Although I am politically on the far left, I enjoy reading the right wing blogs. I guess I take after my Mom, who is an 86-year-old, life-long Republican.
Mom says she watches both FOX News and the Daily Show for the same reason: They always have something different to say, unlike the network news stations which air slightly different versions of the same stories.
Mom's got that right. FOX News (AKA FAUX News) resides in an almost fact-free universe, and the Daily Show is comedy, which is supposed to be fake news. Corporate news, on the other hand, is written from press releases provided to them by other multi-national corporations (hence the name "corporate news".)
I read the right wing blogs because they always have something different to say.
Locally, there are lots of political blogs-- mostly written by men-- and many of them are left-leaning like Blog for Arizona, Rum, Romanism and Rebellion, and the now-defunct Poco Bravo or just out there like the Three Sonorans or Arizona's Unapologetic Liberal.
All of the above-mentioned blogs have similar takes on issues of the day. Some are more outrageous than others, some are more fact-based than others, and all of them are at times entertaining.
But as Mom would say, they're sort of the same. This is why I also read the right wing blogs. Since I jumped into the fray on the Ethnic Studies debate several weeks ago when I dared post TUSD Board President Mark Stegeman's plan to reorganize Ethnic Studies, I have discovered another female blogger who has dared to stand up to the deluge of criticism tossed at anyone who dares to say, "Hey, let's look at this plan and see if reorganization is warranted."
Maybe it's sort of a female bonding thing, since we both had the balls to ask tough questions and since there are so few women writing political blogs in Southern Arizona, but I've become a stealth follower of the Tucson Independent Daily. I read her blog not because I always agree with her but because she always has something different to say, she helps me keep up with different viewpoints on topics of interest, and she gives me story ideas.
For example, it was on her blog that I first read about John Munger's critique of the Ethnic Studies curriculum as being Marxist. I came under harsh attack for posting a story about the right's opinion the Mexican American Studies (MAS) curriculum, but lefties have to be aware of what the right is saying about us, in my opinion. Also, I thought this would prompt MAS supporters to post more information about what exactly they are teaching... but no. Where can you find MAS course descriptions and syllabi? Not on the MAS section of TUSD's website, but on a linkfrom the Tucson Independent Daily.
Recently, one of the more out there posts painted the Save Ethnic Studies (SES) folks as the Al-Quaeda of Southern Arizona-- plotting to disrupt banking and voter registration. Now, you must admit that that's not a story you're not going to find everywhere. The right wing is known for their penchant for conspiracy theories-- especially when linked to Latino voter registration. (Remember the stories last summer about Congressman Raul Grijalva busing Mexicans across the border to register to vote?) I think the SES story is a variation on that theme.
So, Lefties, for something completely different-- read the righty blogs-- in addition to the lefty blogs.