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Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#221

I pay for Bloomberg, WSJ, and NY Times. Its an okay mix, with its leaning, but a phenomenal mix with the depth of reporting. I've stopped bothering with free news. archive.is doesn't quite cut it

If you want a broader mix in conjunction with pay-per-article, take a look at https://blendle.com/

that's helpful, I am using those news outlet's respective mobile apps and interfaces but more perspective is nice too. there are headlines that just aren't even surfaced in publications depending on the leaning

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#222
post #143

I pay for Bloomberg, WSJ, and NY Times. Its an okay mix, with its leaning, but a phenomenal mix with the depth of reporting. I've stopped bothering with free news. archive.is doesn't quite cut it

Why not just use AP and Reuter ?

because I have access to those too. but those other three are so interesting.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#223
No.

But I don't consider Facebook and Twitter sources of news, either. I'm old-fashioned and still use a feed reader. CNN, BBC, NPR, and the Associated Press are my primary news sources. I would say 80%-90% of the news is current events having no impact on me personally. For those items seeming interesting I delve in and read the article.

Since I live in a democracy and I vote I think it's best that I know and understand what's going on, who's behind it, how our political leadership has affected it, and who I can vote for to help better manage it. This information also helps with my investments I'm depending on for my retirement. I don't see how my being uninformed will help me make good decisions.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the government controlling the media? Mainly through access. If you don't report favorably, your government sources might withdraw. Sources that provide you with exclusive information that you can provide first. There are of course unimaginable other venues to enforce compliance to a certain framing. There is also documentation how this was achieved in the past. I saw how the press quickly turned people in fav…

Let's take the US as example: you claim that news sources will not discredit the president or government?

Depends on how favorable a candidate is. The US does have independent media, but also large networks that certainly push interests.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to ask this question: How is the government controlling the media? In Russia's case, it's pretty clear. They have laws to prohibit free press, jail time for claiming things opposite to the Kremlin. In some other cases, it's more subtle. In Hungary, Orban's influence on the media is very high, and not healthy for a democracy. But if you claim that the most objective news sources in the west still show straigh…

One example from the latest podcast from The Telegraph: they spent a lot of time talking about the wheat from Ukraine going to the "global south." But a few days ago a Turkish minister said over 60% was sold to Europe, so which is it?

Luckily in 2022, you don't have to take news at face value.

5 seconds to enter "Ukraine wheat exports by country" into Google, yielding a USDA page saying: "In 2021, Ukrainian wheat exports were valued at $5.1 billion, with Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as the primary destinations."

Telegraph 1 - Turkish politician 0.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, so I guess you're being willingly misled here because the most important thing is dunking on red states due to your politics. So, if some random article says "Dallas is less safe than NYC," you are forced to believe it even though the article weighted covid vaccine rate at 90% and murder at 10%.

The average American is much more likely to die from Covid than from murder (and, in the recent past, Covid was the far more likely fate), so this doesn't seem crazy on its face.

Sure, but the relevant statistic is Covid death rate, not vaccination rate. And by death rate, Texas is actually #21 (#1 being best) among states and surprisingly safer than New York:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covi...

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#227
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to be a core problem of a lot of people. The inability to discern that not everything has an agenda and is propaganda. Most western media (Murdock/Berlusconi type oligarch media aside) is fairly factual. It doesn't have 'spin' or 'agenda' in the sense that the journalists conspire to mislead (they don't have time for this).

> "Most western media (Murdock/Berlusconi type oligarch media aside) is fairly factual. It doesn't have 'spin' or 'agenda' in the sense that the journalists conspire to mislead..." I have a hard time believing that anyone can be this naive. We're you paying attention the last two years? When journalists lied, suppressed and told everyone that Hunter Biden's laptop from hell was 'Russian disinformation" and refused to…

Hunter Biden's laptop isn't news. It is a US-centric celebrity story.

Thus all reporting on it was tabloid style sensationalism.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#228
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The war started in 2014, following the Euromaidan protests, and the Russian invasion of Crimea. Putin isn't crazy - he's coldly calculating, and clearly demonstrated his ruthlessness in Chechnya (which the world chose to ignore).

“Crimea's election committee said that 97% of voters backed a union between the largely ethnic-Russian peninsula and the huge neighboring country.” “Residents of Crimea, up to 60% percent of whom are Russian, were given a choice of either joining Russia or opting for more autonomy from Ukraine under the 1992 constitution.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/03/16/crimea-...

There's a political process for that, which necessarily includes central government.

Isn't it suspicious that Ukraine's large, aggressive, well-armed neighbor was somehow involved in the referendum, and then sent in the "green men" to enforce the inevitable results?

And what about the native ethnic Tatars? Russia pretends they don't exist.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#229
post #190
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oryx (blog and Twitter) provides good raw open source intelligence data. I've found The Guardian's reporting and FT's analysis to be quite good. They report based on verifiable facts and also claims by both sides, with explicit mentions if there's corroborating sources or not. The Guardian also have a daily "what's new" so that's useful to keep up.

I read the guardian but it's pretty biased l and sometimes the reporting is terrible. It tends to align with my views but it's still super flawed. Recently I've also been reading dw.com Deutsche Welle. They are more straight factual and of course biased to German related news which is interesting.

> I read the guardian but it's pretty biased l and sometimes the reporting is terrible

Do you have any specific examples? I can't say that it mirrors my experience but i might have missed something.

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