Years ago I saw Ray Bradbury give a talk at our city library, and he spent some of his time saying the same thing.
I hate the news
71–75 of 75 posts
Re: I hate the news
#72"There is voting, of course, but to become an informed voter all one needs to do is read a short guide about the candidates and issues before the election." For one thing this places enormous trust in the guide-writers. For another it enormously oversimplifies the topics on which the guides would touch.
And yet what alternative is there? If you follow the news you're placing the same trust in journalists. To become a truly informed voter, not relying on others' summary explanations, would be more than a full-time career.
I don't find it so. You do need a strong background in a variety of topics: economics, history, science, history (of several varieties, military history among them). You need some grasp of the importance of ideas and frameworks, and how human nature influences the way others think, speak and report.
Amassing that is lot of work and a number of years. But it's worth doing in its own right. And from there, yeah, you needn't rely on others' summaries.
Re: I hate the news
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
How about people that are like-minded band together and dedicate one person to research all of the issues and present them, or an issue per person (or something else)?
people that are like-minded band together and dedicate one person to research all of the issues and present them That sounds a lot like what FOX News does actually.
I'm talking about smaller groups of people that you know you can trust to present the issues with little bias / in a fair way. The scale of FOX News is obviously beyond that. I'm literally talking about groups of maybe 10-20 people. It allows you to all be more informed as a group, while sharing the workload of doing all the information gathering/compilation.
Re: I hate the news
#74"I think following the news is a waste of time." I'm sure this plaid a role in him being so productive. But I do think its my obligation to read the news. Even if it makes me less productive. Without the news I would have never learned about Aarons hack and his trial. Of course, just knowing the news is not enough. One has to act. In the case of Aaron, we didn't act.
Without the news I would have never learned about Aarons hack and his trial. Maybe it depends on how you define "news". Everything I know about Aaron Swartz, I know from following links I encountered here. True, this is a "news" site, but it's filtered news; I think that's an important point. The problem with "mainstream" news media is not just that they're bad at reporting; they're also bad at filtering, because the…
I don't read "the news" (meaning mainstream media, if you may) all that often, but when I do - I do like that they're "bad at filtering", or rather, their sheer broadness of topics. It reminds me that there is people with other views of life and that there's more topics out there - than what my more like minded sphere care to interest themselfs with.
Re: I hate the news
#75I think it's funny that the article about the news being irrelevant ends with the cliched tagline: "You should follow me on Twitter." Because that would be relevant.
...and then his Twitter is littered with Huffington, NPR, etc links.