The sun’s out here ...... roadways up to various mountain
snow recreation areas are clogged with traffic ..... more of my various colored
California poppies that self-seeded are blossoming.
* * *
The past couple weeks have been unusual. I suspect a deep conspiracy is rampant among
inanimate objects in my house. Conspiracies are everywhere according to some
people, so why not this? I found
it very troubling that various devices I use every day or so have simultaneously
begun malfunctioning. How to account for that?
Yes, the plumber ultimately resolved one issue so I have a
flushable commode, but then there was the appliance problem requiring a service
person.
Days, then a week became more than two without laundry capability
as I insisted what I observed happening to my machine didn’t jibe with the diagnosis
– especially when the service man’s first treatment failed to solve the
problem. More water all over the utility room floor
when I opened the front-loading door.
My continued emphasis that this was not a second problem but
the same issue I had first reported, ultimately caused him to explore what
actually resulted in a much simpler solution than he had considered. This resolved the problem -- didn’t even
require he install the new replacement part that had delayed service -- plus
saved me the expense of a second service call.
Conspiracy or not, the commode sewer
line reamed out, then the hose from the clothes washer drain adjusted, I finally have clean clothes again.
* * *
Preservation of journalism in the news industry continues to
be a major concern. Given the importance of journalism to a
democracy, being supportive of responsible journalists and organizations is
vital. There has been a decline in the
traditional news sources on which we’ve relied for information though actual media
sources have increased significantly.
The quality of reporting and viability of the facts has been
threatened, compromised in some instances, challenging each of us to be
discriminating. Certainly
differentiating between opinion and fact is imperative.
This Guardian article I read recently by Hossein Derakhshan poses some interesting thoughts
and questions “If news is dying, who will save democracy?” He
differentiates between news and journalism, noting entertainment’s predominance along with propaganda.
“... if buffeted by the twin forces of entertainment and
propaganda, news is dying, how can journalism – and thereby democracy –
survive?”
He suggests thoughtful sources beyond the sound bites, short blurbs we mostly
receive now becoming increasingly prevalent.
He says:
“I see
hope in three narrative formats: audio (including documentary podcasting),
video and non-fiction “literature”.
I haven’t
devoted much time to audio podcasts, do view videos, but my non-fiction reading
remains mostly with books, television and multiple but selective traditional
print web sites, also my city weekly paper, the Claremont Courier for local news.
I don’t
attend to social media sites when I want to know what’s going on, as they have
been so polluted, including the one used and abused by our nation’s
leader. With the run-up to our Primary elections and
the national election in the coming year we have been cautioned to expect more
of the same.
What do
you see as the source(s) of journalism and/or news, especially specifically about your city or community?
I have a lot of links to newspapers and sources. I read a wide variety of sites from left to right as I don't feel either side gives all the stories. I don't follow Twitter at all for news and am constantly amazed anyone does. I can Tweet but it's mostly innocuous stuff and never political. Like, I might post a photo of our recent and unusual snowfall in Tucson. Once in a while I use it to promote a book; but since I never read anybody else's Tweets (except my granddaughter's), I don't expect much from my own posts. I did learn I can put my Tweets on my blog and began that a year or so ago-- not sure any blog readers know they are there lol
ReplyDeleteI follow more cultural stories than political ones although I am starting to see what the various Dem candidates are promising and as usual expecting someone else to pay for-- if paid at all. That seems typical of politicians on both sides though.
So I skim and sometimes read The Guardian; Intercept; Politico; Federalist; etc. as well as local newspapers to places I live or love; and then those countless memes at FB, which once in a while have a real story that matters and often don't.
Imagine keeping up on local news more challenging when you’re on ranch but not as much so for local Tucson news when you’re there.
DeleteI fear the washing machine troubles you went through. It's not like you can find a laundromat on every corner anymore to use while you're waiting for a repair person. Right now we're having high winds so I don't dare do laundry because they are warning us there could be electrical outages.
ReplyDeleteI think the next two years it's really important for us to support the news sources that are reliable and do in depth stories. I still get our Sunday paper just to support the concept, but I rarely read it anymore.
Finding sources for local news can be a challenge in some communities but maybe not in yours.
DeleteWell, I am glad you managed to have your commode and washer repaired. As for the news, I get mine from the daily city newspaper and the online sites I visit.
ReplyDeleteCommunities with a daily city newspaper have dwindled, so consider yourself lucky as I do myself here.
DeleteUnfortunately discovered water on floor in utility room this morning. Not sure where that came from so looks like my troubles haven’t ended after all.
Ouch, you have had a string of misfortunes appliance wise. Hope you have run the course and there will be no more surprises.
ReplyDeleteAlready had one surprise this morning as I noted above to Gigi. Not sure if I need appliance man again or plumber, as can’t tell where water from though not an ongoing leak I don’t think, plus didn’t appear to be leaking from drain when I did washes last night. Oh well, more fun, more people drowned.
DeleteWe live in a small town and pay about $70 year for a paper with no serious reporting. Another free local paper is actually better.
ReplyDeleteFor national and world news we subscribe to the print and digital Wall Street Journal and The Economist, and I subscribe to the digital New York Times and Washington Post and donate to the Guardian and am a member of The Atlantic's Masthead. Investigative reporting needs to be supported so I try to do my part.
I'm glad you can do laundry now! What a mess.
Oops. Just read your problems haven't been fixed. :(
ReplyDeleteI find that whole thing with appliances - they all fry out at once, mainly (I'm thinking) because they were all purchased around the same time). Glad you're not flooded anymore. As to news, I do like the Irish Times, good global coverage and not 45-45-45 24/7. I like the analysis of European affairs. Globe & Mail Canada and New York Times and Atlantic and some of the better websites, Democracy Now, Pilger.
ReplyDeleteI shut it all off when I get so enraged or stressed that I need to take a break.
Stupidz hurts my brain.
XO
WWW
The appliance purchase timing is often the case I’ve found, too. They’re built for obsolescence, too, as opposed to lasting a long time as better quality ones were decades ago. when I was young.
DeleteInternational news sources really are important as you note. I also like U.S. PBS World News that features networks in Japan and Germany. Hopefully you have informative local community news sources where you are, too, whether print, radio, TV or all.
We just had a round of Appliance Fail here, too: oven, washer, icemaker. The first two cost us over $400 in repairs, but obviously less expensive than new ones. The icemaker was a quick fix by us.
ReplyDeleteI'm astonished by how some local news channels devote minutes to reading Twitter users' comments on air; as if the Average Citizens' feedback is newsworthy. Please. Some of us still want to rely on actual credible journalism for our Facts.
I empathize with your appliance issues — I had to replace several beginning with my oven after my husband died.
DeleteYes, local TV news has become more like entertainment with celebrity focus, and business promotions.
I think there are still many media sources that give fairly reliable news. I follow the Guardian (we also donate to them monthly), the Telegraph, the Independent and the BBC. If I've noticed something from an unfamiliar source, I'll always look for confirmation elsewhere before I take it as gospel.
ReplyDeleteIdeally some of your city or local community news gets covered, too.
DeleteI see our journalism instructors as a first line of defence. In reaction to himself, I read several newspapers online, and I read one tabloid local news station....for the local gar-bage. LOL
ReplyDeleteGetting local news issues affecting daily living isn’t always easy in some communities with all the tabloid’s sensational items.
DeleteIn 2001, after my daughter finished school, I did a master's degree and one of the assignements was an essay on media in the digital age which then was just beginning. As usual, I did it all last minute and wrote something about the "digital divide" and "digital selectivism" and how we may in the not to distant future stop leaving through a paper or journal, actually turning pages and getting interested by what was presented to us as readers, but instead with a click preselect what we think we are interested in while shutting out entire sections of the news.
ReplyDeleteI think that's where we are now to a large extent.
There are one or two quarterly expert journals my husband reads, very slowly, simply because he alsways did that during his professional career and never cancelled the subscriptions. We get the Friday edition of a large national daily paper because of the extras incl. the weekly cryptic crossword, on that day.
I read a couple of national daily papers online, but I admit that I skim through the headlines on most days. I read the Guardian online daily and have paid for premium content. Same with the Irish Times but just to kept with what my Irish family is facing plus they have an excellent crossword.
But we mostly listen to the radio, BBC world service and a couple of other regular stations. Basically, we get our news from the wireless. Always have.
In public I am an adamant defender of the Fourth Estate and its important role in a free and democratic society.
I fall asleep during podcasts.
I, too, listen to radio including a rare all-news Los Angeles station though not all of that city’s issues affect me. They do have in depth interviews and present other topics of broader interest which are informative. Our National Public Radio (NPR) provides some significant programming, too.
DeleteNewspapers (incl The Guardian for preference although I am coming to realise that it is just as biased as the right wing press, albeit more to my taste), TV news both here and in Europe which my TV satellite dish allows me to access. No social media, don’t belong to any of them, rarely podcasts but I will roam the internet for free articles.
ReplyDeleteBeing personally worried about Brexit (will they allow me to stay in the country?) I have been rather obsessed with the news for several years but I believe I will have to give up some time soon because the endlessly negative reporting makes me ill. As for your own country and your own leader, God help us. In Germany he is one of the most reviled politicians ever and that’s saying something.
I’m wondering, too, what’s going to happen with Brexit, and appreciate your and many others concerns. Though not Brexit-related, the actions of our leader has been alarming to many Green Card holders in th U.S., too, people living here for years but with citzenship in neighboring countries north/south of our border. I expect the German people see our leader for what he is in ways too many people in our country don’t seem to recognize— a serious, poentionally deadly mistake for retaining our democratic republic.
DeleteLuckily, I have not been exposed to any conspiracies in the recent memory. In India we are exposed to what we call paid news, ie, some news media paid for by vested interests and since evey intelligent person knows about this, they are ineffective to a large extent but its journalists can be at the receiving end of vicious social media backlashes.
ReplyDeleteHere is a report on one such instance.
https://www.ibtimes.co.in/sagarika-ghose-blames-hindu-pride-semen-filled-balloons-hurled-girls-gets-trolled-social-media-762386
Can you imagine balloons filled with semen?
If everyone knows then I guess most don’t take such “news” seriously. The one for which you provide the link makes me wonder why anyone wastes their time with some of that social media — seems far-fetched, but guess anything is possible. Efforts to get free advertising with product or business name, promotions like that book, mentions occur here, but I relegate to spam (but we just promoted it with these comments,) We get them trying to wrangle mention on our blogs through sneaky comments you may have encountered, too.
DeleteI think that Trump has done such a disservice to our country with his "fake" news mantra. Now it's hard to believe anything I hear or read. My son relies on "The Economist" and shares it with me.
ReplyDeleteThe whole “fake” news is worse than a disservice — it’s a very deliberate strategy to undermine and destroy news credibility — journalism’s factual news a vital check needed for preserving our democracy. This is a tactic designed to undermine our democracy, neutralize the lies he tells by creating confusion in people’s minds as to what is fact and what is fiction — since some people believe the lies if he repeats them enough. I think he has been quoted, or may have written in his book that lie philosophy that if you repeat it enough people will begin to believe it. He also said in his campaigning for offce words to the effect and has demonstrated in action an intent to alter our system.
DeleteI agree wholeheartedly. I don't write the following because I wish to trash anyone; I write it because I believe it. What I'm getting at is that I'm unable to think of Trump's supporters as other than stupid because whatever he says, millions of them accept it as being true even if it contradicts statements by government agencies and bonafide news services. But whose word does Trump trust? He says he trusts Putin and Kim Jong Un, and his actions suggest that, about this at least, he is telling the truth.
DeleteI don’t think generalizing the intelligence level of all of our leader’s supporters serves any useful purpose and, in fact, stifles needed civil discourse.
Delete"I don’t think generalizing the intelligence level of all of our leader’s supporters serves any useful purpose..."
DeleteIs this true in every case, or would you agree that some leaders are so depraved that their followers deserve only censure? When speaking about Trump's followers in particular, my thought is that what is useful to say and what is honest to say aren't necessarily the same. While I struggle mightily to hold out the possibility that at least some Trump supporters are people of intelligence and goodwill, I don't get far. I have, to my knowledge, only one active follower of my blog (Marion is her name) who is a Trump supporter, and we sometimes say some pretty awful things about one another, but we both hang in there, and we even feel affection for one another. Still, I won't pretend that our political differences aren't a major obstacle for me. Honoring diverse views and values is one thing, but honoring people who support a blatantly unethical would-be dictator is another. To Marion's credit, I must say that our differences are more of an obstacle for me than they are for her.
I simply do not view labeling individuals stupid to be civil discourse which is the established criteria for posting on this blog. I perceive this requirement to be necessary for creating the communication atmosphere most desirable for producing intelligent discourse from all.
DeletePoint taken, and I'll do my best to honor your preferences.
DeleteI listen to NPR for hours a day. Sometimes, I watch the PBS news (not usually because it comes on when Jeopardy! is on, and Jeopardy! is the one major network shows that Peggy never misses. I also watch a couple of the network evening news programs, and I sometimes Google news stories and look up questionable stories on Snopes. What I don't do is to read newspapers and news-oriented magazines, the reason being that I spend so much time listening to NPR.
ReplyDeleteCertainly a variety of news sources which many here have cited also. Expect acquiring local news would be on local stations offering community area news. Can appreciate your wife’s attraction to Jeopardy.
DeleteThen you can imagine how upset she is about Trebek's cancer.
DeleteYes, this is a wicked cancer that a number of my friends have encountered. Am sure it’s especially difficult for someone with cancer to learn others they care about are having that experience, too.
DeleteI listen to Amy Goodman's Democracy Now from time to time. NPR programming holds my attention as well.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, my mother would have the TV turned on to our local PBS station, channel 9. The McNeil/Lehrer Report was a staple. I wonder if folk nowadays would simply not feel stimulated enough with that sort of pace and backdrop and not tune in?
I’ve read that since the Trump era the current News Hour (replaced McNeil/Lehrer), now with Judy Woodruff, show ratings have been going up fior what some consider a dull and boring TV news show.
DeleteI have one simple rule about news - no single sourcing. I watch Fox NEWS - not the pontificating opinion folks like Hannity or .Ingraham. I trust Shep Smith and Chris wallace to be honest newsmen. I get a kick out of Nicole Wallace on MSNBC. One of I find the local YV news here around Charlotte to be reasonably fair and accurate.The most vile things promoted by our beloved president (small p on purpose) is the fake news and the media is the enemy of the people nonsense. I also must confess that I dislike where I live so much I only rarely read local newspapers.
ReplyDeleteYour no single sourcing rule is one with which I’ve always agreed. Certainly important to follow when determining what journalists or newspersons we can trust. Thanks for describing how you’re able to get local news as I’ve wondered how others find out what’s happening in their immediate community given how bombarded we are with all the national affairs. Wish you could live where more to your liking as you probably don’t lack for hearing excessive contrary perspectives from your own.
Delete