There are many, many questions one might hear in the course of an average day. As an educator and student, questions are near and dear to me. I'm even taking a graduate course this semester focusing on how to write (research) questions.
Since Lil' C. turned 3, however, the most often heard question in my life has been, "Why, Daddy?" As in, "Why is the sun going down, Daddy?" and, "Why do I have to sleep when I'm not tired, Daddy?" (invariably asked while yawning and eye-rubbing). Whatever my answer, and I always give one, she is unerringly prepared with a follow up. And you probably guessed it:
"Why, Daddy?"
A close second, though, would be Mrs. C.'s "Where did you hear that?" or its close friend, "How do you know that?" I sometimes have an answer for this one, and sometimes not. When I don't, the old standby "I read it somewhere" doesn't work the magic it once did, and Mrs. C. is also prepared with a follow up...
Source Amnesia
...now, there is something called "source amnesia," when a person can remember something they have heard or read, or otherwise encountered, but cannot easily remember the source of that information. This has often been my fallback position on the "How do you know that?" line of questioning. For example, one of the most recent things I learned this week was Evan Bayh announcing his retirement from the Senate. I also remember someone saying, or writing, that this is great news for Republicans. I also ran into the opinion that this is great news for progressive Democrats. But, did I first get news of his departure from the NYT, LA Times, or some random GoogleNews feed, all of which I've visited in the last 16 hours? Was the first opinion in one of these, or from one of the tv shows or radio programs I've heard in the last day? Does it really matter whether it was Fox News or MSNBC that said this is great for Republicans?
So, I end up thinking, "I don't know, I just know!"
Which doesn't end in a good place in my low-tolerance-for-arrogance marriage, and therefore I modify it to, "I don't know, I just read it somewhere" by the time I speak that thought.
Ideological Preference
Now, there is some research evidence that indicates that partisan people, those who are politically aware and care about elections and government and policy, tend to prefer information sources that are also favored by those with whom they agree. A certain kind of "my team" versus "their team" mentality has developed regarding media outlets. But, I don't need IRB approved research to tell me that my father-in-law would read a Greek newspaper, in Greek, before he'd sit through one minute of Rachel Maddow or one second of Keith Olbermann. And that no matter how many emails, links, or phone calls he makes advocating for her to drop what she's doing and go watch this absolutely life-changing clip from last night's Glenn Beck show, his own daughter has never (intentionally) watched any clip from the Glenn Beck show.
Just to clarify - my father-in-law cannot read Greek.
Breadth and Depth (or, Blinders and Scales)
Yet, some of us, and a few laudable Kossacks who diary on the opposition, do go out of our way to consume information from a variety of ideological perspectives. I, for one, have seen more than one Glenn Beck clip (and, occasionally, an entire show) and a few more O'Reilly's than even I can believe I've watched.
My reason for reading the WSJ opinion pages is not only to be better informed about opposition thinking, but to challenge my own thinking and assumptions. To resist the herd mentality in media consumption that seems to sweep completely one way or another. I tell myself that one way to think for myself, and not get caught in the sweep, is to have multiple points of view in mind at the time of the thinking.
Sometimes, this results in the removal of blinders, like when I began to realize that a majority of 60 is not really a majority of 60, for many different reasons. Other times, I have nearly felt the scales drop from my eyes, like when I began to realize that one of my media idols was, in my reframed opinion, far more conservative than I had previously thought him to be. That this scales-dropping came after his death was particularly troubling to me for some reason.
A New Question
All of this brings me to ask you a new question, one not asked yet, at least in this diary:
What sources of information do you consume?
And the inevitable follow up questions:
Why?
Which media outlets do you trust? Which do you not trust?
Are there some you consult/consume even if you don't trust them?
There are many other questions I could think to ask, but these are the ones I've been mulling over for myself the past few days, and hence are the most important to me to approach in this venue. If you have additional ones, and more than likely better ones, please ask them in the comments.
The following is not a comprehensive list (I didn't include hardly any of the dozens of podcasts I keep updated on my desktop and mp3 player, for example), nor is it an overcompensating answer to Katie Couric's now famous question about what newspapers a certain Vice Presidential candidate can name because she reads them regularly. This is instead my awkward attempt to answer Mrs.C's question(s) and to give some context and meat to the conversation in general. And to encourage you to share your sources in the comments, so that we all may learn to expand our regular circle of information feeds.
Until then, just a couple thoughts:
- I don't completely trust any of the following sources of information, even those with which I find myself agreeing most often. Journalists, even the excellent, can be misled or manipulated, or overreach, or underreach. Some, I consume more critically than others. But I do try to consider as many different sources as I can think of and as I have time for, if for no better reason than just to try and have an answer for Mrs. C. when she asks those pesky questions. And to not feel too hypocritical when I get frustrated with Tea Party people who absolutely refuse to consider any source of information outside the Glenn Beck White-Power Hour.
- And, when I do have a clear answer on for Mrs. C., it is usually one of these sources.
Still working out my answers to Lil' C.'s questions, though. She's a much tougher questioner altogether.
Daily
- The NYT (Gail Collins and Adam Nagourney are on my NYT hotlist)
- Daily Kos (especially MF, Pundit Wrapup, Rec-list, front page authors, and an ever-growing hotlist of excellent diarists)
- www.cnet.com
- Google News
- www.HSX.com (Fun movie industry prediction stock game, but lots of movie and entertainment news updates as well).
Weekly
- Democracy Now (daily national broadcasts, but I check the website once a week to find what was of most interest to me).
- Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com
- National Journal website
- Mike Luckovich's AJC political cartooning, simply brilliant.
- Jen Sorensen is no slouch, either, though
- CNN, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution (usually a quick scan of headlines and opinion pages, sometimes less often than every week, sometimes more - depends on what's happening in the world and how much time I have that week).
- Bill Moyers (I don't watch every show, but most of them)
8)New York Magazine
- Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann shows, usually on podcast on the subway. I'll zip through 3 or 4 shows in the time it would take to watch one in realtime on tv.
Biweekly - Monthly
- O'Reilly clips online, based on FIL's suggestions or whatever may be happening of interest to me (like the Jon Stewart interview).
- Drew Westen's blog at HuffPo (despite my affinity for his theory of political communication, I do find his tone in the blog entries off-putting, and suspect they work against his very own thesis! That, and he doesn't post often enough to make this a once-a-week click for me)
- NPR, USA Today (I used to be an NPR junky, now they've moved to far center-right for me, and fired several of my formerly favorite personalities)
- Arts and Letters Daily (Great jump source to many other interesting articles and observations)
When I Think About It
- The New Yorker
- www.ted.com
- Mental Floss (Absolutely great online quizzes, like "Ikea product or Swedish Olympian?")
- More Intelligent Life (A culture quarterly from The Economist)
- Big Think
- Scientific American and Scientific American Mind
Education
There are also several academic journals, websites, listservs, and podcasts that I pay attention to regularly for news and ideas in the world of education. I didn't bother to list them here as many are quite specialized and require paid access or university portal access.
TWLTW:
- Evan Bayh retiring from the Senate can be spun as the aftershock of the Scott Brown win, as evidence of a dysfunctional Senate, or as a blessing for progressives, depending on which source you read/hear/watch.
- Kenneth Starr was selected to be the new president of Baylor University in Fort Worth, TX. He's leaving a position at Pepperdine to accept the post. The announcement to alumni detailed his excellent academic bonafides:
"Known as a strong Christian, Starr is the son of a Church of Christ minister and has announced he will join a Baptist church in Waco. ... Even while serving as a high-powered lawyer in the nation's capital, he continued to teach children's Sunday School at his local church."
I'm adding this to the long list of strange things I have heard that have happened in Waco, TX.
- There is an extensive neural network in the GI tract that some researchers have dubbed "the second brain." It may be responsible for gut feelings like butterflies in the stomach, and emotional states in general.
- Munchkins and flying monkeys were not the only ethnic groups in Oz. Frank Baum's last Oz book was about the conflict between the Flatheads and the Skeezers, and if you go to Books of Wonder in Manhattan, you can buy a 1st edition, and other rare Baum tomes.
- Jack Bauer should be featured in a new series of Timex commercials. He takes a licking, (a kicking, a punching, a stabbing, and an electrocuting) and he keeps on ticking! (Tick Tock Tick Tock).
- But, Damages has quickly become my #1 must see of the spring tv season. Who knew Martin Short like this? And why hasn't he done more dramatic work, or has he, and I just haven't been aware of it?
What Did You Learn This Week?