Left Wing/Right Wing Blogs....Where's the middle?

Fox News is the farthest from fair and balance, the way the assail democrats with falsehoods and name calling. The same way NBC does it with most republicans. CNN isnt balanced either, they have taking a turn to the right more recently. As Tiger said before, their is none right now.

 

The middle ground should be what you comprehend from all sides of the story.

 

Great thread, really made me think.

I come from the right, and I find Politico to be pretty fair. I noticed someone thought they leaned left, I found that interesting.

I would agree that Fox News' opinion shows are to the right, but their hard news programs seem to be pretty balanced to me. I think many people watch the commentary shows and form their opinions from there. CNN's hard news shows are pretty balanced.

Any opinions on balanced print media? When I lived in Chicago, I noticed a HUGE difference between the Tribune and Sun Times, with the Sun Times being 100 pages of why you should hate Bush, the last 10 pages being the index. The Atlanta Journal Constitution here in Atlanta is absolute garbage. I have heard it called the Al Jazeera Constitution and the Atlanta Journal Constipation. I don't remember the Advocate having a slant one way or the other in BR, but I was pretty politically immature back in those days.

 

I don't have time to research every issue we face in this city, state, country, or world. I thought that was the reason we established a government but unfortunately we have politicains who somehow are elected broke and retire rich. They'll tell us whatever we want to hear and we always give them a free pass by blaming their failures on the other party.

All media...repeat ALL MEDIA have an agenda. You can stick with one who shares your opinions or surf around to hear the spin from every angle.

During election season, I tend to follow the groups who spend all their time lobbying or protesting. Find the groups you love...or love to hate and see who they're voting for (ACLU, NOW, PETA, NAACP, ALF, AFL-CIO, MECHA, LA RAZA, AARP, Planned Parenthood, Nation of Islam, ELF, Greenpeace, etc.)

These organizations often do the footwork for you. If you know what they stand for you can often vote with or against their recommendations to be consistent with your views.

 

I think Garland Robinette's radio show on 870 AM is about the most balanced politically oriented media source I know of. He really does an excellent job of presenting both sides of an issue.

I also like the way NPR reports news. They provide the most context of any major media outlet. Many right wingers try to slam them as liberally biased, but in all my years of listening to their broadcasts I have never seen that in their journalism. Their opinion peices are generally left leaning, but not always. When it comes to factual reporting I trust them to have the best context and least spin.

 

I agree with you on Garland's show. I believe he loves New Orleans and cares more about the city than its politics.

I occasionally listen to NPR but do believe they lean to the left. I don't like how their opinions are deemed factual while contrary views are speculative. (one example - global warming)

At least they don't interrupt "so-called" news to bring you Hollywood updates and other celebrity crap like CNN.

 

Seems there are many people who are centrists, but no party that is.

The two major parties only want us to believe that "their" traditions views are the only viable ways forward, and it is not true.

What will change this is a dose of reality. We spend too much on defense, and shortly, medicare and medicaid will break us. Forget social security, that is one half the size of the medicare/medicaid issue over the next 30 years. We have a 10 trillion dollar total national debt today, and 50 trillion in unfunded liabilities over the next 30 years.

Like we can't drill our way out of the oil crisis (according to Pickens), we can't tax our way out of the debt.

Like in solving energy, we will need everything, wind, oil, nuclear, solar, natural gas, coal, etc., so in the fiscal crisis, we will need everything, some tax increases, some benefit cuts, efficiency in health care, and I suspect we will inflate the currency to pay back the debt in dollars that are worth half or less than the dollars we borrowed. Wages will escalate, minimum wage will be 100K per year. Median income will rise to 300K, and white collar professionals will make 800K per year. If we pay a third in tax, the 800K person will pay a quarter of a mil in taxes. Then we can pay back the debt. Of course, anyone who saved for their retirement and left it invested in the dollar will lose half or 3/4 of their retirement nestegg in purchasing power. We've already seen the dollar hit, and hit hard the last 8 years under the republican thieves. This hits lower income americans harder than a tax.

We complain about the parties, with good reason, but the people are a big part of the problem. They are too ignorant to see the problem and plan ahead for it. They don't want to accept that they will suffer a lower standard of living in the future. If a politician tells them they must save and accept their suffering, they will not vote for them. Immaturity whistling past the grave.

If this is right, then what to do with your nestegg? That's the question. If its true, then you will have to get out of the dollar before it goes down. It won't go straight down. How to get out of the dollar? Gold coins, GLD exchange traded fund (only buy on dips), foreign stocks, foreign bonds, hard assets like real estate, precious gem stones of collectible quality (not engagement rings), and collectible art (which I assume NONE of us knows anything about so it kinda leaves it out, at least for me).

That's not a pretty picture, but it has served me well the last 20 years to try and understand what the truth is, and use it to guide my investing. Just remember, if you had bought and held the S&P 500 10 years ago to today, you'd have made maybe 1% a year. Adjust it for inflation, and you've lost money. I don't trust the big wall st firms at all. When advising on how to invest, too many steer you to maximize their commissions rather than your return. Very few remember what happened when in the markets, and especially why.

 

just put the highest value on stories from hostile witnesses (when you can find them)

and dont listen to talk radio too much. i swear that stuff is gonna turn the GOP into the nazis.