Where do you get your news?

I was asked that question yesterday, asked by someone who "does not bother with any sort of news".

According to him "it's all lies". Where,  I wanted to know, does he get the information that allows him to vote in an informed manner? Oh, he gets that from the "stuff" he gets in the letter box..."but I always vote Labor" he told me.

This same man has an opinion about a great many things. I have often heard him telling others about his views. Most people take very little notice. He is actually a bit of joke - except that he isn't. I consider him potentially dangerous. 

The current issue of whether Meta should pay for the news it disseminates is a serious one.  Governments and the mainstream media services want them to pay, of course they do.  They equally object to paying Meta to use a service they believe should be "free".  Somewhere along the line there is going to have to be a "balance" of some sort.  

It won't be balanced news as such but it will perhaps provide news from more than one source. We need at least that much. The current government in this country is trying to introduce measures to prevent what they call "false" news from being disseminated. There will be strong penalties to try and prevent people from spreading such "information".  

That may seem like a good thing if it stops people from telling the rest of us that every single virus infection can be cured by learning to stand on your head and eat garlic licorice while doing so. It is not so good if it also prevents people from being told to wash their hands in order to help prevent the spread of germs.

Trying to stop the spread of "false" information is not going to work. It will just send such information underground and cause it to spread unhindered.  It may even have a reverse effect to the one intended - unless our access to social media is severely curtailed.  As we do not live in North Korea it is unlikely people will tolerate the sort of restrictions placed on those who live there. 

I am fortunate in that I get my information from a wide variety of sources. I also know the information I get is coloured by the knowledge and opinions of those who have gathered it. It is possible for me to read two stories about the same issue and get very different "information". It will depend on who is telling the story - and for what purpose. The only thing to do is try and look at the "facts" presented and see where they agree. There might be a nugget of reality in those "facts". That is surely better than news filtered by Meta or the government?