The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.
William Wordsworth, 1802
And that was before the internet, streaming video services, TV, radio, podcasts, social media, and free telephone, text, and chat.
And yet I am open to more. This blog post is a request for useful sources.
I regularly look at the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Oregonlive.com (the flagship Oregon newspaper) and a thinned-out shell of the Mail Tribune, my local Medford newspaper. I also look at the websites of CNN, and the Huffington Post. I look at Fox's website daily. I consider those my daily meat-and-potatoes curated journalism.
Depending on what I see I look at Newsmax and sometimes other conservative sites like redstate.com and nationalreview.com.
I read newsletters. They are by independent journalists, increasingly using substack.com as their vehicle. Typically they send an email one to three times a week. It is free. They hope people will subscribe and pay them voluntarily, like public radio, perhaps $5/month. Substack takes about 10% for handling the distribution and collections. If enough people pay, it changes it from a hobby to a job. I pay for the ones below and several others. I want them to thrive. Note: I have no interest in asking for donations/fees for this blog, now or ever.)
I read and especially recommend these six: All contain useful insights about life, politics, culture.
Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American (an American Historian writes a near-daily email about current events.
James Fallows's Breaking the News. (political and media observations from a former speechwriter and veteran journalist.)
Matthew Yglesias's Slow Boring. (political and social observations)
Andrew Sullivan: The Dish (A gay male conservative Catholic)
Charlie Sykes: The Bulwark (A political conservative anti-Trump point of view.)
Ruy Teixeria and others: The Liberal Patriot (tells Democrats to get real)
I also listen to podcasts. These, too, are free but there is sometimes a mechanism for paying if someone wants "extras," including special additional shows. People find podcasts by going to a podcast application and then using the search function. I listen to and recommend:
The Bulwark, interviews conducted by Charlie Sykes
Pivot, lively and amusing money and technology talk between Kara Swisher and Scot Galloway
Honestly, often-irritating interviews and commentary by Bari Weiss
The Focus Group, Sarah Longwell's analysis of opinions expressed by voters in small political focus groups.
Advisory Opinions, Strict Scrutiny, and Amicus. All three are hosted by articulate attorneys who examine court decisions.
This American Life. A highly-produced NPR show examining a topic of the week.
As readers can see, I have too much. Yet in the cornucopia of free or affordable content I am curious what else is out there. I invite suggestions. Send the URL to make it easy for me and others to find.
I subscribe to https://robertreich.substack.com/
I think you will like his commentary.
The USA has done stupid things in the past and then self corrected. Look at
prohibition
not allowing women to vote
not allowing mixed race marriage, gay marriage, etc
Japanese interment
wars: Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan
waiting so long to face cigarette smokers
Maybe there is some hope. (By the way, why does the media refer to mass murderers as "individuals"? Clearly they are all males.)