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This story might be helpful to those tearing their hair out about the news lately:
I grew up believing that following the news makes you a better citizen. Eight years after having quit, that idea now seems ridiculous—that consuming a particularly unimaginative information product on a daily basis somehow makes you thoughtful and informed in a way that benefits society.
But I still encounter people who balk at the possibility of a smart, engaged adult quitting the daily news.
...
A few things you might notice, if you take a break:1) You feel better
A common symptom of quitting the news is an improvement in mood. News junkies will say it's because you've stuck your head in the sand.
But that assumes the news is the equivalent of having your head out in the fresh, clear air. They don't realize that what you can glean about the world from the news isn't even close to a representative sample of what is happening in the world.
...
2) You were never actually accomplishing anything by watching the newsIf you ask someone what they accomplish by watching the news, you'll hear vague notions like, "It's our civic duty to stay informed!" or "I need to know what's going on in the world," or "We can't just ignore these issues," none of which answer the question.
...
A month after you've quit the news, it's hard to name anything useful that's been lost. It becomes clear that those years of news-watching amounted to virtually nothing in terms of improvement to your quality of life, lasting knowledge, or your ability to help others. And that's to say nothing of the opportunity cost. Imagine if you spent that time learning a language, or reading books and essays about some of the issues they mention on the news.
Read on for the rest of the list.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday December 14 2016, @12:06AM
I agree completely that all news organizations have biases.
I disagree that news organizations' biases can be usefully placed on a simple left-right spectrum, though. There are all sorts of biases shared by both MSNBC and Fox News that leave both of them spewing total nonsense. And especially when you encounter a situation where you think *all* sources of information have a bias in a particular direction, you should make darn sure that it's not your own biases that are skewing what you think about what those sources of information are telling you. And the way to do that is to bypass the secondary sources and do your own actual research into the issue at hand, bearing in mind that "reading some guy's random rant on the Internet" doesn't qualify as research.
As an example, if you believed the sky was purple, and everybody around you was telling you the sky was blue, then you should doubt yourself enough to take a photo of the sky and figure out if it's closer to #8888FF or #FF88FF. When you can't do direct research like that, then at the very least you can go look at reputable organizations that show their work (i.e. their sources of information, and how they got from those sources to their conclusions).
Now, you might decide that sounds too much like work. Well, in that case, the proper conclusion is that you either don't really care, or don't know, and the wise move is to withhold judgment and keep your mouth shut until you know more.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday December 14 2016, @02:58AM
When over eighty percent of a profession self-identify as progressives, I'm inclined to take their word for it. Just saying...
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday December 14 2016, @02:51PM
The trouble with that thinking is that "progressive" (or "conservative", or "libertarian", or any other political label) has no bearing on the question of whether the information in question is either accurate or useful. And yes, that goes just as much for your own political affiliation as anybody else's: Progressives should be questioning the HuffPo or MSNBC just as much as they question the Wall Street Journal and Fox News.
A good example of this: Lots of news organizations have spent the last week reporting on how the intel agencies know, just know, that the Russians were behind the DNC hack. But the only technical evidence they've provided for that is a phishing email, an attack so simple that anybody could pull it off, with a defense so well-known (multi-factor authentication) that it should never have worked. Which means it could have been done just as easily by some random dude angry at Hillary Clinton because she started a civil war in their country as by Vlad Putin and friends.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Wednesday December 14 2016, @02:57PM
"When over eighty percent of a profession self-identify as progressives, I'm inclined to take their word for it. Just saying..."
Well, having difficulty confirming that statement without going to far right sights like MRC or The Federalist. But I did find a decent study that shows the breakdown of self-identified partisanship. Both D's and R's have lost ground to the middle here with the I's growing steadily over the years.
28.1% Democrat
7.1% Republican
50.2% Independent
14.6% Other *
I realize that party affiliation and even voting patterns don't equate equally to political leaning, (I think most of us had to hold our noses when we voted this year) and in my experience true Independents like and dislike portions of both platforms and have no real loyalty to either. This was the least biased study I could find on the subject.
Bias has always been a part of the news, it tended to lean right when I was a kid, (dirty hippies, draft dodgers, COMMIES) and has shifted back and forth just like the presidency and society at large has. Some shit don't work like they promised, everyone gets pissed, switch. Adding to that is both parties working hard to spread lies and hate about each other, (Heartless Republicans, Bleeding Heart Liberals, Rethuglicans, Libtards, Socialists, Nazis ), while doing nothing FOR US and blaming each others failed policies.
We are too busy fighting about small social issues while the surveillance state takes over in the background and things like The Patriot Act, Citizens United, NAFTA etc are all passed with bipartisan support while we take in the show of bathroom equality, security theater and marriage laws. Social Distractions are best as we get passionate about them while the stuff most people don't understand because the effects of such laws either don't affect them directly, or are so convoluted and misrepresented that they don't know what they mean anyway. But a penis in the vagina room, that they understand.
George Orwell thought too small.
Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and they all smell the same. Except mine, as I eat potpourri so my farts smell like Christmas!
Ah, methinks my paranoid rant time is at an end, time to unwind, fold up the tinfoil hat, grab a cold one and a blunt, and play a little KSP....
* http://news.indiana.edu/releases/iu/2014/05/2013-american-journalist-key-findings.pdf [indiana.edu]
(PDF from the Bloomington, IN School of Journalism, Indiana University)
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.