How I get my news
7 June 2024
We humans are fortunate to have sophisticated brains, which can:
Develop new ideas and opinions over time
Learn from our mistakes
Recognize that there is much we do not know
Recognize that life is about tradeoffs - we have to pick the best choices at the time but cannot “have it all”
Differentiate between what is mostly good from what is mostly evil.
To maximize our analytic skills and our success in this complicated world, we need to read and listen to news sources that support these abilities. This means media that:
Is as truthful as possible and which attempts to correct errors
Offers different perspectives on issues as long as they are somewhat credible
Is as unbiased as possible
Follows a reasonable code of ethics for its writers.
For these reasons, I spend most of my time reading the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and NPR. Sometimes they have articles that are biased or incorrect, but most of the time they are worthwhile.
Although social media is interesting, one simply cannot get an adult-like understanding of the world through a 15-30 second video. Social media is entertainment, not news. You could not learn the important skills you need to run your life in 15-30 seconds (how to take out a mortgage, how to train for your job, etc.). Perhaps a short video could get you interested in a topic, but the video does not provide sufficient expertise on the subject. Thus, if social media is your main source of news, you are not adequately prepared to take an adult role in society.
It is also dangerous to read or watch media that consistently lies or is indifferent to the truth. Serious media lies are that Trump won the 2020 election, that COVID and climate change are hoaxes and not serious threats and that vaccinations are dangerous - these media are lying and should be avoided. The leader in lies, in my opinion, is Fox. Not only has it lost huge defamation lawsuits, Fox lies repeatedly, ignores major stories that go against its political philosophy (Trump New York trial), tries to “create news” to support its political views (Hunter Biden trial) and has staff with blatant partisan reporting.
One cannot “balance out” Fox or other media that consistently lies. I believe we should stay away from evil to the extent we can. Evil permeates our souls and changes who were are. Listening to truthful media doesn’t put us back where we were before. This is why so many Fox viewers died of COVID (to my knowledge) and many of the rest appear to be brainwashed on Trump-related matters - they are simply indifferent to any facts or arguments that disagree with their cult-like thinking. I also stay away from dishonest media stations because tuning them in helps them financially, and I don’t want to help finance evil in any way.
All of us need to think if we are getting the accurate information we need as adults, not only to vote but to have adult-type thinking and to achieve success in this complex world. We should constantly strive to do better.
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