Alternative (make that Independent) Media
It's abundant, viable, and necessary. I advocate for shitcanning all the rest
This post will be full of links. Consider clicking on and subscribing to each one.
Many of us are pretty much entirely over the “news” as we have known it for decades. We are sick of the both-sides bullshit. We are sick of the sane-washing of what is transparently and objectively (at least to us; the brainwashed multitudes is a whole other subject) insane and destructive lies and propaganda.
When I moved from Los Angeles to North Carolina in 2007, I left cable TV behind. Although we do have a Roku TV in the living room, truth is all the media I get comes to me via a computer. I have an office computer, a bedroom computer (typing on that one now), and a downstairs computer. So, even if I do have the TV on, I’m still, almost always, consuming the same media that I do on a computer.
I believe that whether you term it mainstream, corporate, legacy, or something else, the media of which I speak is an affront to the First Amendment. I am hopeful that some day, a discussion can be had about this Amendment, that the press is supposed to be “free” - i.e., not driven by profit - and also that the right to free speech was never meant to be the right to spread destructive propaganda.
With TCFSF (note: the convicted felon sick FUCK) assuming office just 3 short days from now, this is a wistful wish at best. In this moment, propaganda and, well, the bad guys, are winning.
It is also my firm belief that we must not and cannot simply acquiesce. I’ve been an American for far too long, believing in its values as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, to be stoic about this turn of events.
Still, many Americans are still glued to their TVs, watching cable news and their local news, and that is all they consume in the way of news. I still remember when the local news began to really get on my nerves: it was probably in the 80s or 90s, and it was a local broadcaster in LA, Christine Lund.
Christine Lund had these eyebrows, and she raised them, up, down, up, down, as she delivered the news, expressing clearly with her eyebrows how we should feel about the news she was conveying. It got to where, when I watched the news, I couldn’t take my eyes off of those fucking eyebrows. She was probably saying things like, “A horrific crash on the 110 today left 7 people dead,” but that news was secondary to her fucking eyebrows!
Over time, I also came to find the adjectives objectionable. I would look at the TV, and yell, “Just tell me the news! I don’t need to know how to feel about it!”
Just yesterday, a story from yahoo news mentioned the “shocking” murder of a CEO. The context was fraud and corruption in the health insurance industry. The story was not about whats-his-name getting killed in NYC. It was more precisely about the reason he was killed. Nonetheless, whoever wrote or edited that story wanted their readers to be shocked at his death. They told us to be with their choice of words.
Fuck that. People, we have options, great, important, democracy-loving options. Here are links to many of the people who are part of the vibrant and growing alternative media world (we need to find a new name for them - they are certainly my first and primary go-to’s for the news these days):
Can't go a day without some of my Daily Beans
Andy Borowitz - humor and more
Scott Dworkin - the Dworkin Report
Krugman Wonks Out - Paul Krugman
Mueller She Wrote - Allison Gill
Five Minute News - Anthony Davis
The Bulwark I watch for George Conway
Okay. That’s 20. There are more, plus there are legacy publications I still subscribe to, including The Atlantic and The New Yorker. But, with my income as limited as it is, I will definitely be unsubscribing to at least one of those in order to get paid subscriptions to some of these people. I wish I had the money to financially support each and every one, but I truly don’t.
Anyhow. If there is someone you really think I should know about, please comment and link to it.