hold on to the center

Sponsors? We don't need no stinking sponsors.

What is news to you and how do you get yours?  What context (local, national, or global) is most important to you? What is a healthy amount of time to spend in order to be an informed part of our democratic society?

Are you approaching this in a constructive way?

These are questions I’ve asked myself over and over since taking to heart my responsibility as an adult voting for a representative government in a free country.  After 10 years of viewing and listening to Democracy Now! It is my own solution to all points raised above and I recommend it highly. 

Amy Goodman, and co-host Juan Gonzalez are what most would describe as a Progressives.  Their views match my own in many ways.  This viewpoint comes across in the general editorial process of choosing the topics but rarely (can’t think of an example) expresses opinion on the program.  She has the refreshing quality of actually working to draw out the experience or expertise of the interviewee rather than interspersing self aggrandizing commentary. 

Use the web, catch a broadcast, or download and watch it in HD while fixing dinner like I do!  Podcasts are available as well.

Journalism is a natural antagonist to government, which deceives and often resists change.  Why?  Because the decisions are made by politicians and their sponsors who almost uniformly are driven by keeping  power and seeking more .   Of course journalists are left of center. That is where they belong because the progress of time is the progress of change.  Nothing can deter it.

It alarms me everyday how poisoned commercial news and reporting has been during my lifetime.  Practically none of it provides a practical or detailed frame to topics at hand.  They use very few first hand accounts of events and even less expert opinions unless they are “media savvy” and already on board with the establishment game-plan.  Tools of influence have always been leveraged by those in power, but I fear the rise of commercial influence on what we take as fact is enhanced as profits head skyward and our electorate becomes less informed and more distracted.

Here’s a shout-out to some of my favorite go-for-broke journalists covering the Middle East and elsewhere who seem to embody the ethic every day of their lives.  Robert Fisk, Seymour Hersh, Greg Palast, and the new generation Jeremy Scahill and Nir Rosen.  They bring the story no matter what it does to them, how ugly it is, or what ideology it implicates.

You haven’t heard or read these guys?  Start listening to Amy and you soon will.