His mind is not for rent….

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If it bleeds, it leads. Thats the axiom when it comes to news. (Trivia: I started college as a journalism major. I finished as..well.. I’ll let you know.)

It seems that the Kung Flu is having to share time with blaring headlines about 31% unemployment coming soon. And our governor just announced a moratorium on evictions, utility shutoffs, and that sorta thing. A recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of decline in GDP, seems all but guaranteed. Prisons are emptying, hospitals are floundering, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! Haven’t you heard? The world is coming to an end!

Darn hard to keep a smile going with that sort of news. But…is it really news? Is it real news? Is it the dreaded ‘fake news’? Or is it just the most sensational way to get click on Reuters website? Should I max out the credit cards with the expectation that the ‘boogaloo’ is about to happen? Or do I carefully navigate my way through the upcoming societal detritus to the inevitable upswing on the other side? Stuff is getting real, that seems certain….but the news…they only tell you the worst of it, right?

At this point, I’m really willing to start believing that news is subjective. Get your news from as many different sources as you can, apply some critical thinking, and then you decide for yourself whats really news.

My grandfather, a man from the era of a high school education being considered higher learning, read all three newspapers every night…The NY Times, The Daily News, and The NY Post. It never occurred to me, as a stupid kid, to ask him why he sat up late at night at the kitchen table, listening to WNEW’s Make Believe Ballroom on the radio, reading newspapers, but whatever the reason was I’m pretty sure that after reading those three papers, with their three disparate points of view, he had a more rounded and well-informed opinion about the news than most people.

I try to get my information from equally as disparate, dispassionate, and disconnected sources. I play both sides of the fence…I listen to Fox and I listen to NPR. I watch CNN and I watch BBC. I read the books people think everyone should read, and then I read the books people think no one should ever read. And then…I make up my own mind.

No doubt, there is trouble ahead….but how much trouble, what kind of trouble, and for how long…. no one seems to really have any statements that everyone else can agree on. So, I take them all in and try to filter them as best I can. I suppose I could play it safe and go with ‘worst case scenario’ but I think thats a tad uncalled for. I think I’m going to proceed carefully and deliberately in everything I do moving forward until such time as I can loosen my hands on the reins a bit. When will that be? Not sure, but, whether we like it or not,  we’re definitely going to find out.

Moral of the story: don’t believe everything you read, but don’t disbelieve it either. Put your bran cells to work and examine, inspect, question, and evaluate what you’re told. Then act accordingly.

12 thoughts on “His mind is not for rent….”

  1. Very good points!
    I read a spectrum of news sources, both ‘official news’ and blogs like yours every day. One resource that greatly helps is the Real Clear family of sites – they aggregate article from across the spectrum on issues in the news, as well as issues they feel should be in the news. While their Real Clear Politics site is most well known, there are also a bunch of specialized Real Clear sites. I like the perspective of Real Clear History; they tie good discussions of historical events to current events, including anniversaries of the events that actually changed the world, not just the events that pop culture says changed the world.

  2. I check in with four news feeds regularly, but only one is a US based newsfeed. I like to read the news stories NOT showing up in the common news sources here.

  4. 2 Newspapers from Ireland, 3 from England, various newswires world wide and NY Times, etc. The more I read a common thread is found. Trump is evil. Trump is God.
    Guns are bad, guns are good, etc.
    You have to carefully read between the lines and thankfully being 71 and confined to home by a tyrannical State government I have the time.
    One good, my gun shop is open again!
    Spring has sprung.
    But the range is closed.
    Chris49

  7. I don’t pollute my mind with msm any more than I have to. I read lots of scientific papers on subjects of interest and if anything that may affect my life is in the msm, I always hear about it on the blogs I visit (like this one). Then I investigate further as needed.
    About the only reason to read/listen to your enemies is so that they can tell you what they are thinking/planning. Pretty much the only tv news I watch is the locals, and that mainly for the weather. ((btw, the next time someone makes a comment about the ditsy headed blonde doing the weather, remind them that she is probably THE smartest person on the broadcast. She is the only one with a REAL degree; one in a science)).

  8. Sage advice as always Captain. You are manifesting critical thinking which is so lacking in todays world. One more reason why this site is always a must read.

  9. The business of journalism isn’t reporting the news.
    It’s deciding what ‘is’ or isn’t not’ the news.

  12. I appreciate your introspectiveness. Having checked your blog off and on, every few days, for a couple years, you have in the past few days introduced yourself. Wish I was up there somewhere in the Redoubt! Near a Costco…

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