Reading the News

Instead of watching the talking heads on the TV, I tend to read my news on my iPad, consulting multiple sources for the same story which allows me to compare facts. It has the added benefit of keeping me from getting caught up in the “wow, I can’t believe it…” drama and delivery that happens the first time you hear of some horrible or wonderful thing that happened. Out of necessity it also makes you choose carefully which stories to follow and to view the rest unexplored as mostly gossip since I did not bother to take the time to explore it.

You would not believe the number of points of agreement I find across the political spectrum on certain events, like train crashes, as well as the points of disagreements on others, which include interpretation. Fortunately I am capable of interpreting what people say myself after I trace back to find the root and not listen to any interpretation out of context.

It is time consuming, labor intensive and necessary because no source is above twisting the facts, presenting the drama over the relevance and leaving out pertinent details. Truth in today’s world has become elusive and well hidden. That leaves all of us groping to sift fact from fiction and it is easy to be fooled. I know I have and have had friends fact check me, just as have done the same for them.