Don't do it
Don't slow your consumption of information when the election ends
“Glad the election is over. I don’t have to pay attention to the news anymore. I’m tuning it all out.”
Don’t.
The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor consumption of news skyrocketed, and then over a period of time it declined, which explained why celebrities were used to stimulate interest in the war and the sale of war bonds to a war weary public. And this was at the height of the most terrible bloodshed in Europe and in the Pacific.
So wanting to escape reality is understandable, yet I would argue you owe your country your allegiance, your willingness to defend her and what I call your news vigilance. Nothing can betray a democracy like the low information voter. Being informed is a very small price to pay for your liberty.
Lesson note: Don’t romanticize your history. Or your people. We’ve always cared little for “current events” even when our blood and treasure were being expended on a distant shore. That is just human nature.
Santayana said, “War is God's way of teaching us geography.” Fair point, “Santa”. Where is Gaza? Where is Kiev? Where’s my globe? Where’s my remote? Where’s amusement?
After this election, there will be a tendency among news gobblers to fast from news consumption and kick back.
Don’t.
I recall entertaining a classroom full of elderly Holocaust survivors decades ago and I complimented the group, after a group discussion, because I was impressed I was by the depth of their knowledge of current events. A lovely old woman spoke up and said, “back in Germany in the thirties many in my family didn't follow the news. They paid the price.”
If you don’t get that reference you’re a low-information voter.
The feckless Washington Post has a noble slogan beneath their masthead. "Democracy dies in darkness”. I would add that democracy dies when citizens no longer support regional journalism, causing publications and platforms to fold and news deserts emerge. And the big evil right-wing chains like Fox and Sinclair to swoop in and fill the void.
Just because the election is over does not mean the slow death spiral of mainstream news media will not continue. Some will consider cancelling their subscriptions and taking a news nap.
Don’t.
Here are the 7 sources I rely on daily
Thank Goddess I am retired so I have the time to scroll through these sources daily. Support these fine journalists as our city, state and nation charts a new path forward.
Click on their names, check them out, bookmark them and stay informed.
Local News sources
I read the Arizona Daily Star for Tim Stellar for coverage of issues that matter to us here in this valley, written in the manner of an old school journalist you can trust.
Scoop hungry regional news source with excellent writers like Blake Morlock and Jim Nintzel. Both writers know their subjects.
Tucson Agenda is an excellent source for deep dives into the inside baseball of county and city politics. Anything but dry, TA makes politics and process it enjoyable to read. Their credo: “Policymaking is complicated. Officials talk in circles. Politics can get ugly. It’s easy to tune this stuff out. It’s even easier to say it doesn’t matter. But it does matter.”
Their site says it all. “Arizona Luminaria is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to truly local news and community-centered journalism. Arizona Luminaria listens, learns and lights a path for people who want local news that’s a resource for action, equality and democracy.” Great on border issues and long form journalism.
State News sources
12,000 subscribers can’t be wrong. “The Arizona Agenda makes you a smarter citizen. Get the free daily briefing that takes you behind the scenes in Arizona politics, to where the decisions are made.”
No one keeps an eye on Arizona and Phoenix like Arizona Agenda an excellent source staffed by journos who are peerless political junkies
“Insightful. Investigative. Independent.” And essential reading if state politics is your favorite subject.
I like Arizona Mirror’s slick, easy to navigate website.
“Amplifying the voices of Arizonans whose stories are unheard; shining a light on the relationships between people, power and policy; and holding public officials to account. Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.”
I follow their coverage of religious right wing-nuttery here in Arizona. Both fun and terrifying and that’s just the local school board meetings.
And my Favorite Opinion Writers are…
Laurie Roberts of the Arizona Republic
EJ Montini of the Arizona Republic
And Steve Schmidt. I like his patriotic oratorical style.
And Andy Borowitz because you need a laugh after so much news. The man’s a genius.
When I was hired by the Arizona Daily Wildcat to be their cartoonist in the seventies , I lied about my depth of knowledge of state, local and world events.
If you feel intimidated by the complexity of current events simply do what I did when I was a young student. And I would describe what I did to every high school classroom I would visit hoping to hook kids on giving news a chance because I believed that news nerds, journalism junkies and current events addicts become good citizens. And I would suggest it was our patriotic duty, quoting democracy’s patron saint.
A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.
— Thomas Jefferson
My recipe: I would ask them to devote themselves to consuming the news for half an hour a day for five days. Just five. And after that I assure you that you will be hooked. You will begin to recognize the names of figures in the news and see connections and patterns and you will come to recognize the processes and institutions that are often at the center of current event stories. I am now 69 years old and I have been enjoying that habit since I was 18.
Two more admonitions. Seek diverse sources. And seek the truth which is often elusive. I’ll give an expert on tyranny the last word.
Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.
— Timothy Snyder
May the news that comes our way cheer our hearts. And may the best woman win.
From Washington, who insisted on a Free Press for our new country, to Jefferson, whose persistence and support of education continued that 'defense,' to author Timothy Snyder who, today, often sees what we do not see! All are both historic and contemporary zealots of truth. I'll add my candidate: Rachel Maddow (MSNBC). Maddow is my present-day journalist heroine. She is everything that is needed to 'add' understanding and explanation to her contributions on air and on paper. Her research of fact is relentless in a world full of innuendo. For all that you need to know, ought to know, and want to know ... meet Rachel Maddow. --- Locally, I'm less enthusiastic. I remember when Tucson had a morning AND an afternoon newspaper. Today, we don't HAVE a local and common news source at all. As our mail goes to Phoenix, even if the birthday card is for a next-door neighbor, so does our Tucson newspaper circle back from Phoenix, that northern city that's 'downhill' all the way from the high desert of "the Old Pueblo." Sad.
Thanks David. News is in our DNA.