I know that this is a question that previous people have asked, but what sources/strategies do you guys do to keep yourself informed? Like many others, I have become beyond sick of the typical mainstream media here in the United States. All I hear is blah blah bha, keynes, blah blah blah, not enough spending, blah blah blah, lou dobbs and o-reilly crap! It’s so disheartening how the media is nothing but talking pundits who yell across the room and automatically demean or turn down opposite opinion. Now, I tune in to get the main headlines and stories, but that is it. They provide facts and current events, but there analysis is beyond nothing. So I ask, what sources/sites/media do you fellow kind consult? How often?
I guess part of the anxiety is that there is so much news now its hard to find legitimate ones. In terms of education, national security, foreign policy, health care, privacy, etc, there are so many. Any help, cause sometimes it gets overwhelming.
Disconnect your cable/sattelite and get all your stuff from the internet, and only from people who can bring it without licking boots.
If you just follow a few blogs and forums, and something is important enough, it will find its way there. The only thing besides that that you need to keep up with are things that directly influence your life, which are not that many things.
The meastro, Peter Schiff, at http://www.schiffradio.com/. He analyzes current events, shows the foolishness of politicians, answers caller’s questions, and has interesting guests. Hint: Starting about 1 PM , you can download that day’s show commercial free.
I am amused by http://www.thedailybell.com/ Is his conspiracy theory correct? Who knows? But the news and economic analysis is sound libertarian AE. I get my info on Europe from there [as well as from kakugo and krazy kaju on these forums].
Out of the mainstream outlets (it pains me to say this), I kind of find Fox News’ actual hard coverage to be the highest quality. Of course that isn’t saying much, but I’ve always had more personal disdain for the Left compared to the Right, so maybe the bias isn’t as obvious to me. Not that it is a good source of information, but I just prefer watching it from time to time.
I would actually recommend Freedom Watch and Stossel on Fox Business considering they discuss topics relevant to libertarians. I don’t receive the Fox Business channel, but I’ve seen enough on Youtube to recommend it. Lew Rockwell is a good source (I mostly follow the blog, but avoid the health insights, they reek to me of pseudoscience). Of course Mises Dailies are usually excellent and philosophically enlightening for me. The BBC isn’t that bad at aggregating news either. For radio, you’ll have to forgive me for listening to Mark Levin (a habit I picked up from my dad!). I don’t even like Levin at all, but if I have to listen to talk radio that’s probably where I’ll go.
I’ll pick up a Newsweek or something of that sort if I’m in the library for the lulz. In a twisted way, mainstream media outlets have become a source of entertainment for me just to realize how dense the people there are. I’d much rather discuss philosophy on the Internet with people who are actually passionate about finding answers. So if you choose a media outlet, look to the Web.