If you knew someone you cared about was afflicted with a brain disease that could be easily treated and possibly cured with a simple intervention, wouldn't you tell him or her about it?
Well, what about all the people you know suffering from lamestream media addiction and chronic true media dietary starvation? Here's a simple solution
Depending Upon Local Dailies and NPR
Yesterday, I spent the bulk of the day manning a table at the local peace fair, on the grounds of a Quaker Church. I met a lot of locals and discovered that a lot of people are depending, proudly, upon NPR or their local daily newspaper (they suck in our area, from a progressive perspective, and keep in mind, this was a PEACE fair-- anti war, mostly liberal.)
Now, let's talk a moment about NPR. I've long thought that NPR is bad for progressives. The right wing thinks that it's liberal radio. I don't. I think NPR is a great place to go for the arts and international justice and advocacy. If you want to get a report from baby boomer about the little village in central america, with colorful description, NPR is for you. If you want to listen to a fascinating interview with an artist or writer or retired leader of a foreign nation, NPR could be for you. But they don't deal with politics and do little to deal with muckraking, with a few exceptions, like, on public television, Bill Moyers, who is a national treasure I'd love to see running for president.
So... here's a thought. Ask the people you know who are liberal or progressive or green or democratic how they get their news. Ask if they get any of their news on-line. Ask what newspapers they read, what radio and TV they watch. Then tell them they have to read OpEdNEws.com, listen to air america and Mike Malloy, Ed Schultz and Stephanie miller or whatever local progressive talk radio hosts they have access to (if any. We don't have any here in the Philly area.) And tell them to start watching keith olbermann and Bill moyers, Jon Stewart's Daily Show and the Colbert Report on TV.
Tell them that if all they're doing to get their news is local dailies, NPR and network news or CNN or MSNBC or FOX (god forbid) then they are navigating blind, or worse, with bad, spun, misleading information.
Do it today.
