My wife was looking at her FB news feed tells me about an eleven year old singer on America’s Got Talent. I ask, why don’t you to to a news site, and see what is important?
Like what, she asks. So, here are the top twenty headlines on Reuters:
North Korea agrees to talk to South after U.S.-South Korea postpone drills
U.S. official denies that funds for Palestinian refugees frozen
Iran stages pro-government rallies, cleric urges punishment for protest leaders
Pakistani minister decries U.S. as ‘friend who always betrays’
Brazil police request Temer answer questions in alleged graft probe
U.N. Security Council meeting on protests a Trump ‘foreign policy blunder’: Iran
Saudi king orders new allowances to offset rising cost of living
Iran’s U.N. ambassador says Iran has evidence violence ‘directed from abroad’
France’s Macron urges respect of rule of law in talks with Erdogan
Rwanda and Uganda deny signing migrant deals with Israel
Ex-U.N. chief Ban’s nephew pleads guilty to U.S. corruption charges
U.S. weighs Pakistani blowback as it piles pressure on Islamabad
Second time lucky? Merkel starts over with coalition talks
U.S. targets former Venezuela food minister in new sanctions
Moldovan leader’s powers suspended to enact Russian TV curbs
As Macron embarks on China tour, reciprocity is the worKS
(ok, thats not 20, there were a couple in there about planes colliding in Toronto and five heads found in a car in Mexico and it still snows every January in northern temperate zones.)
It’s all about men in suits posturing. That’s all. The posturing of men (and one woman) who have the power to change the world, but they don’t. They just issue statements., sending messages to each other via the news media. What the hell actually HAPPENS in the world?
I just checked. There are now the following headlines;
Airliners collide at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, passengers safe
In blizzard’s icy wake, intense cold grips U.S. Northeast
S&P 500, Nasdaq post best week in more than a year
Keystone XL pipeline opponents appeal Nebraska route approval
U.S. job growth cools as labor market nears full employment; wages up
Coal dwarfs battery metals in mining deals despite war on pollution
Gretchen Carlson named chair of Miss America Organization
How alcohol damages stem cell DNA and increases cancer risk
U.N. to investigate deaths of Tanzanian peacekeepers in Congo
Local Mexico police force investigated for youths’ murders
Saudi king orders new allowances to offset rising cost of living
Five heads found on car in Mexico Gulf state of Veracruz
Greece orders Macedonian wiretap suspects’ extradition
Ex-U.N. chief Ban’s nephew pleads guilty to U.S. corruption charges
Suspect in Kosovo organ trafficking case arrested in Cyprus
U.S. suspends at least $900 million in security aid to Pakistan
Clashes break out near South Sudan capital in truce violation
Court voids Baltimore law requiring ‘no abortion’ clinic disclaimers
Illegal immigrant acquitted in California death gets prison on gun charge
Cold comfort: U.S. homeless shelters overwhelmed in brutal weather
Lottery fever: U.S. Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots top $1 billion
Democratic U.S. Representative Cummings hospitalized
Frigid weather sends heating prices soaring as energy usage spikes
California bill uses donations to avoid Trump tax changes
United flight diverted to Alaska after man spreads feces in lavatories
Ex-SEC enforcement chief named deputy U.S. attorney in Manhattan
Race car driver Tucker gets more than 16 years for lending scheme
Massachusetts asks judge to toss transgender prison inmate’s lawsuit
These are all reports of events that happened rather than reports of somebody making a statement.
These are still the top three I get, here in Asia, under the World tab.
North Korea agrees to talk to South after U.S.-South Korea postpone drills
U.S. official denies that funds for Palestinian refugees frozen
Iran stages pro-government rallies, cleric urges punishment for protest leaders
Look for alternative news sites that carry the kind of news you are interested in.
I like antiwar.com. Their news and insights are often valuable.
Top headlines at the moment:
US Aid Cuts to Pakistan Could Be Up to $2 Billion
Iran Unrest Divides UN Security Council Meeting
US Freezes $125 Million in Aid for Palestinian Refugees
North Korea Agrees to Talks After US-SK Drills Postponed
Roger Stone Lobbying for Drone Strikes in Somalia
Top opinion pieces:
Trump and Neocons Are Exploiting an Iran Protest Movement They Know Nothing About
The Cotton Doctrine: More Wars, Less Security
A Foreign Leader – Netanyahu – Set Trump’s Agenda in Middle East
Israel Step Closer to Making Jerusalem Jewish-Only City
These Are the Real Causes of the Iran Protests
There’s Still Time for Diplomacy in Korea
But look around for other alternative sites. The main thing is to look at a variety of news sources with different perspectives, politics, and takes on the news, and then decide for yourself.
Try regional news sources for regional news.
e.g. Asia Times
When you got married, the announcement (if you made one) wasn’t the event itself, but it was a report of something that HAPPENED, right?
It seems to me that all those news stories describe things HAPPENING in the world, with reports of real events driven by causes, prompting reactions & consequences.
Wait, it gets funner. I tried an alternate, AP, and after a seemingly endless wait and three refresh tries, their bloated portal finally opens, with this lineup of top news stories:
Bannon tries to make amends as aides defend Trump’s fitness
New Hampshire ticket sole winner in $559M Powerball jackpot
Blast of arctic air breaks records; Temperatures set to rise
Battle looms for rebel-held Syrian province after IS defeat
The Latest: Brie reflects on Time’s Up influence at Globes
Saints have 21-9 lead over Panthers at the half
ESPN says Trump interview during CFP title game unlikely
Jaguars beat Bills 10-3 in ugly, sometimes unwatchable game
Hubbell, Donohue pull off ice dancing upset over Shibutanis
Golden Globe red carpet fairytale goes noir in protest
Buy a sofa, hire a helper: Handy expands retail partnerships
Rams see bright future after turnaround season ends early
No experience required: Freshman QBs make immediate impact
AP source: Packers promoting Gutekunst to be next GM
Activist: Car bomb kills 23 in Syrian rebel-held Idlib city
Sydney swelters through its hottest day in almost 80 years
Titans owner dispels rumors: Mularkey not going anywhere
High or Dry? California legal pot to test supply pipeline
Saban, complacency-proof Alabama faces Georgia for title
Globes to roll out red carpet under cloud of sex scandals
32 missing, oil tanker on fire after collision off China
Streep, Watson to bring activists as Golden Globe guests
Iran’s Guard claims victory against anti-government protests
I’ll take a different tack: Only do this for specialized news that the mainline sources don’t carry.
For example, there was recently a couple mondo-huge security issues regarding CPU hardware, one of them affecting only Intel CPUs and one of them affecting a broader subset of CPUs. There was related mondo-huge news regarding disclosure, responsible disclosure, and why Linux and Microsoft got the news about the issues before FreeBSD and OpenBSD did. Point being, I don’t trust Reuters or the AP or CNN or the BBC or Deutsche Welle or the Washington Post or anyone in the mainline news business to be able to tell a CPU from an alternator, let alone give me useful information on the subject beyond a standard Bad Scary Technology word-haze.
Mainline news understands politics. They have been cultivating a political reporting wing for generations now. I trust them to know political news. But I’ll be damned if I suffer through the BBC trying to report on anything remotely complicated outside of politics.
That said, at least listen to what the mainline news is saying regarding politics. Alternative news sites are alternative for a reason, and let ideology cloud their perception of reality, from their choice of stories to their choice of what they consider to be factual.
In everything, look for sources and, if something appears strange or crazy or angry-making, look for corroboration from other sources, and not just other alternative sources.
Did the corporate news understand Trump, Brexit, the 2008 recession, or Iraq? They’re interesting to the extent they’re a source of the official line and talking points for defending the status quo, but if you trust them you’ll believe all sorts of weird ideas, like the economy imploded because wealthy bankers were exploited by poor people, or that Saddam Hussein and Osama were best pals, or that America is already great and Trump’s populism has zero appeal.
I hate when they do that. Now excuse me, I have to watch MSNBC to learn more about the Russia/Trump conspiracy, and certainly not the American proxy war in Yemen, or anything that makes Comcast look bad.
He wants the rewards that come from hard efforts. But he wants them to be given to him without having to make the effort.
Here’s the reality; information is like food.
You can, if you wish, make the food that you eat. You can go out and search through all the possible ingredients out there and pick the ones you want. And you can take those ingredients home and cook them the way you want. You’ll do some work but you’ll end up with a final product that you chose and you’ll understand what went into it.
Or you avoid the work. There are people that will prepare food for you. They’ll even spoon feed it to you. But you have to realize they did all the work that I described above. If they did all that work it’s because they want you to consume the food they’re giving you. And you’ll consume what they’re giving you without knowing why they chose that particular meal or exactly what went into it.
You have the same choice in news. If you want the ease of just reading the top stories, you have to accept that you’ll only be told the stories that somebody else wants you to read.
First: All news is corporate news, in that all collective entities are corporate. You can’t smuggle in a snarl word without defining it, because I’ll define that sucker right out from under you. Now play nice.
Second: Yes, a number of them did understand those issues better than the “alternative” news sources, especially the partisan ones.
No such thing. The fact there are multiple streams within mainstream political parties proves this.
Sometimes.
None of them said that.
They say that in your weird fantasy-world, maybe.
“Not toeing the line with the official White House dogma” is not the same as being independent. Some people… well, most people find that fairly self-evident, actually.
Depending on how you define “ingredients”, no, you can’t do that with important political stories, because the people important stories come from have very limited amounts of time to talk to people who are important, let alone everyone else. They have to erect gateways, and keep them quite viciously, and only allow some people through.
You can do it some of the time, sure, especially in places like tech news where a lot of the sources are public to begin with: Mailing lists, discussion fora, and project repositories. Gotta be able to understand the unfiltered NANOG chatter, though, if you want to make your own “What’s happening on the Internet” news.
There are places which hit a midpoint. Linux Weekly News isn’t exactly the unfiltered git repository firehose, but it has a lot of different articles on a lot of different things and doesn’t dumb it down.