Okay, boys and girls....the fact that you are reading this means you are getting something absolutely free. For good or bad, it's free. So now I'm asking for something.
I want to hear from you. I want you to use the comments section to tell me where you get your news. Please, no one word answers. Tell me where you get your news and why you choose that source.
Because I'm retired, and have lots of time on my hands, I read a lot of news. I usually arise no later than 4AM and turn on CNBC, the financial news channel, only because that's the least offensive before I've buck up with at least one cup of coffee. I then sit down at the computer, hit the buttons that more widely distribute my blog, then go to the online Arizona Republic newspaper. I spend less than ten minutes there, then move over to read an online local CBS affiliate's news site. From both local sites I cover all the local mess and mayhem the locals have committed over the last 24 hours.
I then move over to the San Diego Tribune to see what's happening in my former home. Then, I move to Yahoo News and am forced to cull the few hard news items from all the froth Yahoo offers; stuff like the size of Kardashian's butt and George Clooney's love life. Even with all the froth I have the added task of ignoring the many, many commercial ads interspersed with hard news. Yuck. Yahoo is my favorite place to read Sports and Finance. So I check out how my favorite baseball teams are doing, glance at MLB stats and standings. Then, if it's after 5AM, I move to the Yahoo Finance page to check on my stocks and who's buying out who today and read an article or two about how much farther along our economy would be without Obama.
I then move to USA Today Online and work my way through all of their news articles, both foreign and national, then spend no more than five minutes each on USA TODAY's Sports, Life, Business, and Tech sections.
Finally, I go to Google News which opens up a vast number of sources for news. I've customized that site to let Google know what news I like to read. Google News sends me to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Atlantic, the L.A. Times as well as news articles from the weekly news and information magazines. I get most of my hard news directly from the Google News site and I go there throughout the day to read news updates.
I read a hard copy of the newspaper twice a week, Wednesdays and Sundays.
I get very little of my news from TV. Throughout the day, while writing a story, or this blog, I might have Fox News or a local news station running in the background, usually for no more than five minute increments. The only serious "viewer time" I donate to TV is Fox's "The Five" and maybe ten minutes or so each of Greta Van Sustern and "The Kelly File", just cause she's so damn hot.
For serious reflection, on current events and history, I give most of my viewing time to all three C-Span channels or an occasional PBS documentary. (I really try to ignore PBS's almost manic focus on the ethnic and poor sob stories that are no more than liberal propaganda...those shows never attribute human misery with the miserable's own personal initiative or life choices.
Well, that's it for me! Now I want to hear from you! I respect my regular followers and am really interested in hearing from you. Please note that I have sometimes asked for input from you and the responses have been poor and paltry. BUT, I know many of you now so if you choose to be lazy and not respond, I'm not above going over to your house and bopping you on the forehead or toilet papering your house!
31 comments:
I get up at 3 am, check my emails, my G+ account, your blog, then the local news. Family and friends sharing links to stories is my first source, followed by what pops up in my social media. I spend a great amount of time on the road and usually listen to NPR in the morning (for balance) and some talk radio throughout the day. Often times something catches my attention through anyone of these outlets leading to further research on my part.
Kind of figured you were an early bird like me, Brian. You and Jerry often post at 0 dark thirty.
Whenever I'm out driving I almost always have NPR on as well. While they are heavily liberal biased I too enjoy the in-depth discussions that only NPR offers. The only program I can't listen to on NPR is Diane Rhiem (spelling?) show. She's just "flaming".
I'm also cheered that you do your own research. I google stuff at least a dozen times a day based on something I've heard or read. Best way to get at the truth.
Up at 4 am for work. I read the AZ Republic in the afternoon, then CNN with Wolf and Erin. Try to catch channel 5 news at 5PM. Twice a week I read the New York Times (always a hard copy)and I also skim through Yahoo and Bing headlines, reading anything that catches my eye. I treat all sources with caution because of their blatant biases. Must be my age, but I find everything suspect nowadays. Still love reading any newspapers I get my hands on.
Local news and Fox news on the TV. CNN and MSN on the internet. Blogs also. All are starting points for headlines to research.
Jilly
OK, so I slept a little late!
Where I get my news? You mean there are other sources than this Blog? My habits are very similar to yours! The only time I listen to the radio is while driving, so, maybe, 2 hours a week and always on NPR. I actually have a routine involving first thing in the morning (or middle of the night), checking your blog! I always wonder whether this Blog will get my blood moving in the morning! I have learned that while we differ on a few items, in a real world where we are not interfered with, we could be buddies!
I prefer reading to video bits so I go after "news" that I can digest. I read many of the same articles that you do. I also like BBC and Reuters.
ALL NEWS is told from a point of view or bias or with the concept in mind of who is paying the bills (maybe the reason "Monsato" isn't high up in the news cycle).
I realize that news is fed and a hungry beast. Blood and guts seems to be what we like, well that and conspiracy theories! and we thrive on fear!
I watch less then 30 minutes of television news in the evenings and have developed the annoying habit of channel surfing: always the same, flipping between CNN and FOX. II don't like any news whatsoever that appeals to my emotions and that is pretty hard to find these days. Winter is on its way and I will have the last BLT of the season today(!)
so as I spend less time in my garden I will spend more time reading books.
I like real books with a smell and pages to turn, not ebooks on the computer. I am not consistent in my book reading. I might go a month and read a dozen paperback mysteries or, on occasion something will strike my eye and I will order a book from Amazon. I found "America in Search of
Itself" (excellent!) because of this blog. Now I am reading "Islanders in the Stream", a story about the Bahamas because of another blog I read. I realize that so much of life is accidental and circumstance and I like to know the historical reasons of whatever we believe. I have read a ton of books on our Puritan America beginnings and realize this is a key to understanding ourselves now. It is like global warming: believe it or not it still affects you.
Thanks, Jeff. I also love the "hard" copy of a newspaper. Just my upbringing I guess. The Arizona Republic is hard for me to get through because of their open border biases, but I take what I can get. I'm also like you..whether right or left, I am suspect of everything until I research it myself. Thanks for commenting!
Thanks, Jilly...and again, good for you..for doing your own research!
Yes, Jerry, we are indeed very similar in our reading habits. Had to smile when you mentioned a preference for text over video. I always have to stop the video portion of an article (or mute it) and just read the article. Somehow I absorb more from the reading.
As already mentioned, ditto on the NPR thing.
Don't think I mentioned that I read books a lot. Like you, I'll read mysteries, but I also read a lot of biography and history...and also listen to books on audio as well. I'm so proud to hear that you read "America In Search of Itself"...such a great book and does a fine job of telling us how we got where we are today.
I read eight or ten books a month, depending on their length and complexity.
Enjoy the last BLT! I'm so happy I'm getting so many responses here today!
forgot to respond to your "blood and guts" comment, Jerry. Each morning when I dial up yahoo news I am in absolute despair that they headline shit like what some movie star is doing...whole levels above the hard news.
Well, it's what the zombies want, i guess.
Pop culture whether by design or happenstance is an enormous contributor to the dumbing of the masses, I try to avoid all together.
yeah, Brian, I go right past the stuff on Clooney's wedding, or rapper stuff, and whether Bruce Jenner is planning a sex change...no room in my life for that crap.
I'm usually up and reading by 6am. I haven't watched a TV news program in over 5 years. The New York Times is delivered by email though I live in the Bay Area I'm not a fan of any newspapers here. Yahoo is my news of choice. There is balance as I can read from both sides of the spectrum and they lean my sports news to the 49ers and Giants(SF). I also receive many emails from friends on specific Political type issues(anti Obama mostly) as somehow most of my friends turned out to be Republicans without that being discussed beforehand. I can't think of any close friends that are Democrats. Oh, yeh, Ron. But he's an Idiot.
Wow, Frank. That 5 year TV news moratorium is pretty impressive!
I'm kind of surprised by how many cite the New York Times as a news source. I enjoy their foreign coverage but the NYT has clearly integrated a liberal bias in their political and social reporting.
That's why I like the Times. I really do like seeing what the other side is thinking. Being closed minded is one of the reasons we're in this mess. Trouble is, hard as I try, I agree with VERY little of what the Left is trying to do. It just seems like little by little, they're taking away our rights as Citizens. They view it as a means of filling the coiffures, I see it as "fleecing the sheep". Probably the only thing I agree with, is the sanctity of a Woman's body. It's hers to do as she wishes. None of my business...
Hey, Frank, I'm curious! What rights are the Liberal trying to take away?
Jerry, Jerry, Jerry...your liberalism creeps in every once in a while and just plays the devil with everyone else.
How about the right for religious folks to follow their bible; that they need not condone or participate any gay marriages. A couple up in Utah are being arrested because they wedding business wouldn't marry gays.
The mandatory Obamacare law forces folks to purchase a service which they do not want to purchase. Even the Supremes agreed until Barry decided to call it a tax.
Americans do not WANT to be persecuted by the IRS but the Democratic brownshirts did it anyway.
If you are against illegal immigration Democrats brand you a racist and simply refuse to respect your opinion.
The news is filled with Brownshirt decrees nearly every day.
Jerry, sometimes I think we could co-exist, even be good buddies, but there are times, like now, when I think we'd have to haul these two ancient bodies to the backyard and go to fist city. Sigh.
No TV news at all, ever. Breitbart, CNS, and the San Jose Mercury News (for the leftist, pro-union slant). That's all. Occasionally, the radio but usually just what I've listed. No Yahoo/Google/Fox/CNN - too much tripe, pop culture, or propaganda (all irrelevant).
My wife gives me the comics and hides the rest of the AZ Communist from me, as she's getting tired of having to spackle the forehead-sized holes in the walls.
My news? I just hit my blogroll. Anything worth knowing about will be there in short order, and while most--not all!--of the blogs I follow have a definite conservative spin, they're more apt to be accurate where the facts are concerned than any Enemedia outlet.
There will be no guns allowed, we can throw tomatoes at each other! now, point by point:
Religious Freedom: there are about umpteen Million Churches in this country of every denomination and you can freely go to any one you choose, or noon for that matter. The Constitution is supporting a Separation of Church and State and unless you want the USA to be like ISIS that has been a good idea.
Now, Obamacare! We all want something for nothing, that would be nice. I read this morning that even if the Republicans win the Senate, Obamacare will not be repelled, Nine Republican govenors want to keep it.
The Truth is that it is saving money!
It would be nice to get a better system but NOT scrap this one. What we really want is to NOT pay for medical care, go our life not paying and then when we need it get it for free! That is a good way to go broke.
It has always been the task of the IRS to collect money. We can change that with a different tax system but the one we have says "they collect".
Immigration? I guess that would be my right to safety? I agree 100% that this is a problem but I think there are solutions less expensive and a little more human than machine gunning them in the sands. Why, I wonder, don't we have an immigration problem with Canada?
No, I do not see the "Libtards" as taking away my rights. It is the Republicans that want to restrict voting and limit medical care, prevent my right to an occasional "Brownie" (!)
I do however, think Twice, when Increasing Rights cost me more money!
I do not see the Democrats as taking away any of my rights, except maybe the right to keep to keep my money!
OK, you get the first throw: 20 paces
Jerry, no guns, and definitely we don't waste tomatoes. Sadly, my friend, your post just now reminds me of those times when old Joe Mac was branding half of America a "closet commie".
My friend, your latest posting shows we are much further apart than I would have hoped.
Particularly unforgivable is your cartoonish drawing of false choices (everybody wants free medical care; not true; most of us "rational thinking adults" learned long ago that nothing is free...but we want to be free to choose how we pay for it and we don't want a huge government bureaucracy running it...that one was so lame it didn't even deserve a response. Same with the other crap...sorry, won't waste my time debating your comments...you've seen enough of my blogs, detailed reasons why I don't agree with a thing you just wrote. Sigh.
thanks for you input Randy and Wraith...again I'm pleasantly surprised with reader response today.
From Robert Hall (Tartar Marine):
The so called "Democratic" Party celebrates its founder and heroes, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, with annual fund-raising dinners, though its principles are the exact opposite of Jefferson's and if Jackson were alive, he'd call them to the dueling field for sullying his name. For there are few things more undemocratic than today's "Democrats."
The majority of voters want a travel ban to keep Ebola out. The Un-democrats fight it.
The majority of voters have always opposed Obamacare. The Un-democrats lied and clawed to get it through and fight desperately to keep it.
The majority of voters support the Keystone Pipeline. The Un-democrats fight desperately to block it.
The majority of voters oppose late term abortion, not to mention partial birth abortion. The Un-democrats fight desperately to defend it.
The majority of voters oppose illegal immigration. The Un-democrats fight desperately to keep the borders open and to grant citizenship to all who come illegally.
The majority of voters support Voter ID. The Un-democrats fight desperately to stop it.
The majority of voters think the IRS was used politically. The Un-democrats defend it.
The majority of voters support school choice and vouchers. The Un-democrats fight it to please the unions.
The majority of voters support fracking and want lower energy costs. The Un-democrats fight it and do everything possible to drive costs up for the poor.
The Un-democrats have used the courts to overturn the will of the voters, such as in states where voters opposed gay marriage. (I personally think that gays getting married is not a threat to the country--the threat is straights having children and NOT getting married, leading to poverty, crime and violence. But I don't like overturning the voters.)
The majority of voters support concealed carry. The Un-democrats fight it.
The majority of voters oppose Common Core standards and testing in the schools. (Opposition is highest among parents.) But the Un-democrats support it.
The majority of voters oppose giving benefits to illegal aliens. The Un-democrats support it.
Be sure to exercise your democratic right to vote on November 4, 2014 to defeat the Un-democrats.
I am so Happy we live in a country of Law and personal rights and not a country ruled by the Majority!
So I take it, Jerry that you have no problem with Fast and Furious, or the Benghazi cover-up, or the NSA spying, or the AP reporter taping, or even Obama's executive order to grant amnesty to millions of illegal invaders. All violations of laws and all committed by your "benevolent" government.
I guess you like the laws that you agree with and not those you don't...and everything Daddy Government does is just fine. Sadly, that's what's wrong with our country today...the law is all a relative thing....the only sure one being how the government creeps ever deeper into our personal lives.
I think our greatest right is the right to be left alone and I am Not in favor of a creeping government or mostly anything that involves money that we do not have. Clearly, I think all the items you mention should be examined, but maybe not by Fox News. I am absolutely Not in favor of Mob Rule and approve of the limits we have concerning majority rule. I Like the idea of our Founding Fathers that forces a time delay in our legal system. Balance is always nice.
Without Obamacare the medical system, especially the Hospitals were going broke, mostly because of irresponsible people who "chose" to not have health insurance! and use the E.R. as their primary care! My opinion of this is purely economical.
Nine Republican Governors agree with me. I am Not in favor of illegal immigrants but I suspect there is a better solution than shooting them.
That is what the Nazi did with the Jews and public opinion at the time supported this!!! by acquiescence if nothing else. Do I KNOW the solution? clearly not. Let's talk about it. A beginning place would clearly be NO benefits for those here illegally AND a five year jail term for those who employ them!!! I know LOTS of roofing contractors and LOTS of Landscape Contractor and LOTS of Building Contractor and even a saw mill in my town that hire ONLY illegals! We like them! Hard workers, no complaints, low wages and easy to fire! They are here for a reason, somebody is getting rich off them. Follow the money!
If I could really create what I wanted, here is some of it: some kind of National Health...OR NO Insurance of any kind for anyone! Either system would be better than we have now. Illegal to Hire an illegal person, 5 years in prison as a penalty! Six weeks maximum Unemployment, Period. School loans cannot exceed $10,000 in a 4 year period. No mystery there: the easier it is for the schools to get money the higher prices they will charge.
NO public pensions! Very nice to have but we can't afford it. What else? I am just fine with owning guns and may want to borrow one someday, but not military weapons, well, maybe Tanks, but not the machine gun type weapons.
I am totally opposed to Public Housing, it is just another opportunity to raise the rent! and make people lazy. I absolutely hate food cards and would prefer surplus food giveaways like we use to have!
Walmart and Safeway LOVE the food cards!!! they are the ones who got that passed!
I don't know enough about the Keystone Pipeline to have an opinion. More is not always better and there is always a cost? Shale oil is pretty dirty! We seem to always be doing things without checking the consequences> 10% Ethenal from corn sounded so very good at the time but that diversion is helping raise food prices! and the fertilizer is going into the Mississippi Basin out to the Gulf and creating an ever enlarging Dead Zone! The price of fish goes up and you are eating garbage. Nuclear power on paper sounds so great! Unless you remember Chernobyl or the Reactor in Japan or maybe the reactors on the San Andreas Fault in California! No one thinks out "The Rest of the Story"!
Could the Republican really win in 2016? I am not sure it would make any difference. We need to be inspired and feel included.
I usually read the local paper online,Santa Rosa PD, surf between local news broadcasts an also reading your blog .Conservative radio hosts such as Mark Levin and the local morning people when driving to work. Various online sources: Drudge Report, Bearing Arms, Controversial Times, Brietbart and others.
Thanks for the input, Craig.
Guess you stirred up a hornets nest there Jerry. I really can't believe how "blind" you Democrats are. Just one note on a right being taken away. San Francisco has deemed that only your car can go in a garage.That, my friend, says it all. My Sister who was raised Republican(although my parents didn't coach us at all) married a Democrat. When I bring up my displeasure with Obama and his policies, she branded me a "Racist". Gee. Wonder where than came from? I couldn't possibly just not like his Politics. HAS to be his Race. How utterly narrow minded is that? Look at some of your writing, Jerry. You might be more Republican than you thought...
Lots of NJ 101.5, mainly focus on local and state news since that's what really impacts me. Asbury Park Press, Star Ledger, New York Times, Press of AC. Other than that I am guilty of using yahoo news and working hard to find actual stories and not garbage. Rarely watch the news on TV since my schedule is usually late nights, but occasionally News 12 New York.
Hey, thanks for the input, Trevor! Getting to know my audience and enjoying it!
I get my TV news from FOX News. Never watch alphabet soup channels - too partisan.
I receive several newsletters, such as WND, End of the Day, and AIM. But my most enjoyed blurbs are from you. You have a knack of hitting the nail on the head with every time. Please keep them coming.
Post a Comment