I like reading and watching the news. Keeping abreast with current and foreign affairs so that I can make informed decisions as I go about my life. Understanding the geo-political landscape and history so as better to understand why the world works the way it does and what's likely to happen in the future.
All fine and dandy, but it's becoming harder and harder to do so. Before the Internet revolution, we got our news from just a few sources, namely the newspaper you bought every day, the BBC and mates down the pub. If you were inclined towards the Labour party you bought the Mirror (or if you were posh, the Guardian), Conservatives the Mail or Telegraph, and the Sun for those that didn't care who ran the country as long as she had big tits.
It would be logical to assume that with the advent of global and rolling news channels, Internet and on-line news aggregators such as Google News etc, obtaining a broad, unbiased picture would be much easier now. Unfortunately not.
The left leaning, politically correct bias of the BBC has gone from being covert to overt. Traditional papers literally froth at the mouth when espousing the political bias of their paymasters, be it left or right. Aggregators are paid to put stories top of the list. Its becoming depressingly hard to find the truth these days from amongst the spin, half truths and downright lies that we are served up with. Its easy to understand why, in the absence of factual, balanced news, increasing numbers of people fall for the conspiracy theories that abound.
So what can be do about it? For me, one of the ways is simply to seek out as many different views as I can. Al-Jezeera, RT, English translations of European newspapers, CCTV, NHK etc. all form part of my daily read and are bookmarked. While each has its own bias reflecting the politics of their region, one can get a much wider picture then from simply trusting one news source.
But the best thing we can do is to hone our critical function, something that seems to be in short supply these days. Never take any news story at face value and always look to follow the money. Who benefits, whose paying, why now, and why us are four simple questions to ask of any story or politician.
As we come up to the General Election in a few weeks time, face Islamic terrorism at home and foreign aggression abroad, its more important then ever that we question what we are being told by the media and don't let others form our opinions for us.
