[extropy-chat] Your thoughts on the news

[Dan Clemmensen]

Devon White wrote:

>What i would like to know is this: if you could turn on FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS,
>etc. . . and design the information that you as well as other people would
>get, what would it be? 
>  
>
I gave up on TV in general, and TV news in particular, many years ago. 
My current
travel schedule leaves me with no alternative to TV news in the evening 
occasionally.
These "TV evenings" make me think that the situation is worse than ever.

I'm not upset much by editorial bias. My objection is the incredibly low 
information
density. The amount of actual information in a 30-minute new show can be 
extracted
from a news web site in less than three minutes, usually much less.

The other problem with TV is that it is ephemeral. I cannot go back and 
check something,
and I cannot find an alternative interpretation and then cross-check.

I used to read several Web news sites and then cross-check by web 
searching. Then, Google
news was invented. Google news is a much better place to start, because 
it is a lot easier
to cancel out the editorial bias. You still get a bias (driven by the 
news wires) as to what is
considered newsworthy, but It's a lot better than my previous approach.