You Need to Know the Story Behind the Story
Making sense of the news
When I would plead with my Mom to be allowed to do something because everyone else was doing it, I would be answered with the remark, “Well, if you think that’s a wise choice, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.”
If you are not familiar with the “I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you” quote, please click on the provided link, so that you can understand this story. Basically, my Mom was warning me that I was in danger of being played for a sap if I acted without awareness, and just followed whatever the crowd was doing.
Well, the mainstream media has “a bridge in Brooklyn to sell us,” and most of us are happy to make that investment. Like the naifs who are conned into buying the bridge, many folks allow themselves to fall for the news anchor’s spiel.
I suggest that you save time and improve your mental health by NOT tuning in to the mainstream media news.
But if you still want to watch or read the corporate media stories, at least learn some ways to see through the bias.
Follow the money. Ask yourself, who is sponsoring the news segment? Brought to you by Exxon, or Raytheon, or AstraZeneca? If so, do you believe that stories about global warming (oil companies), military spending (Raytheon), Covid or breakthrough medical news (AstraZeneca), are really going to be unbiased.
Most reporters will insist that no one tells them what to write or what stories to cover, but they also learn early on in their careers what types of stories will get them either promoted or fired. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you, in other words.
Look for the use of the passive voice. Passive voice: “Police-involved shooting; one man dead.” Active voice: “Police shoot and kill man.”
Check this out from Alan Macleod and the folks at Project Censored.
Find alternative voices (see suggestions below) to the status quo messages of the mainstream media, and compare the stories to those you hear on the mainstream media coverage. Judge for yourself whether the way a story is written can alter the way you perceive an event.
Here are some alternative choices that you may have never heard of:
The Real News Network (you can find The Chris Hedges Report here, or subscribe to him on Substack)
The Censored Press, the publishing imprint of Project Censored
Rad Indie Media (includes video and comedy, along with print media)
Media Against Apartheid and Displacement (MAAD)
I follow the above sites because I can find in-depth stories that cover a variety of topics. Also, these are the sites that many respected journalists turn to when the mainstream media refuses to pick up their stories because they dared to contradict the propaganda, the status quo story (e.g. Chris Hedges and the war in Iraq)
This is not to imply that the alternative sites mentioned here always get things “right” or that the mainstream media always gets things “wrong.” I just prefer stories that go into detail, and can provide some background to a story. You can’t get that from reading just the headlines, or by listening to an “expert” who sums up a complex situation in a 5-minute interview.
Maybe give these alternative sites a try. You might end up feeling that you saved yourself from buying that bridge in Brooklyn.