NPR is not balanced haha. Their own ombudsman admitted there liberal bias.
Most shocking statements of this election. I’m baffled this came from Michael Moore.
It’s decently balanced, definitely better than most, but don’t fool yourself they lean left. And I do listen to my local NPR affiliate in the car and very much enjoy the in depth coverage on news stories other outlets glance over. And I read the NPR news site and the GPB app on my phone.
However, I second you on them as a source, they mostly a good source and they do try to balance and don’t go for the glitz as much as other media outlets.
And Ricky Bevington is pretty hot for a news chick.
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There is a difference between NPR and your local affiliate. I do not agree they are perfectly balance, but they are better than most. But your local affiliate can swing wildly between markets. My market keeps a pretty even hand, your market may not.
If you want to keep your pulse on the economy day to day, I think Market Place is one of the best shows ever for economic news. I don’t think they are as balanced as biz does, I think they lean left, but so does biz. So to him they may seem balanced. I lean right, I studied media bias in college and have a pretty good ear for it.
It does not have to be obvious. It can simply be the placement of a story, or the omission of a story or parts of a story. I have seen NPR guilty of that sort of bias from time to time, but for the most part when it comes to straight news, they shoot straight. Your local chapter can veer though.
I mean, a place like CNN, when the front page has 8 negative stories on trump (which are all the same story told different ways) and nary a mention of Clinton except for pretty much declaring her the winner of the election, the bias is obvious. That’s why I say use multiple sources even biased ones, understanding they are biased. And stay away from the lunatic fringe light breitbart or moveon.org.
But like I said, in the end it’s based on faith. We are trusting these people to tell us what is going on and it may or may not be totally true and we have no way of truly knowing. That being said, I defend NPR as a whole, I think their journalistic integrity is much higher than most.
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Trump and Michael Moore agree on trade, so it’s not too shocking.
Geez, and I thought shell scripting was boring! Actually it’s quite exciting when it actually works and you’ve squeezed hours of work into minutes, but data analytics… Just learn TSQL and you can analyze data 3 ways from Sunday, in 3 diminsions (literally).
Actually do what you want… I just wanted to ramble.
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Long Philosophical Post on Puff’s Politics -
It’s helpful to be OK with the idea that you may not fall neatly into one category, or agree with a party platform on every issue. That means you’re a complex, thinking person. I worry about people who would never cross a party line EVER (even if Jack the Ripper were their party’s candidate). It’s a sign of intellectual laziness, as in "Twenty years ago I decided I’m a Dem or Rep so now I don’t have to know about any of the current policies or people, I can just go pull the lever. "
I’m personally more conservative in terms of how I think about the constitution, but I lean Libertarian on many social issues in terms of public policy. For example, I’m not spending any of my time trying to roll back Roe V. Wade, or gay marriage, or worrying about checking the ID of people using the restroom. I wish the Rep party would be more about small government and less about social conservatism.
Some of this is just pragmatism, but I also tend to bristle at authoritarianism. I will do a lot of things because someone asked me to, or because I think it’s the civil or kind thing, but I don’t want to be forced or threatened. You will do this… because a bureaucrat passed a new regulation, because we’ll sue you if you don’t, because we’ll personally ruin you if you don’t “get in line with our superior morality.”
In my personal life, I’m raising a severely mentally and physically disabled little girl. I never saw her life as something that I’d wish to snuff out before it began, but the reality is that I don’t live in a homogeneous society where everyone shares my same perspective and love for disabled kids, religious background, or family support. I have friends who have made decisions to terminate a pregnancy where there was a disabled child. I have the intellectual flexibility to see that other people make different choices, based on very different life experiences. It’s an imperfect world we share, and I don’t get to impose my values on them. I can’t fault people for making choices based on the light and knowledge they have. ( Note - Within my religion, in instances where there’s a serious medical issue for mother or child, couples are advised to pray about and make these decisions together with their doctor.)
Individual liberty/ individual freedom are the primary value. It’s not a recipe for peace entirely, but it’s our best hope. Individual freedom is a value for a lot of Americans, but they tend to rank other things higher. I’m very wary of policies that restrict freedom, or that engage in the kind of identity politics that tend to tear us apart more than bring us together.
We all walk some kind of line between how much we want Statism and “concern for the greater good,” and individual freedom. I think it’s a good way to think about the issues. Even looking at something like helmet laws, we weigh things like individual freedom with the costs associated with accidents, right? Sometimes the issues are more complex because they go to the heart of issues like private property rights, religious freedom, free speech. I’m very reluctant to step on some of those because they are so fundamental to what America is to me.
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MM called Trump supporters " legal terrorist." The dude is a nut job. Him saying something nice about anything to do with a republican is baffling. He even went as far as saying Trump supporters AREN’T racist or rednecks. Is he even allowed to say that?
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Yeah, I guess it does. I just browsed through a little and it does look pretty even.
For general reading I just read what comes through my home page and filter through the editorializing. Most events that make the news only need a few lines plus a video clip. The rest is just fluff thrown on for reader/special interest appeal.
For economics, business, and legal I browse through the news feed on my trading account. That has a good mix and choices between straight news and commentary.
We are extremely close Philosophically, Puff…
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[quote=“anon71262119, post:129, topic:222723, full:true”]
I wish the Rep party would be more about small government and less about social conservatism. [/quote]
See, I’m the opposite. I think the small government stuff stays a fantasy anyways unless social conservatism becomes mainstream USA.
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I’m curious how you come to that conclusion, as I view them as independent. Instead of generalizations, could you use one (or a few) issue(s) as an example?
Agreed Sloth. Small government is a pipe dream. No politician will willingly give up power. Too much money flowing in from lobbyist.
Who does an increasingly childless graying population turn to in their old age? Not the extended successful families they never built. Who does the mother look to for childcare? Not the father(s) she didn’t marry. Your examples are everywhere in life. Government is the missing large family. Government provides the TRUE freedoms the founders hid from us. The freedom from hunger, illness (medical care), the freedom from shouldering sexual consequences on our own, freedom from shouldering old age on our own. It will increasingly support us from cradle to grave. Heck, even your tea party folk don’t want their social security touched. The nanny government gives freedom from nature. It gives freedom from festering away unattended to in your childless/near childless old age (entitlements). Which politician is promising to cut entitlements? Some no hoper 3rd party candidate somewhere?
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Politicians? In the end, it has nothing to do with politicians. This is what the people want. And bit by bit, they’ll want more.
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Yes, the people are guilty of wanting more and more and that won’t change any time soon and they surely carry some of that blame but politicians don’t give a shit about what the people want. When will people realize this? They want what’s best for them and their rich buddies. Unless there is a giant revolution(So yes, people will need to change their way of thinking), there will never be a “small government.”
In the words of George Carlin, “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it.”
There is zero “flexibility” on this issue for me. There is nothing anybody could ever say that would convince me a human life is not a human life. It’s scientifically and rationally and logically impossible to make something other than what it is.
That life, in utero, is a human life. And to take it willfully , when it’s not a threat to another human life, is a morally wrong as taking any other human life who is not a threat to another. It’s the gravest of wrongs and I will never compromise.
Any other conversation on the matter is selfish diversion to take one away from what the truth is.
(steps off soapbox, drops mic)
Bitches!
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Am I the only person who has never found George Carlin the least bit funny?
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Yes. Now go fuck yourself.
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I agree, Michael Moore is a batshit crazy loon. I just mean on the topic of trade he and Trump have very similar views. So when he was speaking about midwestern factory workers it doesn’t come as a surprise that he can mutter a few nice words about Trump.