A Balanced Media Diet for 2021

How to be an informed citizen in an era of deception.

A Media Diet Pyramid

“Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the American media”

— Noam Chomsky, before the advent of the internet

THE SIX MEDIA FOOD GROUPS FOR 2021

Party Politics — The next pair of media sources together look at the daily jostling over legislation and power among elected officials in Washington, DC and state capitols. From who’s placed on what congressional committees, to court confirmation hearings, to approval ratings and budgeting, this is party politics. There are also usually one or two scandals for each party at any given time that keep the party politics news cycle flowing; these days, as we’re in the third red scare, news about politicians’ interactions with Russia, for instance, provides endless scandal material. These food groups constitute 90% of corporate mainstream political news.

True Politics — The next pair of media sources looks beyond the parties and considers the underlying guiding political philosophies and principles that form the historical differences between conservatives and liberals, libertarians and progressives, capitalists and socialists. It has been said that all politics — for at least the past 1000 years — can be viewed as originating from one of three impulses: 1. progressive, the impulse to spread wealth and power more broadly among people; 2. reactionary, aiming to concentrate wealth and power more narrowly; and 3. conservative, aiming to keep the distribution of wealth and power as it is. The push and pull of these three impulses is true politics. It should be mentioned that the great overarching trend — the long arc of history — has been bending in a progressive direction since 1215 and the signing of Magna Carta.
Note: The terms “Radical” or “Principled” are used sometimes instead of “True” for this layer of news coverage, but the former to me tends to have too negative a connotation, and the latter too positive, so I mostly use “True.”

Deep Politics — This final media food group includes reporting on the political system as a whole, considering both parties and their principles, and also inspecting the generally allowed parameters of debate and discussion. Even a casual observer of American politics will notice that important policies remain largely unaffected by elections even if the party in power changes. Deep politics analyzes the political decisions and disagreements occurring in this permanent political establishment, which is generally called the “permanent state” or the “deep state.” Deep political analysis also contemplates covert agreements between the political parties and considers conspiracies, both those discussed openly in the mainstream media (alleged Russian election interference; 9/11 hijackings; etc.) and those not generally discussed in the mainstream media (election fraud; assassinations; climate engineering; “false flag” events and faked acts of foreign aggression; CIA-backed coups, etc.).

THE DIET

The Balanced Media Diet for 2021. Each source’s color matches its food group on the pyramid. ‘$’ indicates the source has a partial paywall.

THE HIGHLIGHTED NEWS SOURCES FOR 2021

Magazines & Newspapers

Individual Journalists & Columnists

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Where rationalism and idealism meet.

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