Common Dreams
Jon Queally is the managing editor of a news service that didn't exist when I was growing up. We only had three TV stations, and they all said pretty much the same thing. There was no real way to check out anything a politician said. It would take you weeks of library work, and people just didn't do it.
Now we have sites like Common Dreams, where every day a reader can get the type of news that corporate America prefers us not to have. The reader can also get the opinions of the best thinkers and writers of the day, ideas that used to be invisible.
Of course, we have the news and opinions of those who work for the top newspapers, like The NYT. But often the news there is slanted, and the opinions tend to reflect the corporate line. That is the old model, where writers and reporters internalize their blinders if they want to get to the top.
Each day, we can free ourselves from the Pentagon's opinions of Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela. We can explore the criticisms of our national security state. We can make the connections between endless war abroad and endless profits for the few. I do read The NYT every day to do Activist Radio. But to be stuck in this mediocracy of homogenized opinion? Sites like Common Dreams just offer us more to think about.
