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Consuming News: How Much? What Sources? (1 Viewer)

Joe Bryant

Joe Bryant

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The Israel War thread wandered off track some yesterday (partly due to me) as we talked about news accuracy and where people get news.

Thought this might be a good thread on it's own.

And please don't drag accusational type politics into it. We get it that some source lean left or right.

What I'd be interested in is you folks discussion two things.

1. How much news do you feel it's best to consume and why. Tim Ferris recently had a guest on his super popular podcast that talked about being "News Sober" meaning he didn't consume news.
youtu.be

News Sobriety | Sam Corcos | The Tim Ferriss Show #shorts

Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo...
youtu.be youtu.be

That's extreme but I do think there are huge benefits to limiting and curating how much one consumes. Mostly because most of the news is negative.

2. What sources you like best for consuming news. I'd be interested in what folks use now and sharing best practices for what you've found to work well.
 
Joe Bryant said:
2. What sources you like best for consuming news. I'd be interested in what folks use now and sharing best practices for what you've found to work well.
Click to expand...
90% of my news comes from Breaking Points now.

Krystal and Sagar are the hosts and each leans the opposite way. However they present the news and discuss things like rational humans and while they sometimes disagree, their opinions are very well discussed and they allow each other the space for their own ideas.

They have gone completely independent as far as a platform so they dont have many (if any at all) corporate overlords to answer to.

Def worth the listen

 
I’m still old school with my sources. Subscriptions to The Washington Post and The Economist magazine. Will read the paper with my morning coffee, or on the bus/train to the office. Check out The Washington Post app for news during the day. As I live in the DC area, it gives me both local and national news that I need. Like The Economist for its coverage of world news/politics/elections in regions less covered in traditional US media.
 
I don’t seek out too much “News”, especially at the global / political level

What I do get is a combo of this place, Twitter, Google suggestions, Good Morning America, local news and radio (typically the crass morning show or sports talk)

Enough for me to have a general idea what’s going on in the world but not interested in any kind of deep dive
 
I'll watch my local CBS affiliate for things going on around us. Everything else "news" related is from sources outside the US "clickbait" system. On occasion, I'll turn on the CBS Evening News but that might be once every few months. Even with the stuff going on in Israel, I check in on it once or twice a week at most. Most of it is "Israel says...." or "Palestine says......" which I put little to no stock in for obvious reasons.
 
I mentioned this back in the Israeli war thread - I consume news from wherever I can get it - but I am VERY aware of bias in the reporting. I'll quote what I said in that thread
I once applied for a government job in intelligence and they advised me to avoid US domestic news almost entirely. Their recommendation at the time were some of the European news outlets (BBC) as well as specifically the AP domestically. Major news outlets in the US have too much spin and bias. They also said it was important to read local news for key events - i.e. something like Al Jazeera for this current war - simply because understanding both sides is crucial. Not saying those local pieces aren't biased, but it's important to have multiple perspectives and make your own decisions.
Click to expand...

I will say that US major news outlets are honestly the ones I am most likely to avoid, but I will still read them sometimes. As others have said, I honestly trust discussion on FBG as much as any news source. Twitter can be great, and awful...you have to know your source. It's hard to wade through the crap without having done some background knowledge first. Also - I look for fact based reporting. Hard stats, not sensationalistic claims ("Estimated 200 dead" vs. "Up to 500 dead.") I love the outlets (BBC for example) that spend time analyzing video footage to geo-locate and confirm the location of the footage and then use shadow angles to confirm time of day, etc. That, to me, is good reporting.

The bottom line is there is unfortunately no one source that I trust explicitly. The WORST thing you can do is read news from one or two media outlets. You have to form your own opinion based on multiple views, and you have to have a good BS meter to sniff out bias.
 
I like “News Sober” - although it seems nearly impossible to me to totally shut out all news. As mentioned in the other thread, I get the majority of my news here.
 
Fat Nick said:
I mentioned this back in the Israeli war thread - I consume news from wherever I can get it - but I am VERY aware of bias in the reporting. I'll quote what I said in that thread
I once applied for a government job in intelligence and they advised me to avoid US domestic news almost entirely. Their recommendation at the time were some of the European news outlets (BBC) as well as specifically the AP domestically. Major news outlets in the US have too much spin and bias. They also said it was important to read local news for key events - i.e. something like Al Jazeera for this current war - simply because understanding both sides is crucial. Not saying those local pieces aren't biased, but it's important to have multiple perspectives and make your own decisions.
Click to expand...

I will say that US major news outlets are honestly the ones I am most likely to avoid, but I will still read them sometimes. As others have said, I honestly trust discussion on FBG as much as any news source. Twitter can be great, and awful...you have to know your source. It's hard to wade through the crap without having done some background knowledge first. Also - I look for fact based reporting. Hard stats, not sensationalistic claims ("Estimated 200 dead" vs. "Up to 500 dead.") I love the outlets (BBC for example) that spend time analyzing video footage to geo-locate and confirm the location of the footage and then use shadow angles to confirm time of day, etc. That, to me, is good reporting.

The bottom line is there is unfortunately no one source that I trust explicitly. The WORST thing you can do is read news from one or two media outlets. You have to form your own opinion based on multiple views, and you have to have a good BS meter to sniff out bias.
Click to expand...

To be clear, you're saying avoid the AP domestically or that's one to seek out?
 
glvsav37 said:
Joe Bryant said:
2. What sources you like best for consuming news. I'd be interested in what folks use now and sharing best practices for what you've found to work well.
Click to expand...
90% of my news comes from Breaking Points now.

Krystal and Sagar are the hosts and each leans the opposite way. However they present the news and discuss things like rational humans and while they sometimes disagree, their opinions are very well discussed and they allow each other the space for their own ideas.

They have gone completely independent as far as a platform so they dont have many (if any at all) corporate overlords to answer to.

Def worth the listen

Click to expand...

Thanks. Do they do their content in written form too?
 
I won't say any more on how I think using the FFA as a primary source is a really bad idea as it gets into how narrow our demographic is and staying in bubbles.

So I'll drop that as it's not useful.

Let's focus on other sources people do like for news?

Video?
Website?
Email newsletters?
Other?
 
Joe Bryant said:
Fat Nick said:
I mentioned this back in the Israeli war thread - I consume news from wherever I can get it - but I am VERY aware of bias in the reporting. I'll quote what I said in that thread
I once applied for a government job in intelligence and they advised me to avoid US domestic news almost entirely. Their recommendation at the time were some of the European news outlets (BBC) as well as specifically the AP domestically. Major news outlets in the US have too much spin and bias. They also said it was important to read local news for key events - i.e. something like Al Jazeera for this current war - simply because understanding both sides is crucial. Not saying those local pieces aren't biased, but it's important to have multiple perspectives and make your own decisions.
Click to expand...

I will say that US major news outlets are honestly the ones I am most likely to avoid, but I will still read them sometimes. As others have said, I honestly trust discussion on FBG as much as any news source. Twitter can be great, and awful...you have to know your source. It's hard to wade through the crap without having done some background knowledge first. Also - I look for fact based reporting. Hard stats, not sensationalistic claims ("Estimated 200 dead" vs. "Up to 500 dead.") I love the outlets (BBC for example) that spend time analyzing video footage to geo-locate and confirm the location of the footage and then use shadow angles to confirm time of day, etc. That, to me, is good reporting.

The bottom line is there is unfortunately no one source that I trust explicitly. The WORST thing you can do is read news from one or two media outlets. You have to form your own opinion based on multiple views, and you have to have a good BS meter to sniff out bias.
Click to expand...

To be clear, you're saying avoid the AP domestically or that's one to seek out?
Click to expand...

Sorry - that for sure wasn't clear. The AP was the one domestic source that I was told had a more unbiased reporting angle.
 
I just read yahoo headlines or here.... If something happens as like what just happened I'll maybe dig deeper. I've always been pretty ignorant on politics and news.....try to stay a little more informed now as I got older but nothing too deep
 
Joe Bryant said:
glvsav37 said:
Joe Bryant said:
2. What sources you like best for consuming news. I'd be interested in what folks use now and sharing best practices for what you've found to work well.
Click to expand...
90% of my news comes from Breaking Points now.

Krystal and Sagar are the hosts and each leans the opposite way. However they present the news and discuss things like rational humans and while they sometimes disagree, their opinions are very well discussed and they allow each other the space for their own ideas.

They have gone completely independent as far as a platform so they dont have many (if any at all) corporate overlords to answer to.

Def worth the listen

Click to expand...

Thanks. Do they do their content in written form too?
Click to expand...
I dont belive so. only youtube
 
I don't pay nearly as much attention to the news as I used to but I do look through the AP (associated press) app and read some stories here and there. I find its unbiased and offers straight news with no opinion.

I also watch News 12 (which is local NJ news) in the morning while exercising and having coffee - its a mix of local news, human interest segments, with a few "big" national stories mixed in a little and have CNBC on in the background when I work - it's mostly business news discussion but they break out headline news and dive into world issues here and there.

I won't waste time on bias trash cable news like FOX, CNN or MSNBC - except for maybe election night. It's a shame how bad cable news is - wish there was some unbiased 24 hour news station out there.
 
Joe Bryant said:
I won't say any more on how I think using the FFA as a primary source is a really bad idea as it gets into how narrow our demographic is and staying in bubbles.

So I'll drop that as it's not useful.
Click to expand...
I actually think you are wrong here. This is a great source to get a broad source of the news. And plenty of people provide links if someone wants to explore further. There are some really, really smart people on here that I've learned a lot from over the years.

There are folks on both sides of the aisle here, and when they play nice this is a wonderful place to learn what's going on.
 
I do not read political or general news sites.

Tech and science news is what I primarily consume and arstechnica.com and livescience.com are some of my favorite two, but there are more.

I also like reading up on vehicle news, and motortrend and caranddriver are my favorite sources there.

For video game news i read polygon.com

For fishing I read local forums.
 
I stay informed. I do take "breaks" as needed.

WTOP.com for local (DC area) news
Washington Post and BBC for general coverage
 
1440 digest email, and local news. That's it. I don't watch or read anything else actively. I will skim the reddit news but only really pay attention of it's NPR/Reuters/BBC
 
Joe Bryant said:
I will say I appreciate folks being in the community and you know I love y'all. But using the FFA with anonymous posters as a primary news source is not a good idea in my opinion.
Click to expand...
I still think you undervalue the contributions of many of the posters here and overvalue one specific news outlet.

With the PSF, and why I thought it was a great place to get news, the most prominent news stories of the day always seemed to be highlighted and links to news stories on the event/issue were oftentimes linked to the wide spectrum of left to neutral to right leaning outlets.
 
3C's said:
Joe Bryant said:
I will say I appreciate folks being in the community and you know I love y'all. But using the FFA with anonymous posters as a primary news source is not a good idea in my opinion.
Click to expand...
I don't use the FFA as a news "source" but sometimes as a news breaker. Get the headline and then go find more info.
Click to expand...
I agree. The FFA is for a heads up about what's being reported and a quick opinion check. It's the starting point not the conclusion.
 
1440 daily email for me. Can't recommend it highly enough for unbiased, balanced news aggregation. I've been using them for a couple of years now and they've been consistently fair in what they choose to present and from what source. I'll look at Drudge a few times a week (decidedly not unbiased and balanced), usually if I'm bored and wondering what's going on or if there's an evolving story that I want to see if there's new info on (it's hit or miss for that purpose though unless it's actually a political story as well). If I'm forced to a breaking news source I'll usually go to CNN or rarely BBC.

Local news in the mornings.

Round table political show on Sunday mornings if I can catch one. Although I would consider this more to find out what's going on in politics and how the politicians are spinning things. I used to watch This Week with Stephanopoulos religiously but after Donna Brazil kept getting airtime despite feeding questions to Hillary before that debate on CNN, I stopped watching them. I'll usually look for CBS now.

I really don't have the time to watch or listen to much other than that. I'll listen to news radio if there's a breaking story and I'm on my commute. I'll watch congressional hearings on Youtube sometimes while I work.

In terms of the amount of news to consume, I am very interested in a wide range of topics but don't necessarily seek out much other than what peaks my interest from the above or what I see in the FFA. I never went into the PSF unless there was a specific political news item I wanted more intel on - usually election items but for example I'd be checking the PSF regularly on the Israel-Hamas conflict so I'm super glad that thread is still going strong here.
 
I will say I tend to pay a lot of attention to the biased sources (like political roundtables and the like) only because I realize I get a lot of heads up from my facebook feed and friends and family. Which means I need to be careful about what I'm hearing because those sources are often very much biased, and I have some sort of perverse enjoyment in being able to discern the spin vs. the truth.
 
ChiefD said:
Joe Bryant said:
I won't say any more on how I think using the FFA as a primary source is a really bad idea as it gets into how narrow our demographic is and staying in bubbles.

So I'll drop that as it's not useful.
Click to expand...
I actually think you are wrong here. This is a great source to get a broad source of the news. And plenty of people provide links if someone wants to explore further. There are some really, really smart people on here that I've learned a lot from over the years.

There are folks on both sides of the aisle here, and when they play nice this is a wonderful place to learn what's going on.
Click to expand...

Thanks. We'll just disagree there. This is an extremely narrow demographic here. And I can hold that opinion and not "undervalue" individual contributors. Thanks.

But no interest in arguing that.

What sources do you like outside the FFA?
 
Last edited:
Hawks64 said:
1440 digest email, and local news. That's it. I don't watch or read anything else actively. I will skim the reddit news but only really pay attention of it's NPR/Reuters/BBC
Click to expand...

Thanks. What's the background on 1440? I have skimmed their newsletter and I know the angle is "unbiased news" but I don't know much about them.
 
Zow said:
Joe Bryant said:
I will say I appreciate folks being in the community and you know I love y'all. But using the FFA with anonymous posters as a primary news source is not a good idea in my opinion.
Click to expand...
I still think you undervalue the contributions of many of the posters here and overvalue one specific news outlet.

With the PSF, and why I thought it was a great place to get news, the most prominent news stories of the day always seemed to be highlighted and links to news stories on the event/issue were oftentimes linked to the wide spectrum of left to neutral to right leaning outlets.
Click to expand...
agreed. I know the PSF devolved into a dumpster fire on some topics... but I did appreciate hearing the opinions of those on the left and often it made me rethink or at least pause my original line of thinking. I think that being I knew most of the posters here from conversations we would have in other, non-political threads, kept me from jumping at them unnecessarily when politcis would be discussed. Much more so than on places like Twitter or TikTok where the poster is pretty much autonomous.

I've said many times, a lot of our problems are that our news and opinion sources are shaped by algorithms and information silos that only tell us what we want to hear. Live in those long enough and you have exactly what discord we have today. I may not have agreed with everyone in the PSF, but it was an opportunity to be a bit more open-minded IMO
 
I quit paying attention to inside-DC news several years ago. There was a time in my life when I could have named 75% of the senate along with their state and party affiliation, but those days are long gone, kind of like my days of knowing every third-string RB in the league. I'm aware that there is currently no speaker of the house, for example, but I don't really know what's going on with that or what sort of outcomes might arise. Lost cause, don't care.

I freely skip over stories that I don't care about. Again, I would have once considered it important to stay informed about what's going in Ukraine, but my following that story in no way helps defeat Russia, so why bother. I'm okay with having only a vague idea of this stuff and just refraining from comment aside from stating broad, directional preferences like "Putin sucks." I feel comfortable with my ability to defend that sort of statement without referencing breaking news.

For stories I care about, I generally rely on social media to point me to good sources, and I can also always find sources on my own. But there, I'm usually more interested in analysis than facts-on-the-ground reporting. Good analytical types will provide enough of that so I don't feel any need to seek that out unless I need to verify something.
 
Joe Bryant said:
Hawks64 said:
1440 digest email, and local news. That's it. I don't watch or read anything else actively. I will skim the reddit news but only really pay attention of it's NPR/Reuters/BBC
Click to expand...

Thanks. What's the background on 1440? I have skimmed their newsletter and I know the angle is "unbiased news" but I don't know much about them.
Click to expand...
I'm going to let Hawks answer this because it was addressed to him.

I'm going to give a proof by contradiction link to reiterate my stamp of approval for 1440. I could only get through the first 3 minutes of this guy trying (what I assume is) his hardest to discredit 1440's "unbiased" approach, and failing miserably imo. If he is convincing to you, then godspeed - you'll be on your way. But if this is the worst anyone can come up with to argue against 1440's balanced approach, well let me just say that, for me, this is a powerful statement in support of 1440's ability to remain balanced thus far. Of course, that could all change tomorrow but so far so good!

I'll add 2 more items to the conversation:

Ad Fontes has a media bias chart. Disclaimer: no idea if it's up to date or accurate, or who is behind it. I have no idea how accurate this actually is, I'm simply sharing it and you can apply your own confirmation bias to their results ;) They seem to like 1440 and CBS Evening News.

If you want a totally different way to find what's being reported on, you might be interested in Newsmap.js. Totally NOT unbiased, but will give you good info on the most read stories by category. I'm assuming I found out about this in the FFA a long long time ago. I don't regularly check in there, but if you're a news junkie I would think this would be invaluable to you.
 
IvanKaramazov said:
For stories I care about, I generally rely on social media to point me to good sources, and I can also always find sources on my own. But there, I'm usually more interested in analysis than facts-on-the-ground reporting. Good analytical types will provide enough of that so I don't feel any need to seek that out unless I need to verify something.
Click to expand...

This needs a lot more detail though. I THINK you mean your carefully curated twitter feed where you aggressively weed out bad follows, right?

I think Twitter can be incredibly useful. And also amazingly hurtful if not used right.

Can you elaborate more on how you use it? I'm guessing you rely on Twitter lists?
 
Joe Bryant said:
I will say I appreciate folks being in the community and you know I love y'all. But using the FFA with anonymous posters as a primary news source is not a good idea in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Counterpoint to that: I don't need to be aware of every little thing happening in the world. If something major is breaking, I get wind of it: here, other social media outlets, people talking at work, etc. If it's something I am curious about, I'll look for articles or click the 100s of links I am being sent every day. I try and read trusted sources, and try to actively read many sources, with different perspectives. Left wing, right wing, foreign U.S. allies, foreign enemies, business/econ perspective vs socio-political. All of those sources help me triangulate on what I think might actually be happening.

Otherwise, I don't want to hear about most news. period. I don't need a bunch of useless "information" rattling around in my head. I'm happier being only tangentially aware of most news.
 
Joe Bryant said:
Hawks64 said:
1440 digest email, and local news. That's it. I don't watch or read anything else actively. I will skim the reddit news but only really pay attention of it's NPR/Reuters/BBC
Click to expand...


For Reddit, what forum do you like there?
Click to expand...

This is the one place where I get "news" but I just scroll the stories to get an idea (generally) of what has happened - deaths, hot news stories (like the wars going on), etc. I rarely have the time or interest to go to any of the pages but occasionally do. And that's similar to what I do here - and the PSF.
 
Psychopav said:
If you want a totally different way to find what's being reported on, you might be interested in Newsmap.js. Totally NOT unbiased, but will give you good info on the most read stories by category. I'm assuming I found out about this in the FFA a long long time ago. I don't regularly check in there, but if you're a news junkie I would think this would be invaluable to you.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'd not seen that before. Can you tell me how you use that site?
 
Joe Bryant said:
Psychopav said:
If you want a totally different way to find what's being reported on, you might be interested in Newsmap.js. Totally NOT unbiased, but will give you good info on the most read stories by category. I'm assuming I found out about this in the FFA a long long time ago. I don't regularly check in there, but if you're a news junkie I would think this would be invaluable to you.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'd not seen that before. Can you tell me how you use that site?
Click to expand...
It's really just an on demand thing. If I'm interested in catching up on the most clicked stories (or it may be most shared, I'm not actually sure), I'll go there. it's similar to a wordcloud, so the larger boxes are most read/shared. Click on "options" at the bottom to select English (United States) and unclick any categories you're not interested in, or to zoom in on specific categories. It's visual and intuitive - the categories are color coded to the stories (so World stories in red, National in yellow, Business in green, etc.).
 
4 primary sources:
1. AM radio during 20 minute drive to work in mornings
2. FFA. If it's important enough, I'll see it here
3. Twitter feed but I honestly ignore a lot of it
4. I sill watch 11:00 PM local news. I feel it's the right mix for someone like me that isn't a news-junkie.
 
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