ubertuber

Good topic, by the way! I'm always on the lookout for new sources. I'll look forward to seeing what some of my fellow TFPers post!

Some excerpts from the PM I sent you (edited to make sense for others to peruse).


I'm in the habit of reading opinion and editorial pieces. I think these are a highly underrated news source. The ideal of "objective journalism" occupies way too much of the public's attention and is highly suspect at any rate. Every news piece involves decisions about who to quote, what to say, what order to say it in and what not to include (because of space limitations, if nothing else). In other words, there is no way that bias won't come into play at some point, no matter how "balanced" the view is. With editorial and opinion pieces, at least you know where the author is coming from! Besides, the people that write these things are generally pretty smart - allowing them to do some first level analysis for you (even if it is coming from only one point of view) is a way of getting the heavy lifting done quickly and easily. That said, it's important to fact-check if something doesn't seem right - there is often a context that will explain things that appear to be inexplicable. For this reason, I am tired of all the pro-forma dismissals of NY Times, Fox News, Truthout.org, Washington Times/Post, etc... There may be a level of bias in their story selection, but the facts included are either true or not, and that is what is important. You can chase them down on your own later (or fill in the blanks). The bleating about the "obvious bias" of these sources seems like people who find it inconvenient to engage ideas that differ radically from their own.

Another author I enjoy: Thomas Friedman. He’s a foreign affairs columnist for the NY Times who tends to focus on the intersection of political and economic issues (he calls it geo-politics). Friedman’s got a few things going for him. He’s definitely a moderate (and seems comfortable lauding/criticising both sides equally), he’s a good writer with a gift for catchy phrases, he has an uncanny knack for extended metaphors, and he’s extremely readable even when writing on dense topics. Most of all, Friedman seems to recognize that even in politics, economics, and globalization, the important story is the pragmatic one – which comes down to how issues affect people, and vice-versa. So, I make a point of reading every word he writes on the NY Times (requires a *select membership*, but that is worth it for him alone).

Friedman’s books (all very readable and quite interesting):
On middle eastern politics/life: From Beirut to Jerusalem
On post 9/11 world affairs: Longitudes and Attitudes
On globalization (read in this order): The Lexus and the Olive Tree and The World is Flat

__________________
Cogito ergo spud -- I think, therefore I yam