.V. off
This is the very reason I have not had a TV since 2008.
Jackie
re: Must leave the T.V. off
"There is no more journalism....its all advocacy. Just pick your flavor. And the American people are more ignorant because of it"
re: Must leave the T.V. off
"This all bothers me a great deal. We Americans are living in trying times and we have nowhere to go for real facts"
"Last week my wife had CNN on and their reporter was interviewing a lady at a rally. No sooner did the woman say her piece, then the reporter turned away from her and said, "That's simply not true!""
re: Must leave the T.V. off
There is so much misinformation out there right now.
A journalist can cite numerous experts and solid sources but, like Ernie implied, someone on a network with opposing views who doesn’t like what was said can call it a lie without citing equivalent experts and sources and they get away with it because they are saying what their viewers WANT to hear.
(Edit - I’m NOT taking sides here - this can be seen at BOTH ends of any viewpoint spectrum)
What we need is an automatic bull crap filter that gives you an instant honesty/truth/factual vs nonsense rating that runs on the bottom of the screen. Maybe a meter that goes from white to brown - the more brown the rating, the deeper the crap level!
re: Must leave the T.V. off
""This all bothers me a great deal. We Americans are living in trying times and we have nowhere to go for real facts""
re: Must leave the T.V. off
I'm like the most here. Can't watch the news anymore, so biased and opinionated. I am spending more time watching Ancient Aliens. More believable.
Actually they show lots of ancient building that I don't see on normal history shows of early civs. I'm not really a believer that aliens have been to earth, but I also have a hard time believing that we are it in the entire cosmos.
re: Must leave the T.V. off
The following is my opinion about the US media.
I think that the US media (which now includes big tech) have sided with non-elected Washington establishment. Consider how the media and big tech played the US population into thinking that Russia was influencing the 2016 elections (like the US and many other countries don’t influence other countries elections). When GB was voting on Brexit the US government was over there pouring money into the outcome Washington wanted to see. Ditto for the last dozen or more Israel elections, the US spent large amounts of time and money into promoting certain outcomes.
The media and big tech promoted and pushed the ‘Russia’ story year after year even though Russia’s economy is not even on the radar; even Italy's GDP is larger than Russia’s. Meanwhile, the media and big tech played down the evils of China’s Communist Party at the same time. Why? Simple. Look around your house and see how many products you can find that were made in Russia. In my house I cannot find a single item in my house that was made in Russia. But I am ashamed to admit that my house is full of products made in China. This is why Washington, the media, and big tech are all supporting China and flaming Russia; there is BIG money being made with China and virtually no money being made with Russia.
For example, it is luscious to me that the NBA has ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign on the court and their jerseys but the players and league have no heartburn with taking billions of dollars from China. Oppression of any people is awful, yet the NBA is silent about China Communist party rounding up and mass oppression of Uighur Muslims. Some Uighur's are pressed into labor camps making Western products like sneakers. Where is the ‘Uighur Lives Matter’ signs on the court? Where was the media on this story over the last 4 years? A few mentions on the back pages but this was not covered anything like the way ‘Russia’ was pushed down our throats. When Google has billions invested in China is it any wonder why their search engine does not rank the Uighur stories highly? Google has no problems at all in supporting the China Communist Party in censoring Chinese internet users. Instead, we were treated to endless stories about Russia and why not, Russia has virtually no impact on the worlds economy, special interest groups, PACS, and politicians pockets. Russia is an easy target and negative stories have little $$$ impact.
In my opinion the US media no longer performs the critical function of keeping the powerful in check and in fact they are now working in tandem with the rich and powerful. They did this because once the internet became the preferred venue for Americans to receive information the media struggled to survive. Getting into bed with the rich and powerful, whether it was China, Washington, or big tech, was a survival strategy; the media needed their support. If they tried to run truthful, hard hitting stories on the rich and powerful they would be crushed like bugs.
A few days ago I saw a ‘reporter’ asking people on the street their opinions on a topic. One person stopped and answered her question; the ‘reporter’ cut away from them and said to the camera, ‘that person is wrong and what they said was not true’. Since when did we need a ‘reporter’ to tell us what we should think as opposed to letting us decide for ourselves? But apparently many consumers of the news hardly even blink when this now happens. In was educated in the 1970s and the one thing they drilled into our heads was to always look beyond what was on the surface and ‘follow the money’. The media (including big tech) has no interest in simply providing information, but they have a huge financial interest in manipulating us and telling us what to think. As consumers, we have fallen into only watching ‘news’ that agrees with our own existing opinions; we no longer watch news to become informed but rather only to be affirmed in what we already believe. This is incredibly dangerous.
Don
Edit; I understand why many folks say they are turning off the news. It sucks rotten eggs that our only choice is now 'be uninformed' or 'be misinformed'.
re: Must leave the T.V. off
I get my "news" from various media.
I browse various TV Channels from around the world, read a variety of Newspapers and then form my own opinion.
As Don says too many people look or listen to those with the same beliefs as themselves. One must look at the other side.
Here in Scotland in 2014 we had a referendum on Scottish Independence, the "lies" we were told from both sides was unbelievable with the conivence of the media.
In 2016 we had the "Brexit" referendum and again we were "lied" to by both sides with the conivence of the media.
In Scotland we have a National Socialist Party governing us and the lies and manipulation through the media they give us reminds me of many of the tin-pot and dangerous dictators throughout history.
re: Must leave the T.V. off
I collect Finland and often read articles about their country.
Here is one very well researched article with numerous fairly unbiased, non USA, non commercial media source citations for anyone interested in researching the topic mentioned above.
https://www.kremlinwatch.eu/countries-compared-states/finland/
Sources like this that are not directly under media control are good places to get facts. Any source that isn’t controlled by advertising monies is generally more factual.
A trained historian will tell you - go to the source documents! Read other’s interpretations of those documents and/or data with a critical eye because if they are not quoting the original source, it is only opinion.
re: Must leave the T.V. off
Several weeks ago I deleted from my television set ALL "news" channels.
I have considered deleting ALL PBS channels as well. I am ready to do it when I find a good source for British and European mystery shows: Midsomer, Professor T, Endeavour, etc., and the British comedies.
As for staying sane, I have been watching YouTube raw footage videos from the end of WWII, specifically those available from Critical Past. NO SOUND, just videos showing how it really was during that horrific period of history. I am doing it specifically now, during a disturbing and uncertain time ravaged by Covid 19. It is good to look at other times when things were dire and people were resilient and hopeful, and built over the ruins of their homes, businesses, museums, churches, schools, parks, roads, and countrysides. It keeps you hopeful and sane, and unafraid.
Then there is the France Art on Postage Stamps Album project I have been working on for weeks now. That's pure and simple therapeutic. And, of course, my easy listening and classical music playing on the background.
Finally, the best, we take weekly drives to the beach, and we sit in the car and look at the unchanging ocean...
(There is a wonderful scene in the movie Never on Sunday when Melina Mercouri, Ilya the Prostitute, laughs out loud at the end of Medea, the Greek tragedy she was watching on Sunday. Character after character is murdered or dies, and ultimately Medea in a fit of rage slaughters all her children. Homer, the American professor who is also watching the play, is utterly confused and angry by her illogical reaction. He angrily tells her, How can you laugh at the gruesome killings and murders of children. Ilya, who has her feet planted on the ground, who sees life optimistically, says to him, "Because at the end of the play all the people and the actors go to the beach for a picnic and a celebration." That's Life, in other words.)
re: Must leave the T.V. off
Stockflyer,
Your comment about "Ancient Aliens" got me to thinking. I haven't had TV for years for many of same reasons previously mentioned. The important stuff gets prominently mentioned when I click on YouTube or RealClearPolitics; if interested, I can check a few articles out to see what's up. But most days there is no real news being reported.
It is the little things that I find interesting, mentions that creep into the conversation in places like Joe Rogan and a lot of other little independent sites that have cropped up all over the internet. A couple years ago I had read where there were until the very recent past a second species of pronghorn antelope that had went extinct about the same time as all the other mega-fauna at the close of the last ice age (only 10,000 - 12,000 years ago). There still is not any type of consensus on why all these animals went extinct (North and South America were covered with so many large mammals that it would shame what is present in today's wild Africa), but with the extinct pronghorn it was postulated that the shrubs that it browsed upon went extinct, extinguishing its food source. Its larger cousin still present today is a grazer (grass eater) so a loss of shrubs wouldn't matter to it.
So why did the shrubs go extinct? At the end of the last ice age, the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere had dipped well below 200 ppm. These shrubs needed at least about 180-200 ppm of carbon dioxide to exist or they perished. If the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere drops below about 150 ppm, all plants will die off, with all animals to follow.
Once started down that rabbit hole, there was all kinds of information to chase after. There is plenty out there waiting to be looked at, the problem is that it doesn't fit the global warming narrative that anything that produces carbon dioxide is bad.
I still remember the days back in the 1960's when I was in grade school. No one could really explain why there were mountains; plate tectonics had not been accepted as something that was actually happening at that time. The planet Venus was supposed to be covered with jungles while Mars was supposed to have water and life. No one knew that a massive meteor impact had decimated the dinosaurs. Much of what we presently know about the universe was unknown at that time.
I don't believe in ancient aliens, but the information is starting to pop up about a lot of human accomplishments that occurred up to about the end of the ice age, with all those accomplishments suddenly disappearing when the glaciers melted and the oceans suddenly rose. The consensus that human technological development has gone on a steady upward slope through history, with a few glitches here and there (the Dark Ages, for instance), is one of those things, like global warming, that cannot be argued with least you be labeled a wacko.
But there is just so much interesting stuff to chase on the internet; who needs TV?
re: Must leave the T.V. off
A significant percentage of folks now get their information online and no longer use legacy media sources like TV, radio, newspapers. But the information online has just as much spin any of the traditional sources, perhaps even more so since Big tech also totally controls how we even search/find the information. (Even worse, they are simultaneously taking our personal information and selling it.)
No matter what the source, I think it is critical to ‘follow the money’. The competition for eyeballs and audience share is more fierce than ever and they are fighting for their survival. This means that things get published whether they fact check them or not, no matter how questionable the sources are…they will stop at nothing to get the viewers. This is about money, period. The media no longer acts as a check and balance against the rich and powerful, they are the rich and powerful.
Don
re: Must leave the T.V. off
caution..... spoilers ahead.........