For example, I learned that North and South Korea had a little kerfuffle over an island and that the reasons for this are complex. I do understand what's going on there, but it's hard for me to say how much of my understanding comes from what I knew before I unplugged. It doesn't feel like I got a lot of information and, as always, cable news about the incident came mostly in the form of opinion, with interviews of pundits and analysts and experts. Most of that opinion was about what the US should do in response. There was very little about the North Korean government's current instability and uncertainty about their future -- or the paranoid overreactions likely to result from that instability and uncertainty.
I suppose for this experiment in wearing news blinders to be an actual experiment, I'd need to break away from my news consumption habits for a much longer period -- maybe a year or more -- which is something I'm unwilling to do. All I've really done is get a little taste of what its like to let someone else do all the legwork and all I can say conclusively is that it's a lot easier, but it sucks. I can understand why so many people believe things that aren't true. It struck me that the media is interested in reporting true things, just not the truth...[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
