A disappointing Frontline piece

"Frontline" is a PBS news show that usually offers a daring and compelling look at complex, vital and often-controversial subjects. Each broadcast consists of a long-form news documentary. 

Most are good, but the most recent one examining Donald Trump’s life and career, after his 2020 election loss, felony convictions and historic comeback misses on a critical point, nobody seemingly wants to talk about. 

It’s the horribly weak candidacy of Biden for a second turn, that delivered Trump’s 2024 on a silver platter and that the DNC should have prevented but didn’t have the balls to stop. 

Biden pulled another RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg)’s trick to satisfy his own ego in running again against the best interest of the Nation, and his party’s most influential members let him do that. 

Instead, the documentary comes out as a glorification of Trump’s bad behavior all his life long, in other words, an immoral tale that says being a bully, a liar always pays off. 

Had the Democrats lined up someone alive, who didn’t have a foot in the grave, against a convicted felon, we wouldn’t have Trump again today!

 

Hello, disinformation!

With the prevalence of smartphones and tablets, we rely more are more on news feed from social media and news aggregators that are collecting information from various feeds and news sources for display on a single platform. 

Using social media as a news outlet is the lazy way to get information as it helps us relieve the hardships of navigating through several websites and articles to find information, but it’s chock full of misinformation coming from Putin, Xi, lying politicians and a bunch of conspiracy theorists. 

A better way is to use news aggregators like Google News, Apple News or smaller ones like Smartnews, but even with these, we’re faced with news and information that often contradict each others and make it hard to sort out truth from lies, as well as the ideological orientation of the aggregator. Obviously, not all news aggregators are neutral. 

Algorithmic bias is used by news aggregators like Google News or Apple News, through algorithms to personalize content based on user behavior and search history. This can lead to "filter bubbles" where users are primarily exposed to news they like and that confirms their existing beliefs.

Then we’ve got “curated content”, like SmartNews, that incorporates human editors alongside algorithms to impact news stories. This is meant to ensure a wider range of viewpoints, but the editorial team's own biases might still influence the selection. 

There are ideologically motivated aggregators with platforms designed to cater to specific political viewpoints, ideologies and promote news stories that align with their agenda. Examples include some right-wing (Breitbart, Fox News) or left-wing (Move On, Daily Kos) sources. 

To use news aggregators more critically, it’s important to keep in mind that even those that claim neutrality, might still have some bias in their selection or presentation. Rely on more than one news aggregator representing different viewpoints, to get a well-rounded picture of current events and don’t just trust sensational headlines as they’re often misleading. 

Above all, always check the source to make sure it originates from reputable news organizations, and if still in doubt, fact-check it by using resources like Media Bias/Fact Check.

News-proofing myself

No matter where one’s gets their news, they are negative in their majority and after a while, that flood of negativity impregnate us to the point that we all go south mentally. 

This is why I try to watch my consumption of news, first by being picky with the media I watch (as neutral and balanced as possible) and by the frequency of my exposure to it. 

Giving up social media has been a godsend and finally, when I get exposed to news, I always asked myself the question: “What can I do about it?” If there is something I can do based on my current ability and disposition, I will. It will also enrich and firm up my opinion. 

Also, while I acknowledge my emotions (anger, frustration, fear, culpability), I try my best not to let them cloud my views, I move on to other things and as time goes by, I get better at it everyday!

Google before making assumptions!

After waiting five years, my wife finally received her first retirement check from the French administration. 

Sure enough, at first sight it wasn’t right and was made to my wife’s maiden name, which I thought would be impossible to cash at our bank. 

We tried to cash it to no avail with a smart-phone, so I was very unhappy about my former country’s bureaucrats and thought to myself “Here we go again!” grumbling about their lack of competence. 

As a result, an even though the issue was quite trivial in the great scheme of things, I went to bed with bad feelings which is never something desirable. 

Yet, first thing this morning, I Googled my problem and discovered a way around to it. Now, I just hope it will work and will make sure to remember that, when in doubt, I should always Google first!