4 ms·

I’ve been using The Economist’s “The World in Brief”, which sounds like much the same thing. I’m six weeks in to the news diet, and am much less angry all the t

I’ve been using The Economist’s “The World in Brief”, which sounds like much the same thing. I’m six weeks in to the news diet, and am much less angry all the time.

HarHarVeryFunny 1y ago
I used to read the UK Financial Times ("the pink 'un") as a source of world news rather than fincancial news - it was always a lot more sober and objective.
- gumboshoes 1y ago
  I thought the "pink 'un" was a horse racing paper or odds sheet? I get the color of the paper is the same.
  - HarHarVeryFunny 1y ago
    I see there is a sporting / football newspaper (or former newspaper - now web site) also called the pink 'un, and apparently there had also been a green 'un focusing on horse racing, but growing up in the UK I had never head of these. The FT post-dates the original pink 'un sporting newspaper, but was also, and still is, commonly referred to as "the pink 'un".
- qcnguy 1y ago
  The FT isn't objective. It doesn't even pretend it's objective these days. It literally flew the EU flag outside its offices for years after the UK left, and its editorial line was exactly what you'd expect.
  - teamonkey 1y ago
    The FT has a bias towards Finance of course, but it is read by people who make financial decisions based on world economic events and these people need it to represent reality. The reason they were pro-EU is that there were no realistic arguments where Brexit would benefit The UK’s businesses, finance sector or economy as a whole.
    - qcnguy 1y ago
      In the past, yes, the FT was like that. But not for a long time. It's like thinking professional economists all read The Economist. I know professional investors, a few of them read the WSJ but not yet met one who cared about what the FT think. Mostly they get info from more specialized publications. They were pro-EU for ideological reasons. Leaving had no effect on the British economy, which isn't what they predicted.
      - teamonkey 1y ago
        > Leaving had no effect on the British economy I think this statement contradicts reality somewhat.
        qcnguy 1y ago
        Look up the data for yourself. Imports/exports glitched briefly then went right back to their prior levels and trends. There's no observable Brexit impact in economic performance: Britain has continued to roughly follow its neighbours in terms of GDP growth etc.
      - HarHarVeryFunny 1y ago
        The UK has suffered massively due to Brexit - many industries such as construction and hospitality (hotels, restaurants) are still heavily understaffed due to the fallout of foreigners leaving.
  - johnnyanmac 1y ago
    Is any news site these days even pretending to be objective? The best news sites these days are aggregating all the biased sources together and presenting the full spectrum. Something like Ground News, but even there I'm not sure I trust their algorithmic weighing.
  - HarHarVeryFunny 1y ago
    Sitting on the fence, giving equal time to both sides, and ignoring reality is not being objective. If being a member of the EU was objectively a benefit to most UK businesses then that is what I would hope to read in an FT editorial, not some Kumbaya "it's all good, we have no opinion".
FollowingTheDao 1y ago
But maybe you should be angry? Anger is a great motivator for people to change governments and policies. Maybe the real source of anxiety is people have justified anger but no where to direct the anger to affect change? Maybe it is better to keep reading the news and organize people to make it so we do not have any bad news to report.

I’ve been using The Economist’s “The World in Brief”, which sounds like much the same thing. I’m six weeks in to the news diet, and am much less angry all the time.

HarHarVeryFunny 1y ago

I used to read the UK Financial Times ("the pink 'un") as a source of world news rather than fincancial news - it was always a lot more sober and objective.

gumboshoes 1y ago
I thought the "pink 'un" was a horse racing paper or odds sheet? I get the color of the paper is the same.
- HarHarVeryFunny 1y ago
  I see there is a sporting / football newspaper (or former newspaper - now web site) also called the pink 'un, and apparently there had also been a green 'un focusing on horse racing, but growing up in the UK I had never head of these. The FT post-dates the original pink 'un sporting newspaper, but was also, and still is, commonly referred to as "the pink 'un".
qcnguy 1y ago
The FT isn't objective. It doesn't even pretend it's objective these days. It literally flew the EU flag outside its offices for years after the UK left, and its editorial line was exactly what you'd expect.
- teamonkey 1y ago
  The FT has a bias towards Finance of course, but it is read by people who make financial decisions based on world economic events and these people need it to represent reality. The reason they were pro-EU is that there were no realistic arguments where Brexit would benefit The UK’s businesses, finance sector or economy as a whole.
  - qcnguy 1y ago
    In the past, yes, the FT was like that. But not for a long time. It's like thinking professional economists all read The Economist. I know professional investors, a few of them read the WSJ but not yet met one who cared about what the FT think. Mostly they get info from more specialized publications. They were pro-EU for ideological reasons. Leaving had no effect on the British economy, which isn't what they predicted.
    - teamonkey 1y ago
      > Leaving had no effect on the British economy I think this statement contradicts reality somewhat.
      - qcnguy 1y ago
        Look up the data for yourself. Imports/exports glitched briefly then went right back to their prior levels and trends. There's no observable Brexit impact in economic performance: Britain has continued to roughly follow its neighbours in terms of GDP growth etc.
    - HarHarVeryFunny 1y ago
      The UK has suffered massively due to Brexit - many industries such as construction and hospitality (hotels, restaurants) are still heavily understaffed due to the fallout of foreigners leaving.
- johnnyanmac 1y ago
  Is any news site these days even pretending to be objective? The best news sites these days are aggregating all the biased sources together and presenting the full spectrum. Something like Ground News, but even there I'm not sure I trust their algorithmic weighing.
- HarHarVeryFunny 1y ago
  Sitting on the fence, giving equal time to both sides, and ignoring reality is not being objective. If being a member of the EU was objectively a benefit to most UK businesses then that is what I would hope to read in an FT editorial, not some Kumbaya "it's all good, we have no opinion".

FollowingTheDao 1y ago

But maybe you should be angry? Anger is a great motivator for people to change governments and policies. Maybe the real source of anxiety is people have justified anger but no where to direct the anger to affect change? Maybe it is better to keep reading the news and organize people to make it so we do not have any bad news to report.