News? You Say You Want News?

[MineralMan]

I'm going to make some shocking suggestions:

1. Watch the news on one of the Broadcast TV networks - ABC, CBS, or NBC. You can watch that for an hour each morning, or for half an hour in the 5-6 PM time slots. What you'll see is traditional news reporting, with a minimum of opinionating. It's old-fashioned news, which is very different from what the 24-hour cable news programs offer. It just tells you what is happening or has happened. Around the same times, your local network affiliate also broadcasts the local news, in a similar way.

And, here's the cool thing. Some networks broadcast their evening news at 5 PM. Others do it at 5:30 PM, or whatever time they come on where you are. You can actually watch the news on two different networks each evening, if you wish. Personally, I watch the CBS national news and local news on my local CBS affiliate between 5 and 6 PM. I watch a different network's news in the morning while I have my morning coffee.

2. Read a big-city newspaper every day. Skip the Opinion/Editorial pages, and read the actual news in the front section and local section. You'll get old-fashioned reporting that simply tells you what happened. Newspapers are always telling you what happened earlier, so they're not a good source for breaking news, but the stories will give you more details than you can get on the broadcast TV networks. I read the St. Paul Pioneer Press, because I live in St. Paul, but pretty much any metro paper will work. When I'm in California, I read the LA Times every day.

See, Cable News Channels are like a 24-hour opinion or editorial page. They don't do a very good job of giving you the news. Instead, they tell you what they think about the news. If you just want to know what happened or is happening, you'll get that more concisely and with a lot less interpretation at the sources mentioned above.

News and opinion are two different things. If you know the facts, you can form your own opinions. If you listen to other people's opinions, you might not get the actual facts, but only a slanted view of them.

News reporting is very valuable. Someone looks into the camera and just tells you what happened or is happening. Or a reporter writes down what happened in more detail for you to read.

Form your own opinions, based on factual information, not on someone else's opinion. You'll be smarter and better informed.

[MineralMan]

1. One Other Note:

If you prefer to get your news on the Internet, I suggest you go to one of the major newspaper sites, like the NYT or Washington Post. If there's a paywall, pay up. What you'll find there is the same old fashioned reporting that's in the paper version. Skip the editorial pages, the newspaper's blog, and just click the tabs for US, International, Political or Business news and read the stories that are actual reporting rather than opinion.

I like a paper newspaper, because it's easier to browse through and pick stories to read from the headlines, but you can do the same thing on a major paper's website.

If you stick to traditional news reporting, instead of using sites that have a heavy slant toward analysis and opinion, you'll get the advantage of forming your own opinion, as described in the thread-starter here.

There's nothing wrong with opinion, of course, but it's better after you've read the basic story first and have the facts.

[FakeNoose]

2. I try to watch local and national news shows every day

I even DVR the NBC Nightly News (Lester Holt) every night, and sometimes watch the next day if I need to. It's important to keep up, even if I'm not home at the dinner hour. In the last few years I've forgone the printed newspapers and now get my local newspaper by email. It's still a paid subscription though.

[MineralMan]

3. That 5-6 PM hour is happy hour at our house.

My wife and I sit there, sip our adult beverages, pet the dogs and watch the news. During commercials, we pet the dogs some more and engage in adult conversation, another thing that many forget to do.

Same thing in the morning. We watch the news, read the paper during commercials and pet the dogs. Then we go into our home offices and work. Boring, isn't it?

[Totally Tunsie]

4. Also, read the "Latest Breaking News" forum on DU.

[MineralMan]

5. Yes, that's a good idea, too.

It's curated to make sure it's actual news from reliable sources.

[Hekate]

6. Kick and Rec

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. I wake up every morning to Democracy Now.

Amy Goodman. I often catch parts of the BBC news broadcasts when out and about in my car.

I read the local paper every day.

Used to watch Rachel regularly, but MSNBC made it harder to watch on the internet so I stopped, and when I sometimes go back to her, I get very tired of how she spends ten minutes giving us 30 seconds of information.

I read lots of books.

[hunter]

8. I find television news intolerable.

We subscribe to our local paper, which is a ghost of what it once was. I read the local free weekly. I have various electronic newspaper and magazine subscriptions. I also contribute to our local public radio.

For international news I generally go to the BBC or The Gaurdian. I contribute to the Guardian, generally $35 annually, but I do not subscribe. The Gaurdian's advertising free electronic subscription is $19.99 a month. Deutsche Welle is also interesting

The web site of our local television news station is okay. I can read their stories quicker than I'd suffer having them read to me in between commercials. I don't watch their video.

Local television news is funny. When we lived in a rougher part of town there could be major mayhem in our neighborhood, police chases resulting in car crashes, fire hydrants run over, people shooting at one another... and unless someone was killed there'd be nothing on the television news. But if any of that stuff happened in a nicer neighborhood all the news people would be there.

One thing you notice traveling across the U.S.A. is how similar, and how limited, local television news is. In too many places they still have "The Scary Black or Brown Man of the Day" feature, "man" in this case being anyone 14 to 25 years old. The faces are different, but the stories are always the same. Then there's the "Teaser" feature, "The Heartwarming Story of the Day" feature, and the sketchy "Health" or "Medicine" feature.

[Leith]

9. I'm going to try that

I will miss watching Rachel, but I have discovered lately that I have been only half-listening.

One local station's news I will skip is the Las Vegas NBC affiliate. It is owned by Sinclair and often includes reichwing propaganda recited by the anchors. Here is a list of stations owned by Sinclair.

[MineralMan]

12. The NBC daily news is not controlled by Sinclair. It is the same in

all markets.

[Leith]

14. The local news is

https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/how-americas-largest-local-tv-owner-turned-its-news-anc-1824233490

[MineralMan]

15. Then don't watch that.

Does nobody own a remote for their TV or cable box?

I have a favorite local news channel, myself. I think most people who watch local TV news do.

I can choose from several local news programs.

I just checked, and Sinclair doesn't own any of the stations I watch.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

10. Sinclair Broadcasting and Fox News

Even our local news here in the Las Vegas area has quite a bit of slant to it.

Even 'facts' can be presented in such a way to sway opinion, especially when there is little time to present all the facts, but instead only the pertinent facts that support 'our' bias.

[MineralMan]

11. Uh, all three networks I mentioned broadcast in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas also has a newspaper.

Sinclair Broadcasting and Fox News are clearly not objective sources in any way. That's why I didn't mention them.

[panader0]

13. The local paper in my little town sucks.

Even the 'Daily Star" in Tucson now sucks--maybe one half of it's former size.
The best source of news for me is here at DU. Of course, I consider the sources.
But I read things here that don't appear in the papers for two days.
DU has members all over the world, people who check AP and UPI and BBC.
Stuff that is now "news" on TV or in the papers was reported here two years ago.