Fake Information

I have learned, to my dismay, that even my smartest and most curious students no longer know where to get solid information from. They seem to have been reared on a diet of tiktok and influencers on social media. I therefore put together this web page here, with advice on where to get real information, especially deeper information that goes beyond the 1-minute headlines of the day.

Newspapers

It is important to draw a sharp distinction between editorial pages and news pages. The former are often very biased. The latter are much more objective.

There are just a few great US newspapers left. The best unbiased news side of newspapers today in the United States are in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal — again, read the news pages, not the editorial pages. The New York Times editorials have become too left-wing, the Wall Street Journal editorials have become too right-wing.

Radio

NPR used to be great. At some point, they decided to become progressive — every other story was about tribe. It had become truly terrible. Priggish preaching. It took Uri Berliner’s 2024 essay criticizing NPR (getting him fired) for NPR to get back to more reasonable journalism. NPR is still the most left-wing information source that I would recommend. (I don’t recommend any right-wing information sources, because I really don’t know any. Fox is idiotic.) So, today, NPR is often good, but consume it at your own peril.

Magazines

By far the best informative magazine in the world is The Economist. Alas, it is a lot to digest week after week.

Visual

The best journalistic show on television, and for decades now, has been PBS Frontline. Like the New York Times news pages, it is modestly left-leaning. Yet, it remains more than objective and informative enough to make it the best source of deep information. Among the many shows I would recommend are the following (and many have short trailers to give you a taste to decide if you want to watch it):

2024 (Current Season)

Earlier

Here is a selection of various excellent episodes, outstanding in their coverage

There are so many other great Frontline episodes — on right-wing conspiracies, health, Iraq (“Once upon a Time in Iraq”), inequality, police, the NRA, Hong Kong, pollution, the Ebola outbreaks, Boko Haram — it’s mind-boggling.

Frontline also has had many excellent smaller-scale individual stories, such as Breakdown in Maine, 43-E7, 2024; or Inside the Uvalde Response, 42-E7.

Other Frontline episodes, such as Biden’s Decision (42-E21, 2024) (about whether to run again in 2024); or Putin’s Crisis (41-E19, 2024) about Wagner’s Prigozhin, were great shows at the time, but they are less interesting today.

China

Frontline is not primarily about China. It is, however, IMHO must-view-television for Chinese students that are residing temporarily in the United States, and to be watched only on a computer that has no Chinese spyware on it. This information is heavily suppressed, censored, online-trolled, and propagandandized in China (often in the name of nationalism).

Frontline is not anti-Chinese, but it is anti-Chinese communist party. Please note that Frontline has many episodes that are very critical of the United States, too. The difference between the US and China is that Americans can watch shows critical of their own governments. We can strive to become better (though, right now, it seems like we are also becoming worse, also in the name of misguided nationalism).

  • Gates of Heavenly Peace, available free on long bow film group. Though older, this remains must-watch for anyone interested in Chinese society. E18, 1996.

  • China Undercover, about muslims in China. E9, 2020.

  • China, the U.S. and the Rise of Xi Jinping, least controversial, mostly just background information. 43-E6, 2024.

  • Dreams of Tibet, 1997. Note: China is not the only country occupying and suppressing another people. It is one among many. This does not excuse what it does. It also does not do so for the sake of survival but for the sake of empire. (And, please, China does not belong to the Mongols, because they used to rule China hundreds of years ago.)

Coming: Battle for Tibet,

Not Frontline

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