Yesterday my wife mentioned she was amazed—stunned, really—at how many people have no idea what’s actually happening in America. What set her off was the sheer number of folks completely unaware of our Florida concentration camp, Alligator Alcatraz, or as I like to call it, Trump Towers South.

Now, my wife is deeply plugged in: Facebook, local and national news, a bunch of YouTube channels—she stays on top of it all. Surrounded by intelligent friends, she naturally expects them to be just as informed.

Me? She’s written me off. I still catch the news secondhand through her, but I long ago abandoned the networks when they started pushing fluff pieces and “soft news” like it was journalism. I’m from an era where reporters actually, you know, reported. I tuned out completely the day our local station decided that regurgitated Twitter posts counted as news. Judging by the steady collapse in their subscriber counts, I’m clearly not the only one.

Our current political circus has only underscored how far network news has nosedived. When 11 million people take to the streets to protest Trump and local stations barely mumble a word, you start wondering if you’re watching the news or a carefully curated highlight reel of “don’t worry about it.”

And when you’re told there’s going to be a 30% tariff on Mexico and not a single anchor explains that Americans will be paying that tariff—not Mexico—you realize your morning cereal box might actually be a more trustworthy news source.

Sure, we’ve got the Internet, YouTube, Facebook, and a smorgasbord of other services that are just bursting with “accurate” information. And if you believe that, I’ve got a beachfront property on Mars you’ll love. The truth is, anyone can publish anything with zero fact-checking, and thanks to our lawsuit-happy culture, most platforms have abandoned fact-checking altogether. Welcome to the golden age of noise. On the plus side, I hear the Flat Earth Society is booming.

Snopes tries, bless their overworked souls, but politicians have mastered the art of selling partial truths as full narratives. The first person to release a real-time fact-checking app will probably become a billionaire—right before they’re sued into oblivion or banned by both parties.

I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to spend their evenings cross-referencing whatever sanitized soundbite their network overlords served up that day. Subscribing to twenty different services doesn’t guarantee the truth either—it just gives you twenty flavors of spin.

When the Ukraine war became a propaganda target, I turned to Al Jazeera. Sure, I’ve got some Middle East biases, but their reporting was balanced, informed, and—shockingly—more professional than what I was getting from U.S. networks.

These days, the news ranges from “mostly factual” to “accidentally true,” and figuring out which is which is like playing intellectual Minesweeper with real mines. Take Trump’s tariffs—he’s always shouting about charging some foreign country some made-up percentage, and the media lets it slide. Meanwhile, importers are footing the bill and passing it straight to us. I actually heard one network describe tariffs as a tax cut for Americans. Pulitzer-worthy stuff.

Why don’t we demand credible news anymore? Maybe it’s because we’ve been burned one too many times. Look at the poor egg. In my lifetime, it’s gone from superfood to death sentence and back again five times. Who do you believe? Everyone has a PhD and an agenda. Honestly, I’ve given up and just enjoy my breakfast. Many of us now file news services in the same category: “Limited Verification—Handle with Caution.”

When I joined Bluesky, I was hopeful—a fresh platform, maybe even honest, ground-level reporting. It delivers, somewhat. But venture into the political section and it’s like wading into a swamp of half-truths and outright nonsense. And, of course, the zealots feel every section needs their gospel.

Now, an AI-powered news summary service? That would be the dream. Amazon’s on it, but if Grok is any indication, let’s just say “bias-free” isn’t in the codebase. And as AI services are learning, if you feed the machine garbage, like any of the current discussions on X, you get garbage out. Funny how neither political party is keen on a system that might let voters see everything.

Make no mistake—everything you read, hear, or watch is tailored to shape how you think. The question is: what do you do about it? You can coast along, hearing only what makes you feel comfortable, repeating that lovely refrain: “There’s nothing I can do.” I’m told that mindset is why Putin’s still in charge.

Or you can dig in. Read. Question. Fact-check. Form your own opinions. Science is real. Physics is real. Climate change is real. And if you’ve got the guts to do your own thinking, say something. We already have enough sheep. What we need are more bloodhounds sniffing out the truth and dragging it into the light.

Fortunately in this vacuum of professional reporters, news itself is evolving. As the oligarchs behind major U.S. networks pivot to infotainment and distraction, younger journalists are striking out on their own—via podcasts, YouTube, and independent networks. The MeidasTouch Network is one example worth a look.

And there’s a tiny glimmer of sanity from across the Atlantic: Google and Facebook, faced with EU transparency laws, have decided to stop hosting political ads altogether. Imagine that. Until we get something like that here in the States, we desperately need to fact-check every word that slithers out of a politician’s mouth. Otherwise, our democracy is going to continue sliding to a Russian style government—just with shinier yachts for the oligarchs.

 

 

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This is where I have a little fun and insert some music created on Songer. It’s fast, easy and often exceeds my expectations. Today’s selection is not quite on target but definitely related and fun. Hope you also enjoy it.

Eggs – The Great Debate

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