On 3/28/05 I bid farewell to the mainstream media. I have faithfully avoided watching a single moment of network news, News Hour, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC or any news "magazine" programs. I even gave up ESPN except for actual sporting events. I have caught a few moments of local newscasts just so I could get the weather updates and sports scores. The only new
s shows I watch religiously is Jon Stewart's Daily Show and The Soup.Today, it hit me that I am better informed now than I ever was when I let my mind be poisoned by the toxic drivel served up by the mainstream media. My main sources of news are the web (not mainstream media websites), bloggers, Air America radio, the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, and the occasional newspaper (nothing put out by Murdoch or Gannett). I have to work for my news, and I get a lot of viewpoints on it in contrast to what I might get from the media I have abandoned.
I was happy to announce today at lunch that I did not know about the latest outrage touted by lying windbag Bill O'Reilly, some case in Florida, and that I was blissfully uninformed about some missing girl in Aruba or any of the other "prole feed" dished out to my benighted conspecifics. I was far better informed than they were, however, by the atrocity committed on the subway by the thug cops in London, the state of the economy, and the war in Iraq. I knew a lot more about the credentials and activities of the Supreme Court nominee and about the political scene. The ignorance of my conspecifics, educated humans who attempt to keep informed, was appalling. They have mainstreammediadementia.
As a consumer of news on the web that is not prepackaged, that has not been sucked of all substance by the media, I feel as if I am more engaged with the world. I feel a little as if I am engaged in gossip over the cyberfence with my cyberneighbors. I have found a network of bloggers that I trust to help me digest the data and assign meaning to events, and I get to comment and share my views with other seekers.
I don't read the wingnut blogs or attend to the right wing smear machine, and I do not bother to take note of the pronouncements of the government. This is all too toxic for me to handle, but there are bloggers out there who keep track of all this for the rest of us and let us know what lunacy evil men and women can manifest. Best of all, a lot of them do it hilariously. Tbogg, World O'Crap and the whole Tbogg blogroll are apt to be sidesplittingly funny. We know what the evildoers and evilthinkers are saying, and we are prepared to deal with it thanks to these intrepid bloggers. They expose these frightening people for the frauds that they are.
I highly recommend the mainstream media fast to everyone who values his brain.
5 comments:
I always like to say that TV news is as bad for the brain as crack cocaine.
I never voluntarily watch the news, but I do occasionally get subjected to it. It amazes me how trivial much of it is.
I was appalled today when I was briefly subjected to Fox News and there was some woman on there who kept calling Cathy Sheehan an anti-Semite. Why? Because she criticizes Israeli policy.
Shiiit. Personally, I find North Korean politics to be rather appalling. Does that I mean that I hate Asians, especially Koreans? That sure would be news to me, and to my Korean sister and brother-in-law who also loate North Korean politics.
You must be woefully uninformed on Natalee Holloway. Tsk tsk tsk.
You must be VERY young.
You must be VERY young.
And you must be quite fond of ageist comments. How VERY mature.
You must be VERY young.
I just look young.
Post a Comment