My brainwashed cousin now asks this: "Where can I find truthful news?"

[Grasswire2]

What would be your answer? I believe his question is genuine.

He's a retired cop, fully indoctrinated by FOX and by AM hate radio.

If he is beginning to comprehend that he has been deceived, that is a major change, and perhaps signals the same in others.

He is a Coast Guard veteran, and named for his Uncle who was a POW in the Philippines and was our family hero. He is a loving father and grandfather, and a financial success in life.

But he has been brainwashed.

So what news entity might be an easy transition?

[marybourg]

1. Radio- local NPR station, or on intetnet: WNYC.org /streamsAM or FM

Last edited Sun Sep 6, 2020, 08:16 PM - Edit history (1)

TV: PBS Newshour and weekly Washington Week.

[cos dem]

2. Tell him not to trust any news he doesn't pay for.

Get a subscription to NYT, Washington post. Become a subscriber to PBS or NPR. Skip cable news (all of it).

If you're not willing to pay for it, then you don't care about it enough.

[brush]

14. Why in the world would tell him to skip cable news? That's poor advice.

Maddow, McDonnell, Reid and Keilar are all on cable do excellent jobs of cutting through trump and repug lies. And of course you have to pay for it.

[thesquanderer]

62. CNN and MSNBC are not unbiased. They are marketing outrage.

It can be satisfying if you're already outraged. But if you're an open-minded Republican, they will turn you right off.

[DonaldsRump]

59. Hmmmm.... since when is cable free?

I pay a lot for CNN through cable. How exactly is that free?

[DUgosh]

3. BBC world

[marybourg]

13. Not in my opinion.

And I’ve been listening to them since short-wave radio days. They make many misstatments of fact, and use “Democrat” where they should be using “Democratic”.

[malaise]

17. BBC is a shadow of her former self. The UK Guardian is

excellent and I like NPR

[Trailrider1951]

37. I second your excellent choices, Malaise

I also like CBS News (cbsnews.com). If he parrots, "liberal bias", point him toward REAL left-wing slanted news: World Socialist Website (WsWs.org). I'm sure he can tell the difference.

[marybourg]

41. Yes. Lady Thatcher took the ax to the BBC - and

many of England's other cultural institutions.

[Walleye]

4. I'd tell him what former FBI special agent Clint Watts

Said under oath in a congressional hearing: if you read it in the New York Times or the Washington Post it’s not fake news.

[Reader Rabbit]

5. Would he be willing to follow written media?

If so, you could get him to read Reuters, Christian Science Monitor, or some other written-word news source that covers a broad spectrum—something that won't trigger the "liberal media" response. If he's only willing to watch, then perhaps PBS or some other platform where there is only reporting, rather than commentary, a lot MSNBC.

A bland diet of written word media might be more palatable to someone conditioned to Fox and emotion/anger-driven content.

[RockRaven]

6. AP and Reuters if it is online articles you want. They are barebones fact-reporting without

commentary or spin. Your relative will still probably interpret them through a right wing nut job lens given his years of indoctrination, but at least all the pertinent facts are included in each article.

[Karadeniz]

19. And AP does fact ✔ing from time to time

[Qutzupalotl]

28. My choices as well

I also tell them PBS NewsHour so they can see what letting people finish a sentence on TV looks like. I admit it’s a little boring compared to mortal combat, but it is informative.

I love Rachel too, but she’s not for everyone; she focuses on stories of interest to us rather than Republicans. So when I recommend her, I preface it by saying I’m a Democrat, so I like what she covers. Admitting one’s own preferences or biases builds trust, IMO.

[llmart]

67. +1

I watch PBS NewsHour. It truly is one of the best news sources. It's not just a blurb here and there or a catchy headline. You get in-depth discussions and the people on there actually act like adults when discussing something.

[uponit7771]

63. 👍

[brush]

7. MSNBC, CNN, Axios, Progressive satellite radio, and DU itself.

[thesquanderer]

64. picking up from my reply to your other post, I wouldn't recommend DU, either.

Last edited Sun Sep 6, 2020, 08:04 PM - Edit history (1)

An open-minded perhaps soon-to-be-former Republican will not find this place hospitable or persuasive. Not when we have posters calling those on his side repugs, repukes, rethugs, etc.

[MenloParque]

8. Rightwing colleagues

Many of my conservative colleagues in the IT sector in Silicon Valley read the BBC World News, and Reuters. I don’t know why? But, anything is better than Fox. Why are so many right wingers drawn to the IT sector? I’ve worked at Intel, nVidia, Apple, Google...each freaking company in this Valley is crawling with conservacucks!!

[Blue_true]

26. That is what I noticed about the Tech world.

Lots of higher executives and engineers are progressive, but many engineers and some executives are not. Most of the skilled low level employees are real knuckle-draggers, maybe because a large contingent are ex low level military. Line workers tend to be highly progressive, with few that are not.

[MenloParque]

44. My experience in this valley since the 80's

My first gig was a Mechanical Design Engineer at Applied Materials in the mid-80s. Since receiving my PHD at Stanford, I can say the higher levels I reach the more Right wing, Evil, and hateful my colleagues become. These assholes that make 300k or more a year also love expensive Firearms and love gun culture. My worst experience was my stint at Lockheed Martin as a Senior Circuit Design Engineer (my department was full of gun humping wannabe mercenaries). Service techs, less senior engineers, assembly workers are usually liberal and come from China, India, and the Philippines- loving and beautiful people. I can’t wait to retire and tend to my garden.

[SheltieLover]

9. Any credible news source as listed above.

NOT Faux, except their polling.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. NPR might be good for him.

I turned a coworker who was regular Fox News viewer and Rush listener onto NPR years ago, and he never turned back (as far as I know). He became a nicer person too.

[dawg day]

11. Vox is a thoughtful and calm source.

lots of explanation, no rants.

[tanyev]

12. One of my FB friends does that, but I think she does it disingenously.

A comment like "It's so hard to know who to believe these days" is always followed by some right wing conspiracy theory. Mostly it's been Covid related because she thankfully doesn't do much politics on her FB page. I don't know where she's finding this stuff, but I've started wondering if the original text already contains the "don't know who to believe" mantra and she's just copying and pasting all of it.

[radius777]

73. +1. To those types Fox is 'liberal'

and they're looking for the 'real news' ie far right conspiracy bullshit.

To the extent that these types move away from the far right some of them simply drift to the far left, which also hates Dems, and what these types all tend to be driven by.

[yardwork]

15. Buy him a digital subscription to the Washington Post.

[Ferryboat]

16. Direct him to

Newsfactchecknetwork.com

Mediabiasfactcheck.com

These will help him understand news sources political biases, and stories of the day.

Its a good start to critical thinking.

[meadowlander]

18. PBS Newshour is probably a gentle transition

They do the "fair and balanced" "equal time" thing but they don't actively distort the story and their right wing commentators at least have one foot in reality.

[nuxvomica]

29. Excellent suggestion

What people in right-wing news recovery need is calmness, not histrionics driven by ratings. It's not just the content they need to recover from but the delivery as well and they won't get that relief from MSNBC or CNN. Part of the problem with right-wing news, and cable news in general, is it never gives you the chance to reflect and think things through for yourself. I would also suggest CBS News Sunday Morning.

[Mopar151]

58. CBS Overnite seems good for that, too.

Politics is part of the news, not the object. And, generally, a positive spin on people stories. ABC's overnite team seems ready to pounce on anything they can gin up some anger out of.

[LizBeth]

20. Put the time in, read multiple source and process to see if jives, ask your opinions and hear what

you have to say because it sounds like you are on ball. Most are that are on this sight. I know I ask questions and ask for opinions here.

Be educated. But, that actually takes some time. Back in the day people use to feel it there responsibility to pay attention.

[LunaSea]

30. Yes! Multiple sources.

Check out foreign papers as well, it's amazing how much news we DON'T get in the US.

[LizBeth]

35. And without realizing I said read. I mostly read. Not watch multiple sources. They are a performance

I read. Though there are people I would say listen too, also now that I think about it. Maddow, Oliver is very good and Seth and Noah. It is an interesting question if someone really wants to know.

[lostnfound]

65. Back in the day you could watch Walter Cronkite and read a high quality local newspaper.

Today you have to weed through a haystack of disinformation to find the needles of truth.

[Blue_true]

21. Tell him to start listening only to the Network local and Nightly News,

they bend over backward to be “even-handed”, even when they should come out and call Trump a liar.

Looks like he is having doubts about whether Fox and rightwing radio are telling him the truth, that is an opening. If you think that he is otherwise a good guy, tell him that and also tell him that you think that he was misled by the rightwing sources, but don’t argue with him. Let facts start to rumble through his head, maybe by voting time he will either sit out of Trump or vote for Joe.

[The empressof all]

27. You have to be careful with the Locals now

Sinclair has bought up a crap load of local stations and have destroyed many previously great local news programs.

[Blue_true]

32. I didn't know that. My local news is still untarnished. nt

[tenderfoot]

22. Radio - NPR, TV - PBS, Newspapers - NYT, WaPo, LA Times, SF Chron Zines - Vanity Fair, The Week

eom

[andym]

23. Tell him to look at news sites with minimal political spin: BBC and CBC

BBC , CBC (CBC.ca) might be 2 to consider since they are international (no US political ax to grind) with public funding.

PBS and NPR, which are publicly funded here.

Reuters and AP are more neutral private sources-- really mixed.

Smithsonian Magazine for science.

[byronius]

24. Democratic Underground is probably too information-heavy for him, but it's the Source for me.

It's why I know everything first, and get my facts right every time.

Just true. No BS flies on this site for long. If the truth isn't in the OP, it's in the comments.

[lostnfound]

66. Truth. Nt

[silverweb]

72. Ditto that!

DU has information from such a wide variety of sources, accompanied by factchecking and erudite commentary from our very own experts in just about everything, that it's where I've started every day since I became a member.

[The empressof all]

25. For a baby step into a more moderate reality

I usually suggest the Christian Science Monitor. But of course that assumes they are willing to read their news. The Monitor isn't my first choice for news but I do check there for a moderate but right leaning perspective. It also helps to add the Christian to the brand for those who are rabidly brainwashed in that direction.

For someone who is ready for a full bore reality check I would go with all the suggestions you all mentioned above.

[Blue_true]

31. The Christian Science Monitor is an excellent choice.

Even if they don’t agree with a position, they factually report what that position is, in a way that allows people to make up their own mind.

[yewberry]

33. While I don't think they're always dead on

I frequently refer people to Ad Fontes for their media bias charts.

https://www.adfontesmedia.com

https://www.adfontesmedia.com/gallery/

[Grasswire2]

34. He's not going to trust 99 percent of the sources named here. Alas.

NPR has been so damaged by RW characterization.

I might suggest Nightly News.

He's not an evangelical. But he is a retired cop, and feels the Law and Order propaganda very strongly.

[erronis]

36. The Guardian, Reuters, Miami Herald, LA Times, WaPo, multiple non-US sources are best.

Don't trust just one country's source.

Axios is good also but a bit new to evaluate.

NYTimes seems to have too much of an establishment bent - as in how to get access to those in power.

Sometimes even the WSJ has an independent piece of journalism.

I get news feeds (RSS) from many sources, US and foreign. Marcy Wheeler is a favorite.

Google News and other aggregators may be helpful but I worry about their agendas. (Hello, fakebuck.)

[Stardust]

38. Free Speech TV! Especially Amy Goodman* for her daily news roundup, available live & on demand.

Last edited Wed Sep 9, 2020, 07:20 PM - Edit history (2)

*her show is Democracy Now. I can’t say enough good things about FSTV.

[Chichiri]

39. I'd say start with the wire services, AP and Reuters.

From there move to NPR.

[Mz Pip]

40. He doesn't want the truth

He wants his prejudices and skewed world view validated.

[kimbutgar]

43. I watch the NBC nightly news and ABC world news to start out

I used to watch only MSNBC but I watch my local news during the day. joy Reid and the two network news they give a pretty fair unbiased report but I have seen the contrast between the two. Also FSTV with Amy Goodman is also good.

[Silent3]

45. First of all, start out by telling him there are no absolute guarantees of truth anywhere

This is not to scare him off, but to point out that people often play the game of pointing to cherry-picked examples of what one news outlet gets wrong as a reason to never trust that outlet about anything ever again, while at the same time being blind to the many flaws of other sources of news.

His job as a consumer of news is to look for logic and reasoning and consistency -- and when I say "consistency", not just internal consistency, but consistency with other sources, with history, with human behavior.

Here's a good book for him (and for everybody else, by the way):

https://www.amazon.com/Skeptics-Guide-Universe-Really-Increasingly/dp/1538760533

[Doodley]

46. He should find out what is going on in other countries. Are they dealing with Coronavirus better?

Does their healthcare system have better outcomes? Do the people live longer? Is their education better? Is the gap between rich and poor better? Is their more or less poverty? How many die of gun deaths? What are their crime figures? What is their prison population? Then assess for himself across multiple channels if the reporting of America's problems and possible solutions is accurate.

[Kitchari]

47. Online Guardian UK

Theguardian.com

[Cracklin Charlie]

48. I can help you.

But it takes some effort. If it’s someone you care about, it is definitely worth the effort.

He is asking you for help, help him.

First: find common ground. This sets the effort off on a positive tone, and sets the stage for future interaction. Don’t yell, scream, belittle or call anyone names, even Trump. This is unnecessary to the task at hand.

How to find common ground: I have found the following a great place to start. Ask him what he wants his tax dollars to fund. National defense, education, taking care of the elderly, sick, and disabled... there will be much common ground here.

Start his re-education by secretly “assigning” him information to find. This could be some interesting article you saw earlier that day. He will start going looking and find it. Before long, he will be finding things on his own, and bring to you.

You job then: listen, say “Oh, I hadn’t heard that, I’ll check it out”. Let him know later what you found out. Don’t tell him you saw it on DU, when you logged in at 7am. He is now bringing YOU good information. He gets a good feel, and so do you for helping him!

I tell you this because it worked for me. My husband was a lifelong (Eisenhower) republican, and he has been a rock-solid Democrat since 2008. I am so, so proud of him!

Good luck to you, and your nephew. He’s worth the effort.

I would like to clarify the secret assignments: ask him to find something about something you may know he is interested in...say, you saw an article about Biden’s plans for the environment, and nephew is an outdoorsman. You say, does Biden have a good environment plan? Next thing you know, nephew just looked up Biden environmental policies.

Find. Common. Ground.

[Grasswire2]

61. Something has just occurred to me.

His son-in-law is about to be promoted to GENERAL in the United States Army.

Perhaps Trump's denigration of the military has broken the spell.

[roamer65]

49. Al Jazeera English.

The best news network in the biz right now.

[salin]

50. An initial soft landing would be USA Today. News Lite - but decent coverage

and wouldn't likely send him running back to his 'safe place' per rw news.

I also think NPR (despite rw vilification) is a pretty good landing/transition place.

[GoCubsGo]

51. "The Economist" magazine might be a good jumping off point.

They lean conservative, but they're fair and accurate. Heck, even the Wall St. Journal--as long as you stay away from the editorial page, is a pretty good source of news. I would say that of the NYT and Washington Post, and most major newspapers.

As for TV, PBS "News Hour" is a good start. If one's local PBS carries the PBS World channel, they also will probably run BBC World News, DW News (Deutsche Welle) out of Germany, and NHK News out of Japan. It's pretty easy to find the CBC out of Canada online, as well.

[Fresh_Start]

52. Tell him to check multiple news sources...

and he should recognize the name of the news source and research its ownership and bias.

[Fresh_Start]

54. show him the media bias chart

tell him to look at center, center left, center right and get a balance of perspectives.

[hunter]

53. Television and radio are not good sources of news and opinion. Maybe better than Facebook...

... but that's not saying much.

My wife and I read all our news and opinion. We don't have cable or satellite television so maybe we are spending that money on electronic subscriptions to newspapers like the Washington Post instead. I'm always surprised when people talk about their one or two hundred dollar cable television subscriptions. My wife and I get by with an inexpensive DSL internet connection.

I do support our local public radio station but not especially for the news.

Our television plays DVDs and $8.99 a month Netflix. That's pretty much all it does. It's not set up for broadcast television. We can 'cast other stuff to our television from our laptops and my wife's phone, but mostly we don't. We watched the Democratic Convention direct from the source.

We quit traditional television more than a decade ago. Life is more peaceful without it. Traditional television works by making people anxious and selling them stuff they wouldn't otherwise buy, everything from cars to drugs to politicians.

If I'm going to sit down and watch television I might as well watch something entertaining! People have been making movies for more than a century and a lot of it can be streamed. A lot of it is on DVDs. There's always something to watch.

I've noticed my adult children and their cousins don't pay any attention at all to traditional television and radio. They don't have it in their homes. In their cars they listen to music, podcasts, or audio books.

[trueblue2007]

55. MSNBC

[ooky]

56. It sounds like a cry for help.

If he thinks he is being deceived, I would probe why he thinks that, and then first direct him to sources for the specific truths he is seeking. Help him get his answers. If he's satisfied with the answers then he is likely to choose on his own to keep returning for his information.

[LAS14]

57. I had a good experience persuading a Republican to vote for Obama...

... by taking her fear of welfare fraud seriously and explaining that health care is so expensive, because of our super technological advances that no one can afford it on their own. She decided to vote for Obama.

I would suggest that he concentrate on separating Fox News reporting from Fox News Opinion. The reporting is, actually, fairly OK. Explain to him that CNN and MSNBC also have opinion that is biased and you need to make the distinctions there too.

[blm]

60. BBC. PBS.

CNN.

[lostnfound]

68. This is such an important question, and the inadequate answers are a problem.

We need some transition zones for different groups of people. We democrats like our diverse opinions and nuanced arguments, but it’s probably overwhelming for transitioning republicans. I’ve wanted to direct a colleague who had asked for a good news source, and I didn’t know what to tell him either.

[Grasswire2]

69. I agree. An entry level to truth.

Plain spoken, uncomplicated, no buzz words or spin.

[GeoWilliam750]

70. Pro-publica

[misanthrope]

71. The benefit of starting with PBS Newshour

is that the presentation, production and tone is so similar to what network news was like 40 years ago. There's no crawl at the bottom of the screen, no overload of flashy graphics with sound effects, no constant "Breaking News" slogan flashing, no breathless news personality trying to make it seem as if alien robots with flamethrowers are advancing on their studio and your home simultaneously.

They aren't playing games to boost ratings. They aren't trying to be cute or funny.

It's measured and deliberate, like, Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley. News by adults, for adults.

[Grasswire2]

74. good point

I haven't watched it for years. Still Judy Woodruff?

[misanthrope]

76. Yep

But the style is all still the same. The part that might do him the most good are watching the Friday opinion segments with Mark Shields and David Brooks. The reason being the collegiality they share while often expressing differing views could show your cousin how sanity and decorum are possible when political opponents show basic human decency and respect toward each other.

[Brainfodder]

75. Associated Press & Vox?

Good Luck!