Red Mosquito

Green Habit wrote:Yahoo and Google News just to get started with simple stuff. They aggregate a lot so that leads me to bounce around a bit. I don't think I make an active effort to read any major traditional newspaper regularly, but through this I probably bounce around to places like NYT, WaPo, etc. often enough.

Then, I built a custom Twitter feed to follow a group of commentators that I've long felt had interesting views, regardless of whether I ultimately agree with them. Through them, I usually get bounced to some other websites.
--Matt Yglesias (lefty, Vox.com)
--Megan McArdle (libertarian, Bloomberg.com)
--Eugene Volokh (libertarian law expert, Volokh Conspiracy)
--Josh Blackman (libertarian law expert, his own blog)
--Scott Lemieux (lefty law expert, Lawyers, Guns & Money)

Kinda wish I had a true blue conservative commentator that I could get interested in, but still haven't found a good one.

The Atlantic also has some good stuff I like, especially their CityLab sister site for geeking out on urban development issues.

Huh. Matt Y changed gigs. No familiarity with Scott Lemieux.

I don't think Megan, Eugene, or Josh have changed their views significantly in the intervening years, but a lot of other 'Libertarian' commenters have. Popehat is... I dunno what they are now. Shame about nonwhitehat.

I guess the downside of being a boring, consistent idealogue means your potential fan base is rather limited.

Oops:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/worl ... -hoax.html

Lol. We were once hardcore lovers of the NYT; I even read the book all about the history of the company.

They jumped the shark maybe five years ago? All they’re good for now is the cooking section and Arts & Culture.

The crossword can stay too I guess.

love when Carlson goes leftwing populist

BurtReynolds wrote:love when Carlson goes leftwing populist

I love it when the blue checks get all clever. Does this guy really think the US federal government runs on tax dollars?

I either wasn't aware of this, or forgot about it.
Possibly relevant to his uhh, pivot:

https://slate.com/business/2013/11/knoc ... s-are.html

I think I needed this piece after yesterday.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/ ... lf-dobelli

A car drives over a bridge, and the bridge collapses. What does the news media focus on? The car. The person in the car. Where he came from. Where he planned to go. How he experienced the crash (if he survived). But that is all irrelevant. What's relevant? The structural stability of the bridge. That's the underlying risk that has been lurking, and could lurk in other bridges.

How many times have we seen that Q'anon barbarian today? I get that faces need to be identified, but he's the car here. I'm seeing much less about the bridge. We are so obsessed with MAGA, I don't even think we could point to what the bridge actually is.

News stories are overwhelmingly about things you cannot influence. The daily repetition of news about things we can't act upon makes us passive. It grinds us down until we adopt a worldview that is pessimistic, desensitised, sarcastic and fatalistic. The scientific term is "learned helplessness". It's a bit of a stretch, but I would not be surprised if news consumption, at least partially contributes to the widespread disease of depression.

...

News works like a drug. As stories develop, we want to know how they continue. With hundreds of arbitrary storylines in our heads, this craving is increasingly compelling and hard to ignore.

There I was yesterday afternoon, getting my personal house in order, when my phone buzzes. I see a chilling, almost unreal headline about the storming of the Capitol, and choose to spend the rest of the day and beyond focusing on that and nothing but that.

things we already know limit our creativity. This is one reason that mathematicians, novelists, composers and entrepreneurs often produce their most creative works at a young age. Their brains enjoy a wide, uninhabited space that emboldens them to come up with and pursue novel ideas.

I definitely get the most enrichment out of podcasts, not news. Mostly long-form interviews with thinkers and creatives. I have been doing more of that lately, but man do I miss my 20s when I could get out a pen or a guitar and just offer up my own wild and passionate ideas into the ether just to see what stuck around.

Society needs journalism – but in a different way. Investigative journalism is always relevant. We need reporting that polices our institutions and uncovers truth. But important findings don't have to arrive in the form of news. Long journal articles and in-depth books are good, too.

Important to note that this piece seems to be defining "news" more in the vein of headlines, clickbait, doomscrolling twitter, and mindless consumption. I don't read it as a hit piece against journalism or media at large, and I 100% respect the work of those of you doing it honestly in the media. Particularly the backbone producer, copy editor, etc types. Still, it's good to turn the notifications off here and there, maybe doubly so in times of up-to-the-minute crisis unless you're right there in it.

Between this and the goofy Schwarzenegger speech, when are these people gonna learn to stop with these comparisons?

I guess it spreads, though, so what do I know?



We'll get there. Just relax and enjoy the ride.

Has Tucker Carlson got the most punchable face in all of the media? I don't know, but he's certainly in the discussion.

Lawrence O'Donnell gets an instant channel change from me.

There are a lot of good choices.

punchables:
1. Carlson
2. Maddow
3. Fredo

Going in the other direction, is it alright to say that Kaitlan Collins can say whatever she wants and I'll watch?

elliseamos wrote:Going in the other direction, is it alright to say that Kaitlan Collins can say whatever she wants and I'll watch?

Krystal Ball

i cant get the video of hannity vaping during commercial break and that to me is the most punchable face in any profession

Matt Yglesias has been putting out great content since moving to Substack. I used to hate the guy for some reason but I can't remember why. Maybe it's his annoying nasally voice. Anyway, highly recommend his newsletter.

It is kind of annoying how the media that was bashing all police last summer is now sucking their d*cks for being heroes last week.