Frag No. 75: Real Media Sources In a Swamp of Disinformation

How do we reacquaint America with reality?

I don’t know how decent, sane, pragmatic citizens who believe that government by law is superior to government by force and coercion counter the reach and penetration of Fox News, X, Truth Social and Sinclair Broadcasting, along with all the other bits that make up the right-wing echo chamber where the magic of perverting the truth and spreading an anti-democracy story is perfected. It took time to build that chamber of lies. Unfortunately, time isn’t something we have a lot of.

There’s nothing even close on the political left despite the persistent myth of the liberal media that has been deployed by right-wing talking heads for decades. The legacy media has already capitulated to Trump. MSNBC recently silenced all its anchors of color. PBS and NPR, which are hardly liberal, are under attack by Trump’s Wrecking Crew.

I want to recommend some of the media sources I rely on. A few of these have informed my views for years, particularly The Nation and Democracy Now. I read a lot of publications for my work at the California Review of Books, but this is the core of what I watch, listen to, and read for political news and opinion.

Zeteo. The brainchild of Mehdi Hasan. One of the most honest figures in journalism. Mehdi’s been around a good while. Bulldog interviewer.

The New Republic. Good writers like Michael Tomasky. No sane-washing at NR.

The Nation. Been around since 1865. Still making a go of it. One of the few national publications that devotes space to issues affecting working people.

Democracy Now: One of the few reliable sources of world news. At DN you hear voices rarely heard in legacy media.

Mother Jones: A source of reliable long-form investigative journalism.

Democracy Docket: Marc Elias is one of the best known legal defenders of democracy. Voting rights, voter suppression, the progress of lawsuits against the Trump Gang, Elias writes about all of it with clarity.

Background Briefing: I don’t think Ian Masters ever sleeps. Day after day he delivers a relevant program with highly informed guests, each one allowed time to provide context, history, and potential consequences. Masters is an excellent interviewer.

Olga Lautman: Olga writes “Trump Tyranny Tracker” on Substack. She’s adroit at keeping up with the onslaught of initiatives and Executive Orders. Long experience as an analyst of Eastern Europe. Very sharp.

If you find these sources of news and information useful, share them in your circles.