DU is typically 2 weeks ahead of everyone when it comes to the news.

[trumad]

Have you ever watched a news show---radio or TV, where you say---I knew about this weeks ago... read or saw it on DU.

One radio show was non-stop talking about the Assad, John Kerry dinner in 2009. I'm thinking---jeez...are you just seeing that for the first time?

[bunnies]

1. Happens all the time.

I rarely learn something on the news that I didnt already know from DU. Yep.

[Warpy]

7. I stopped watching in 2004

because I was sick of campaigns treated like horse races with policy differences never mentioned and I was sick of being lied to by omission.

I have yet to find a reason to turn it back on, although I did watch the occasional Olbermann comment when DU warned me there would be one.

My right wing dad loved the most conservative newscast on ABC. He never did get impressed by jiggly blondes and whoosh noises on Pox News. He was right wing but not stupid.

I just can't watch any of it unless it's online and worthwhile. You Tube posters tend to sift through the chaff and find worthwhile grains here and there.

[bunnies]

28. Yeah...

I have a few live streams that I watch every now and then for speeches & hearings or whatever. And sometimes I just let them run. The other night I watched MSNBs nightly lineup and learned exactly nothing. I think the term "infotainment" fits the msm perfectly.

We havent had TV in years and I dont miss it one bit. Its mostly just companies trying to sell their crap. No thanks.

[Nite Owl]

2. I've noticed that

too. Sometimes it's even longer than a couple of weeks. I don't know if they are just ignoring it and saying things when it is too late to do anything or they are lazy researchers who just want to put their puff pieces together. When I used to watch CNN I noticed that they would actually report something but it was late at night and then it disappeared altogether.

[Scuba]

3. Absolutely true!

[NYC_SKP]

4. This is true. Only Twitter is faster than DU.

Not always reliable, but instantaneous.

DU members have been able to scoop every news outlet on many significant events with twitter tweets and twitter pics.

The only thing faster would be live posting here from some event.

[Coyotl]

8. I'm surprised at how little we see of Twitter on DU.

[AAO]

16. I think there was a poll a few years ago that showed the average age

of the DUers that responded to be around 50 or more. Many people that age don't tweet. I'd be interested to see the average age now.

[malthaussen]

33. Saw a poll here at DU a couple months back

(sorry I don't have a link)

It confirms that demo. Which might be a cause for concern: does DU need to try a youth drive?

-- Mal

[AAO]

37. Good question.

I think part of the reason you see older people here is because most of us have come to our conclusions over many years, many wars, and much corruption, and young people, while way ahead of us generally on many topics, still have the "indestructible cocoon" protecting them from seeing everything. And for those that do understand what's happening, a lot of hopelessness it going on.

My kids are 21 and 23 and they pretty much don't think about these things because it's all too real to them. Many of us won't be around to see the water wars, global famine, and mass refugees from the rising ocean levels, but my kids probably will.

I think kids today are starting to get depressed by what we've left them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Considered that during the Filner resignation

But quite frankly, Facebook, twitter, notes and recording (and photos) was already too much.

[NYC_SKP]

10. Well Filner had people on the scene already. Something like a riot or natural disaster, however...

Especially just as things are erupting, on location regular citizens can be posting Tweets (or using other similar social media tools) in real-time while mainstream news folks are pulling on their drawers!

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Oh I use my phone in that capacity

From fires as well. But it is wholly dependent on....wireless network being up, which many a times it's spotty at best without a fire. It's the back country.

During the chariot fire we sent images from the highway. Once we got into the mountain, everybody, including fire, had to rely on older means. So many dead zones FD was relying in the 800 MHz, and transmitting at times through other units in a daisy chain.

My Ipad is only wireless not data capable

[NYC_SKP]

29. I recommend swapping up to a 4G iPad.

I was with a group of friends heading into Chaco Canyon NM this summer and we all watched as our different Blackberries and iPhones, with different servers went blank.

My ATT iPhone5 went out but my ATT 4G iPad hung in there longer than all the other devices.

Then everyone laughed as I announced: Signal's out. Shit just got real.

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. I am thinking a signal booster

For the phones

We just replaced the MacBook

[NYC_SKP]

31. Isn't it a shame that Mac doesn't offer onboard cellular capacity on their notebooks?

It just kills me.

And as much as I appreciate being able to tether to my iPhone, it's still a PITA to do that and the speed and range isn't as fast and fast as the iPad, for some reason.

It's a pisser!

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. I use a cheap android

And that was on purpose...where I take them it's all but healthy

[NYC_SKP]

35. It's smart to have a throwaway.

I get your drift. You don't need to be flashing nice gear if you can help it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. Not just the gear, the smoke, the mud, rain and other crap

We carry be enough with computer and photo gear

[Triana]

5. I've noticed that quite often.

Another reason I depend on DU!

[a kennedy]

6. Yup.....we're the first to know everything about anything.....

love DU.

[Junkdrawer]

12. It's the web <-> propaganda interaction....

1.) A blogger somewhere makes a good point

2.) Someone reads it and posts it on DU (step 1. is, on occasion, optional)

3.) The realtime propagandists respond with counters until one line is clearly better.

4.) The point and it's focus-group tested counter make TV cable news

[Nye Bevan]

13. Absolutely. Take the indictment of Karl Rove, for example (nt)

[NJCher]

14. the news networks are annoying

Those people annoy me--their self-presentation, their little offhand remarks, their emotional demeanor. Even their clothes and their looks.

Not only can DU get me the news before everyone else, the annoyance factor is nearly zero.

I kind of live with the general awareness that at some point a person will annoy me. But nothing, and I mean nothing, annoys me like a so-called mainstream news person on a 24/7 news outlet.

So 3 cheers for DU! Zero annoyance factor.


Cher

[BlueJazz]

23. Your post reminds me of a line that one of my friends uses. ...when he's "had it" with somebody.

"Right now, I feel like I've only got one nerve...and you're standing on it"

[Phentex]

15. It's true...

and I have been known to tell my husband about something I've read here saying, "It'll probably be on the news next week..."

Some of the stuff is more personal, like when someone shared the story about their mortgage being sold and the problems they had. Then my mortgage company did the same but I was prepared because of the info I'd read here.

[SalviaBlue]

17. That is absolutely true.

My DUer sister and I have been saying this to each other for 10 years.

[yends21012]

18. Totally agree

I don't have cable and rarely watch network TV. Almost all of my news comes from here. On FaceBook a friend provided a link to a news survey and I scored 100% thanks to DU.

[orbitalman]

19. ...and NEVER less than 1 or two days!!

[Cleita]

20. How about the being lied into a war in 2003, like today was the first day they

figured that out. We at DU were exposing the lies while they were being spoken by Bush, Powell, Rummy, Condi and the rest of the war drummers. It took everyone else a decade to realize they were being lied too?

[HardTimes99]

21. The Communist (and Socialist) Party is typically 40-50 years ahead of everyone when it comes

to social progress, starting with child labor through civil rights and anti-war\anti-imperialism.

Saw this first hand when the CP was the only organization on the U. of Missouri-Columbia campus in 1977 protesting against South African apartheid. Even the Black Student Union hadn't yet joined in public protest.

[Populist_Prole]

22. Absolutely. We notice it first, and in more concise detail, and I notice in hindsight all the time.

Sure enough, weeks later the mouth-breathing dunderheads I seem to be surrounded by are all gushing about whatever they saw on TV news ( no doubt when they get a minute or two between commercials of some spectator sport ), comparing reactions with each other and trying to gush to me as though they've got some startling revelation. I always just shake my head, chuckle and scoff at how even then they've got it wrong through oversimplification.

It's made me conclude: Smart people seek out, read, and read in depth. Ignorant people do not. TV news makes ignorant people think they're as informed as anybody can be.

[Rhiannon12866]

24. K&R! Happens all the time, one reason I recommend DU to everyone...

[Voice for Peace]

25. yup.. always

[libodem]

26. Spot on

Finally we agree on something. About time!

[LittleGirl]

27. Absolutely

I'll send my husband a link to something and he'll say, where do you get this stuff? I just shrug and say DU of course! I love that this site has WORLD news not just american news. We don't have cable and for the most part, only watch live PBS's newshour.

I used to go to HuffPo for news but that has been a conservative troll slug fest lately and it's getting less and less of my time. Reddit is where I go for other odd news too. I'm still a rookie there so I'm still learning the 'code'.

[mstinamotorcity2]

34. happens all the time.

Think about when they are late by months or years. Think about all the people who just learned the other night that Former President Saint Reagan gave biological weapons to Saddam Hussein. I could see the Reaganites losing their minds calling Lawrence O Donnell a liar. But I've known this since the late nineties, early 2000. When I see people getting all hyped up on old news I just say welcome to the party