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I have had a few people ask me specifically what news sources I follow. In truth, more than I can count. I used to say it was about 20, I underestimated by a lot. It is probably closer to 40 or 50. The attempt is to get as broad a view as possible of a news story and catch trends.

I read the local news, national news, international news, alternate news sources, micro newspapers, television news and far out there news. I am not looking for the truth in a news source, I am looking to see the various pieces and approaches. In addition, I read many specialized magazines and news sources. I have provided links to some of them. I do not get a click through fee, my blog is not monetized, I am not a reporter, I am simply a guy following the news.

I read somethings that I would not recommend to others and therefore have not provided links. There are some news sources that I consider poison, I read them with that in mind. I have previously provided links to some of the foreign papers, I will make them permanent later.

When I was in college to get my degree in Political Science, the first they made us do was read the New York Times on a daily basis, the whole thing. We would get quizzed on it. John Kennedy would read as many papers a day as he could. Hitler, it is said, would take a newspaper from anyone he saw in his office and immediately read it. We are fortunate, in some ways, in that we can access more news sources over the internet and see the worlds take on events.

I should point out that I read very quickly. In addition, many papers will have the exact same article from AP or quote from another paper. This was not done as much in the past so now we are all hearing the same thing. If the FCC has their way, we only hear from "accredited" sources.

To anyone that has read this blog and followed the links in my posts, it will become immediately apparent that I don't trust the news, that is why I will often post to the source itself. I recommend you do the same when possible. After decades of writing research papers and position papers, I have learned to search for things in ways that I cannot quickly explain.

When I was in High School, a man came to make a presentation. He began by saying how much he appreciated having the opportunity to talk to American students. He explained how he was the Russian government and after some small talk began explaining what was wrong with America. The students were enraged and asked questions and made statements responding to him. Eventually he explained that he was not Russian and wanted to teach us about how propaganda worked. He then explained how newspapers and television used certain approaches to direct our beliefs. I will not explain the methodology but am amused by seeing it at work in our country and thank the man.

The purpose of mass media is to influence the masses. That is it's purpose. It is not there to inform, it is there to shape public opinion and make money. It's primary purpose is to shape opinion, money is secondary. You may find that hard to believe, it is true. People published free papers with no advertisements before they made money.

I don't think everyone will read as many news sources as me. I don't think you have to, I think if you do on occasion, you will be better off. I believe you should read at least your daily news, a micro paper, a national source and an international source. If you did that daily, you would begin to seek out more and your opinion of the world would change, quickly.