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

[DA RAIDERS]

I don't watch the news or read the news or seek it out.

Best decision I ever made. Much happier.

This. My wife usually brings stuff up. if it interests me, I go to multiple sources to figure out what’s going on. including here.

my parents came to dinner last week and the Israel/hamas deal had just hit the news cycle. I was aware but hadn’t watched anything at that point. My mom was a little annoyed at me when I said I hadn’t watched the kidnapping videos or the the people running for their lives from the festival. Especially when I told her I didn’t want or need to see that sort of thing. too horrible/depressing. I’ve since seen them. I was right.

 

[Gally]

I don't watch the news or read the news or seek it out.

Best decision I ever made. Much happier.

This is me. I was never a news guy to begin with. It has always seemed like a useless endeavor and has only gotten worse with the way media provides "news" these days.

I have a niece (on my wifes side) that is as far left as you can go. My dad always asks what kind of stuff she is spouting these days as how she just has no clue how the world works. My dad has always been conservative but over the course of the last few years all he does is watch Fox news and is now pretty much as far right as you can be. I have told him multiple times that he is the same as my niece but on the other end of the spectrum. He completely denies it thinking he is somewhere just right of the middle. It's actually quite comical.

I find it interesting that when talking to my niece I am considered way right and when talking to my dad he has said I crossed over to the way left. I guess that means I am dead center...hahaha.

All that to say, I think that politics have gotten so divided that it is pushing people further and further apart and that the news outlets are just feeding this divide. I think we would all be a lot better off if we stayed away from news sources.

 

[MrJimiT]

I am not suggesting that this is the "be-all end-all" news outlet, but I have been tuning into News Nation for the past few months. I am personally getting very frustrated with leaning political spins on the facts going either direction. So my minor research into locating a news outlet that would be as non-biased as I could find, ended up being here:

newsnationnow.com

 

[Bogart]

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

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.

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.

I'm a big fan of the Media Bias Chart. Sure, even they might be bias, but it does look like they do their best to give true, real data.

 

[Balco]

I usually check out the NPR website every morning.

Twitter is just toxic in my opinion. I have friends who say it’s a fantastic news source if you use it right, but I stay away.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

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.

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?

I'm too lazy to do lists. Everything just goes in one feed. I know that would drive most people crazy, but it works for me.

You're right that I curate my feed. Basically, I am looking for people who are:

1. Independent thinkers. This roughly translates to "ideological but not partisan." A good example of the kind of person I'm talking about is Noah Smith. He's a center-left guy who I'm sure votes Democrat ~100% of the time. But his support for D candidates is conditional upon them aligning with his views more than the other guys. He is not the kind of person who is going to change his views because his preferred party changed its stance. I unfollow people who change their tune based on partisan narratives. I'm sorry if this is getting too political, and I promise not to argue this particular point, but in practice this means that my "preferred follows" tend to be of two types of people: liberal/left people who did not get into identity politics, and conservative/right people who did not go along with Trump. People who refused to go along with the way their tribes drifted over the past few years have demonstrated a certain level of independence, and so they're over-represented in my feed. That's fine IMO.
2. Honest. If I catch someone pushing information that they know to be false or misleading, they are gone. At the risk of getting too political again, my experience is that this is serious problem with right-wing Twitter. Sorry, but I see more selectively-edited videos and out-of-context quotes coming from particular big accounts in that orbit than I do elsewhere, but of course this is a problem that spans the whole spectrum. What I am looking for here are people like Tim Urban and Nate Silver. In my experience, "follows Tim Urban" is an excellent positive indicator of quality, and "hates Nate Silver" is a similarly-useful negative indicator of quality. I also have a out-of-whack number of Scott Alexander (Slate Star Codex) fans, because they obsess over Bayesian updating and getting an accurate map of the terrain. They're also borderline-autistic (it's a running joke in that community) and will really dig into topics that they are unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, you have to put up with a bunch of weird stuff with this crowd (seriously guys, enough with the polycules), but whatever. It's a strange community.

I follow other accounts of course. For example, I follow a few Daily Wire types just as a way of keep tabs on what that particular corner of the internet has to say, but I know to double-check anything I get from those folks. I'm currently also following a handful of "decolonization" people because that's an important constituency at the moment for the Israel story in general and my world in particular, but I'm not following them information-gathering purposes. And yeah I have a few hate-follows that I keep around for "Get a load of that guy" purposes. But even if I don't use lists, I know who is who.

When a story breaks, like Israel for example, the folks selected for (1) and (2) collectively do a pretty good job identifying other domain-specific people to pay attention to. They're not subject matter experts, but they can identify the people who are, and they're selecting on the same criteria as me.

 

[El Floppo]

I check my Google news feed regularly. But I make a point of clicking different mainstream sources/views so it's not force feeding me what it thinks I want to see. That gives me the headlines, main talking points of the day.

At lunch I go through AP, Reuters, BBC and Al Jazeera to get in a little more. I don't scan any other mainstream news sources than those.

 

[massraider]

Reuters
The Guardian
BBC
Sky News
r/World News on Reddit
Morning Brew and Matt Levine newsletters
A few podcasts from the above
Twitter for real time events--stay out of the comments.

Business and tech blogs that I understand about 20% of.

Most of the sources I use skew liberal, but I am not really reading these sites to get news about politics. I am not seeking out politics at all anymore. There's a lot of news out there that is not political.

 

[3C's]

I check my Google news feed regularly. But I make a point of clicking different mainstream sources/views so it's not force feeding me what it thinks I want to see. That gives me the headlines, main talking points of the day.

At lunch I go through AP, Reuters, BBC and Al Jazeera to get in a little more. I don't scan any other mainstream news sources than those.

I tap the Google icon on my phone to look at the news but all I get are beer and sports links. No idea why!

 

[Psychopav]

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.

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?

I'm too lazy to do lists. Everything just goes in one feed. I know that would drive most people crazy, but it works for me.

You're right that I curate my feed. Basically, I am looking for people who are:

1. Independent thinkers. This roughly translates to "ideological but not partisan." A good example of the kind of person I'm talking about is Noah Smith. He's a center-left guy who I'm sure votes Democrat ~100% of the time. But his support for D candidates is conditional upon them aligning with his views more than the other guys. He is not the kind of person who is going to change his views because his preferred party changed its stance. I unfollow people who change their tune based on partisan narratives. I'm sorry if this is getting too political, and I promise not to argue this particular point, but in practice this means that my "preferred follows" tend to be of two types of people: liberal/left people who did not get into identity politics, and conservative/right people who did not go along with Trump. People who refused to go along with the way their tribes drifted over the past few years have demonstrated a certain level of independence, and so they're over-represented in my feed. That's fine IMO.
2. Honest. If I catch someone pushing information that they know to be false or misleading, they are gone. At the risk of getting too political again, my experience is that this is serious problem with right-wing Twitter. Sorry, but I see more selectively-edited videos and out-of-context quotes coming from particular big accounts in that orbit than I do elsewhere, but of course this is a problem that spans the whole spectrum. What I am looking for here are people like Tim Urban and Nate Silver. In my experience, "follows Tim Urban" is an excellent positive indicator of quality, and "hates Nate Silver" is a similarly-useful negative indicator of quality. I also have a out-of-whack number of Scott Alexander (Slate Star Codex) fans, because they obsess over Bayesian updating and getting an accurate map of the terrain. They're also borderline-autistic (it's a running joke in that community) and will really dig into topics that they are unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, you have to put up with a bunch of weird stuff with this crowd (seriously guys, enough with the polycules), but whatever. It's a strange community.

I follow other accounts of course. For example, I follow a few Daily Wire types just as a way of keep tabs on what that particular corner of the internet has to say, but I know to double-check anything I get from those folks. I'm currently also following a handful of "decolonization" people because that's an important constituency at the moment for the Israel story in general and my world in particular, but I'm not following them information-gathering purposes. And yeah I have a few hate-follows that I keep around for "Get a load of that guy" purposes. But even if I don't use lists, I know who is who.

When a story breaks, like Israel for example, the folks selected for (1) and (2) collectively do a pretty good job identifying other domain-specific people to pay attention to. They're not subject matter experts, but they can identify the people who are, and they're selecting on the same criteria as me.

This is a very responsible actively engaged citizen right here. Good use of sources and intentionality.

Granted, I'd probably like you even better if your username was Alexei Karamazov, or even Zosima. But well done, wish we had more of you!

 

[brun]

Local - it's usually NHPR or the local ABC affiliate.

National - I don't seek out anything specific.

International - it's probably BBC or Al Jazeera.

I'm really more interested in sports stuff than news stuff anyway. So, a random drunk sitting at the end of the bar is probably as good as anything I listed above.

 

[wlwiles]

Honestly, probably 75% of "the news" is what I get from my wife. I am generally aware of what's happening through my Twitter/X feed or if I catch the nightly local news on TV, but she watches the local news every single night, Face the Nation/Meet the Press type shows on weekend mornings, and her Twitter/X feed is more AP news related with some CNN, Fox News, etc. from all sides because she's a very open-minded person. So if there's something I'm not sure about or want to know more about I'll ask her first before I go searching online, because she's usually already dug into it and knows how to explain it to me more easily.

 

[urbanhack]

As little as possible...only to stay informed and be educated.

BBC
Local NPR
Individual Journalists and Reports on Twitter
I will also read more in depth reporting which we seem to be lacking...
FrontLine
ProPublica

I will not watch local news, network news or any cable news networks.

 

[Joe Bryant]

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.

Thanks. I'd not seen that before. Can you tell me how you use that site?

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.).

Ah thank you. Clicking on the categories at the bottom removes that category from the view. I thought it would add it and I didn't understand. Also helps with the "nation" if if I make it my nation. LOL. That's pretty rad. Do you know how it's curated and driven? Meaning what metric makes it show up as a "popular" story? Is it tied to google search or something?

 

[UncleZen]

I have learned that even channels that you would think are straight up are not. For example, if you watch the weather channel before a major storm, such as a hurricane, you would think everyone is going to die. This happens frequently and then all of my family call me begging us to evacuate.

For other news, I mostly avoid it. I catch the major issues either through social media or yahoo and then if interested, I will dig in to find more.

 

[Psychopav]

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.

Thanks. I'd not seen that before. Can you tell me how you use that site?

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.).

Ah thank you. Clicking on the categories at the bottom removes that category from the view. I thought it would add it and I didn't understand. Also helps with the "nation" if if I make it my nation. LOL. That's pretty rad. Do you know how it's curated and driven? Meaning what metric makes it show up as a "popular" story? Is it tied to google search or something?

Yes, I believe it's linked to the google news stories. In the options you can click to change the weighting method too, and the number of stories that will appear in each category.

 

[Psychopav]

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.

Thanks. I'd not seen that before. Can you tell me how you use that site?

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.).

Ah thank you. Clicking on the categories at the bottom removes that category from the view. I thought it would add it and I didn't understand. Also helps with the "nation" if if I make it my nation. LOL. That's pretty rad. Do you know how it's curated and driven? Meaning what metric makes it show up as a "popular" story? Is it tied to google search or something?

Yes, I believe it's linked to the google news stories. In the options you can click to change the weighting method too, and the number of stories that will appear in each category.

I think the size is based on popularity of google news story, and the color represents age (the lighter the color, the more recent the story). It uses an API that google provides to keep updated in real time.

 

[Hawks64]

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

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.

It's just an unbiased aggregator.

 

[Hawks64]

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

For Reddit, what forum do you like there?

I subscribe to a ton of stuff but in the app if you swipe left twice or use the drop down you get the news section.

 

[dickey moe]

IMO, realclearpolitics.com offers a very good one-stop shop for varying perspectives on topics (not just politics)... left, right, domestic, and international.

 

[mr. furley]

interesting topic

one thing i noticed over the years is that our corporate splash page when opening the internet is snapshots/headlines/images of buzzy/hot takes. pseudo-news. things like "INVESTORS CAN'T BELIEVE THIS ONE SIMPLE TRICK!" and "SPORTS WORLD OUTRAGED AT LEBRON'S LATEST OUTBURST!" but when you click on the "story" it's not that investors are shocked by any tricks, but the "story" is "save 10 dollars from every paycheck" and Lebron's "outburst" is him making a TikTok eating a burger

took me a while to tie that sort of "news" back to the nonsense i hear from older relatives. they are just getting bombarded with crap like this because they aren't using ad-blockers, or they are getting their news from facebook, etc. makes conspiracy theories, unbased rumors and gossip spread like wildfire.


i try to consume current events and stay on top of things, but it's fatiguing when the legitimate news sources are trying to keep up by having AI create clickbait stories. there's so much trash out there.

for headlines and broadstroke stories i find reddit is a good resource. the comments are garbage, but you can get news from Israeli sites, from French sites, from LA, NYC, from Oklahoma, etc. and get real time interaction with events as they happen. news and details break fast and the community there is quick to post about it.

then i watch local news, read local and regional news sites, watch PBS, pick up newspapers and magazines periodically.

 

[NutterButter]

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.

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

https://www.youtube.com/@breakingpoints

This has some real potential. Very informative. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

 

[Snoopy]

interesting topic

one thing i noticed over the years is that our corporate splash page when opening the internet is snapshots/headlines/images of buzzy/hot takes. pseudo-news. things like "INVESTORS CAN'T BELIEVE THIS ONE SIMPLE TRICK!" and "SPORTS WORLD OUTRAGED AT LEBRON'S LATEST OUTBURST!" but when you click on the "story" it's not that investors are shocked by any tricks, but the "story" is "save 10 dollars from every paycheck" and Lebron's "outburst" is him making a TikTok eating a burger

took me a while to tie that sort of "news" back to the nonsense i hear from older relatives. they are just getting bombarded with crap like this because they aren't using ad-blockers, or they are getting their news from facebook, etc. makes conspiracy theories, unbased rumors and gossip spread like wildfire.


i try to consume current events and stay on top of things, but it's fatiguing when the legitimate news sources are trying to keep up by having AI create clickbait stories. there's so much trash out there.

for headlines and broadstroke stories i find reddit is a good resource. the comments are garbage, but you can get news from Israeli sites, from French sites, from LA, NYC, from Oklahoma, etc. and get real time interaction with events as they happen. news and details break fast and the community there is quick to post about it.

then i watch local news, read local and regional news sites, watch PBS, pick up newspapers and magazines periodically.

All clickbait trying to pique your curiosity to get you to open the page. And it is getting worse and worse.

 

[General Malaise]

Only one source I trust for honest news with no hidden agenda and that's Naked News brohans and take that to a bank.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

All clickbait trying to pique your curiosity to get you to open the page. And it is getting worse and worse.

Instant sign of a site that I probably shouldn't trust. Sites that do this are announcing openly that they're more interested in getting clicks than they are in informing their audience.

Now, that's a presumption that can be disproven if I read a few stories and find that they're well-written and informative. But typically, headlines like "Experts Say This Food Should be Avoided" (random example) strongly indicate gutter-tier journalism.

 

[General Malaise]

I also feel like I'm reading AI written news stories recently on Google or Samsung's "News Feed" thingee. The writing is choppy and reads like AI is taking the place of a real journalist.

"Presidnet Joe Biden who was elected by voters to serve as the 46th president flew to Israel today using aerodynamics in motion"......

Bad example, but many "news" stories I stumble upon are written in bizarre a manner like this.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

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.

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

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.

I would like to say something about Joe
If you think he agrees with everyone that posts, you've got another thing coming
One of the things i have learned from Joe over many years, is not "The Case for Christ" which was given to me for the 5th time in my life recently
They are trying so hard to save me.

The first person to share it with me was Joe Bryant some 20+ years ago.
I can almost promise you that it hurts him internally every time he rolls up on a couple of us having an unpleasant exchange, that was never the intent of this forum.
And yet he still after shutting down the PSF, realizing we still need a place to vent in the most disturbing times...
We made it almost a year(No PSF) but sometimes events force us to try and engage about what we see unfolding,.

I was concerned and quite worried that the next time we have a horrible event/tragedy in this country that I wouldn't be able to run into the forums and get better information than I would find other places and so I am pretty sure that unless people start going after each other which we really shouldn't do, it would seem there will be opportunities to share information

I don't think most folks understand how difficult it is to try and be understanding of all POV and that is what we ask of Joe, Staff and all FBGs, it's a tall task.
Ask not what FBG can do for you but what you can do for the FBG community in here.

Cheers Everyone!

 

[Terminalxylem]

I don't watch the news or read the news or seek it out.

Same. Too much badness in the world, most of which you have little ability to change.

By interacting with other humans, you‘ll still hear about big world events, and locally relevant stuff, like weather phenomenona.

Admittedly, my wife watches the local news on TV, to which I sometimes pay attention. Other than that, this forum is my news source. If something piques my interest, I can always google. When I do, I have no consistent preference which links I click, other than avoiding sensational headlines, and most YouTube commentary.

I may be a little ignorant, but I’m much happier than anyone I’ve known who’s a news/political junkie. Less fearful, too. And less attached to electronic devices.

I‘m sure there are downsides to this approach, though they‘re far outweighed by the good, imo. Really, aside from a sense of being informed, what tangible benefits do people derive from regularly/extensively consuming the news?

 

[Psychopav]

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.

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

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.

I would like to say something about Joe
If you think he agrees with everyone that posts, you've got another thing coming
One of the things i have learned from Joe over many years, is not "The Case for Christ" which was given to me for the 5th time in my life recently
They are trying so hard to save me.

The first person to share it with me was Joe Bryant some 20+ years ago.
I can almost promise you that it hurts him internally every time he rolls up on a couple of us having an unpleasant exchange, that was never the intent of this forum.
And yet he still after shutting down the PSF, realizing we still need a place to vent in the most disturbing times...
We made it almost a year(No PSF) but sometimes events force us to try and engage about what we see unfolding,.

I was concerned and quite worried that the next time we have a horrible event/tragedy in this country that I wouldn't be able to run into the forums and get better information than I would find other places and so I am pretty sure that unless people start going after each other which we really shouldn't do, it would seem there will be opportunities to share information

I don't think most folks understand how difficult it is to try and be understanding of all POV and that is what we ask of Joe, Staff and all FBGs, it's a tall task.
Ask not what FBG can do for you but what you can do for the FBG community in here.

Cheers Everyone!

Excellent posting. I still remember 9/11 and this forum getting me through that day and the days that followed. It's so consistently a bright spot for not JUST support but information when crisis moments hit. It would suck to have to resort to Facebook and Twitter to sort out situations like that.

 

[snogger]

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.

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

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.

I don't watch any 24 hour news channels , just local news, then just 30 minutes a day is about all I can take.

I am still old school and have Yahoo as my home page for my browser.
so surf through those news stories. Then find Bing.com News tab to also have good coverage.
I'd say in a normal day I spend 1 to 2 hours tops reading/watching news.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

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.

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

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.

I would like to say something about Joe
If you think he agrees with everyone that posts, you've got another thing coming
One of the things i have learned from Joe over many years, is not "The Case for Christ" which was given to me for the 5th time in my life recently
They are trying so hard to save me.

The first person to share it with me was Joe Bryant some 20+ years ago.
I can almost promise you that it hurts him internally every time he rolls up on a couple of us having an unpleasant exchange, that was never the intent of this forum.
And yet he still after shutting down the PSF, realizing we still need a place to vent in the most disturbing times...
We made it almost a year(No PSF) but sometimes events force us to try and engage about what we see unfolding,.

I was concerned and quite worried that the next time we have a horrible event/tragedy in this country that I wouldn't be able to run into the forums and get better information than I would find other places and so I am pretty sure that unless people start going after each other which we really shouldn't do, it would seem there will be opportunities to share information

I don't think most folks understand how difficult it is to try and be understanding of all POV and that is what we ask of Joe, Staff and all FBGs, it's a tall task.
Ask not what FBG can do for you but what you can do for the FBG community in here.

Cheers Everyone!

Excellent posting. I still remember 9/11 and this forum getting me through that day and the days that followed. It's so consistently a bright spot for not JUST support but information when crisis moments hit. It would suck to have to resort to Facebook and Twitter to sort out situations like that.

I will never forget 9/11 in here...OMG I gotta tell the story and I'll go quick.
Lifetime in Florida, had been in Los Angeles not even a full year
Best friend from HS visiting, father is a 9-1-1 dispatcher on the East Coast and the phone starts ringing early...and I look at my friend standing in the doorway saying over and over Turn on the TV, the phone ringing was the dad who already knew what was happening and trying to wake us up.

It's something I hope I never experience again. The challenge is, for many others it's more a way of life than a once in a lifetime experience.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

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.

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

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.

I would like to say something about Joe
If you think he agrees with everyone that posts, you've got another thing coming
One of the things i have learned from Joe over many years, is not "The Case for Christ" which was given to me for the 5th time in my life recently
They are trying so hard to save me.

The first person to share it with me was Joe Bryant some 20+ years ago.
I can almost promise you that it hurts him internally every time he rolls up on a couple of us having an unpleasant exchange, that was never the intent of this forum.
And yet he still after shutting down the PSF, realizing we still need a place to vent in the most disturbing times...
We made it almost a year(No PSF) but sometimes events force us to try and engage about what we see unfolding,.

I was concerned and quite worried that the next time we have a horrible event/tragedy in this country that I wouldn't be able to run into the forums and get better information than I would find other places and so I am pretty sure that unless people start going after each other which we really shouldn't do, it would seem there will be opportunities to share information

I don't think most folks understand how difficult it is to try and be understanding of all POV and that is what we ask of Joe, Staff and all FBGs, it's a tall task.
Ask not what FBG can do for you but what you can do for the FBG community in here.

Cheers Everyone!

Excellent posting. I still remember 9/11 and this forum getting me through that day and the days that followed. It's so consistently a bright spot for not JUST support but information when crisis moments hit. It would suck to have to resort to Facebook and Twitter to sort out situations like that.

Yes, but . . .

These highly-limited, highly-scrutinized quasi-political threads are working out okay for a couple of reasons. First of all, they're highly scrutinized and most people are trying very hard to be on their best behavior. I don't think that's sustainable over a longer time horizon. Second, and this is probably the more important point, they are conversations being had among men who have known each other for 20 years, and we talk about other stuff besides politics. I know that I'm one of the guilty parties here, but too many people from the PSF were PSF-only, and that really colors the tone of how these discussions go. I feel like I can have a pleasant talk with Psychopav or MOP kind of like sitting at a diner with guys who have been going there forever, whereas it isn't like that with people who want to win a debate. I'm going to be seeing MOP in other threads and forums, and that matters in terms of civility. (Not that I'm looking for a reason to be uncivil to MOP. Being a Dolphins fan is enough.)

 

[Tick]

Sources: NYT, Washington Post, The Guardian. I never trust anything I see on social media, but if I spot some news there, I'll go read about it at the real news sites. I never watch any TV news.

 

[mr. furley]

I also feel like I'm reading AI written news stories recently on Google or Samsung's "News Feed" thingee. The writing is choppy and reads like AI is taking the place of a real journalist.

"Presidnet Joe Biden who was elected by voters to serve as the 46th president flew to Israel today using aerodynamics in motion"......

Bad example, but many "news" stories I stumble upon are written in bizarre a manner like this.

i'm almost certain that something like 50% of article son the local news sites are either AI written, or written by interns with no editor.

just full of mis-spellings, terrible grammar, repeated words. they read like a HS kid who is struggling to write a cohesive paragraph for English class.

 

[MAC_32]

Whatever I absorb over coffee cup #1 in the morning. That can be driven by NBC, something I read in here, group text, twitter, or something that hit my orbit the day before so I made note of it to read in the morning. We all have finite capacity, so if I spend more time than that then another area of my life will suffer. I think pivoting is the right move for significant events (i.e. I dropped everything on Jan 6) but not every day nonsense.

 

[BassNBrew]

I truly got most of my new from the politics forum. I now don’t really get much news unless somebody in my life says something.

Great posting.

I went from very well informed to dumb and a lot more productive. The only subject I'm currently informed on is Russia/Ukraine because the thread that is allowed in the FFA and several posters who do the work culling the information. It's not so much the limited demographic that J speaks about, its the fact that there are a few new junkies that will do the heavy lifting. J doesn't want to discuss it, by I view getting news from this board like getting football news from the daily update J publishes. Is it perfect....no. Is it pretty dang good and saves me a bunch of time....affirmative. If J shuttered FBGs, I'd be even more productive and even dumber on football.

 

[NewlyRetired]

1) I am apolitical

2) I convinced myself decades ago that the news was 95% negative and that no matter how informed I could become, it was utterly meaningless because I had no ability to change anything. All being informed did was fill me with extremely negative information, images and sounds that I did not have the ability to make positive.

Combining the two above has made me ignore news almost entirely for about the last 30 years.

 

[culdeus]

Daily podcasts mostly. The Daily, Today Explained, and similar from wsj and npr marketplace.

 

[TripItUp]

I peruse almost everything when I'm bored during normal times and I'll read or watch anything that's interesting. But it's not as much as it used to be. My business has taken off and I play a ton of pickleball...and my wife needs time too. I do watch a fair amount of CNBC to keep up with the financial markets, particularly the technology vertical as it's relevant to my business.

When there is an event like the current war, I try to get an informed opinion by listening to "both sides" if possible...mostly TV and a few select podcasts that I believe to be on the more objective side.

I'm certainly "on guard" when listening to the outlets have proven to be politically motivated over the years such as MSNBC, CNN, FOX, Washington Post etc. Though I do believe those outlets still have moments of "good news/information and discussion."

 

[titusbramble]

Anything that is worth knowing about, I hear from Twitter. I've not actively read or watched any legacy media since 2020

 

[Joe Bryant]

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.

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

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.

I would like to say something about Joe
If you think he agrees with everyone that posts, you've got another thing coming
One of the things i have learned from Joe over many years, is not "The Case for Christ" which was given to me for the 5th time in my life recently
They are trying so hard to save me.

The first person to share it with me was Joe Bryant some 20+ years ago.
I can almost promise you that it hurts him internally every time he rolls up on a couple of us having an unpleasant exchange, that was never the intent of this forum.
And yet he still after shutting down the PSF, realizing we still need a place to vent in the most disturbing times...
We made it almost a year(No PSF) but sometimes events force us to try and engage about what we see unfolding,.

I was concerned and quite worried that the next time we have a horrible event/tragedy in this country that I wouldn't be able to run into the forums and get better information than I would find other places and so I am pretty sure that unless people start going after each other which we really shouldn't do, it would seem there will be opportunities to share information

I don't think most folks understand how difficult it is to try and be understanding of all POV and that is what we ask of Joe, Staff and all FBGs, it's a tall task.
Ask not what FBG can do for you but what you can do for the FBG community in here.

Cheers Everyone!

Thank you, GB. You're kind.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Thanks again to @Psychopav for the https://newsmap.ijmacd.com/ mention. When you dial in the settings you like, it's pretty interesting.

 

[Tecumseh]

1. Check the Apple News app every morning
2. Sirius/Spotify- listen to NPR and POTUS on the way to work, NFL on the way home
3. BBC and occasionally CNN websites
4. Twitter- not for anything substantive, but I know if my congressman is spewing grumpy tweets, then something is going right
5. Politico

 

[Nathan R. Jessep]

Mostly newsletters (and the FFA of course) for the last 5+ years.

I'll add another vote for 1440, I've been using them for several years now, they cover a good range of topics and plenty of links.

Another one I've been on for a couple years now is The Flag (formerly Tag The Flag). I like it because they usually present one main topic (which I may or may not be interested in), and give right-leaning and left-leaning sentiments with links from both sides to peruse. Then they sprinkle in some random "etc." type articles to check out, which I enjoy.

Also recommend The Hustle, which is more business world related. I enjoy the "tone" of the writing (a bit snarky), and they also include "etc." news bits (there seems to be a pattern here )

And I just a couple of weeks ago joined up on Mo News bc of their coverage of the Israel/Gaza conflict. They've done a great job. They also cover other news stories. I have been pleasantly surprised by it thus far. I came across them on Instagram, and they post a lot of news nuggets in their "story" over there as well.

For toilet reading, I recently ran across an app called Artifact that is an aggregator where you can tailor what topics you want to see, report clickbait titles, "save" articles for later, etc. I have enjoyed it also.

 

[glvsav37]

All clickbait trying to pique your curiosity to get you to open the page. And it is getting worse and worse.

if anyone ever want to see the power of how headlines are written for clickbait or to influence opinion, check out www.allsides.com

they take major current events and link the articles from left, right and center next to each other and you can see how intentionally worded the headlines are written to influence the reader. Fro those who just skim headlines, this is a major issue and you are right, it's getting worse.

 

[Desert_Power]

All clickbait trying to pique your curiosity to get you to open the page. And it is getting worse and worse.

if anyone ever want to see the power of how headlines are written for clickbait or to influence opinion, check out www.allsides.com

they take major current events and link the articles from left, right and center next to each other and you can see how intentionally worded the headlines are to influence the reader. Fro those who just skim headlines, this is a major issue and you are right, it's getting worse.

Interesting site.

 

[3C's]

Thanks again to @Psychopav for the https://newsmap.ijmacd.com/ mention. When you dial in the settings you like, it's pretty interesting.

Sorta information overload for me there. Very "busy" page.

 

[Joe Bryant]

All clickbait trying to pique your curiosity to get you to open the page. And it is getting worse and worse.

if anyone ever want to see the power of how headlines are written for clickbait or to influence opinion, check out www.allsides.com

they take major current events and link the articles from left, right and center next to each other and you can see how intentionally worded the headlines are written to influence the reader. Fro those who just skim headlines, this is a major issue and you are right, it's getting worse.

I used to do this when newspapers were more popular and you could look at the newspapers lined on a street in a big city and you could see how they each handled the same front page story.

Fascinating to see the spins and the power of words.

It feels much worse today. If the "other" side has done something negative, they spin that as subtly negative as they can still be able to say If their side did somehing positive, they subtly spin that as positive as possible.

 

[massraider]

All clickbait trying to pique your curiosity to get you to open the page. And it is getting worse and worse.

if anyone ever want to see the power of how headlines are written for clickbait or to influence opinion, check out www.allsides.com

they take major current events and link the articles from left, right and center next to each other and you can see how intentionally worded the headlines are written to influence the reader. Fro those who just skim headlines, this is a major issue and you are right, it's getting worse.

Thanks for that link, that looks great.

 

[Despyzer]

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.

90% of my news comes from Breaking Points now.

Krystal and Sagar are the hosts

I enjoyed them on The Hill. Then they left, and I wasn't sure where they went. I wasn't so devoted to them that I researched where they were at, but I'm happy to have found out. Thanks.