by Warren Liverance

MY NOT-SO-benevolent editor and I had a chat about how and where we get our news and information. We agreed that the way we access the written word has changed radically over the past decade. So, I decided to devote a column to this issue. Since the thought processes of a “conservative” are as inscrutable to a “liberal” as calculus, I wanted give you all a little insight into just how the whole package (yes, I know) comes together. In other words, where do I get my peculiar ideas?

In the late 90s and early 2000s, I gleaned 99 percent of my information from four sources: newspapers,  magazines, books, television, and talk radio.  I subscribed to the Free Press,  The Wall Street Journal, The Investors Business Daily, and the Sunday New York Times. I received both Human Events and The Nation on a weekly basis. I picked up and read Metro Times and Orbit (my favorite) locally. Monthly, I read Reason, Liberty, National Review, American Spectator, and Tikuun. Don’t think for a moment that I read all of it;  I usually skimmed headlines in the papers and read the articles that interested me. The editorial page and opinion columns have always been my main interest. I am always on the lookout for the modern manifestation of Ayn Rand’s Ellsworth Toohey, of whom I think Al Hunt and E.J. Dionne have done a great job of channeling. I spent a fortune in time and treasure (my own personal Iraq) on this stuff and the piles grew and grew.

During this period I listened to talk radio. I worked as a contractor and liked to have the radio on to pass the time. Mark Scott, and David Newman during the old WXYT days. I might be a year or a couple off, but you get the drift. I used to love to call in to the local shows. I think that many “media types” underestimate the role that callers play in talk radio. I have always gleaned just as much information from callers as I have from the hosts on these shows.

Many on the left do not understand that us “mind-numbed robots” are shouting at the radio as much as we are listening. When I did attempt to listen to lefty talk radio, I found more of a monologue than the dialogue that many conservative hosts have with their listeners. I believe that the Left uses images much more than words to make a point, and that this explains why there are no really successful talk shows from that side.

Back at the turn of the century I also consumed much more television. The Clinton impeachment show provided endless hours of entertainment, but I never figured out why Bubba was impeached for sex with the chick, rather than taking campaign money from Chinese nationals. A liberal can never understand the joy that a conservative experiences the first time she sees Fox News. I often wonder what it must be like to be a liberal and have movies, television, music, art and literature confirm your world view and reinforce all of your stereotypes and prejudices. I imagine the Eisenhower years were something like that for Republicans. For a long time I used to flip between Fox News and NBC— red pill/blue pill/red pill/blue pill— until my wife, who could care less about politics, threatened divorce. She was right, of course, and my mental health improved considerably.

My consumption of books at this time consisted of my normal steady diet of science fiction paperbacks and dozens of historical, scientific, philosophical, and political titles. From 7th grade on I have been a voracious consumer of pulp science fiction, reading over a thousand of the little buggers. For me, science fiction serves a purely recreational purpose. The stories are not usually political in nature and I am a space nut. I find it interesting that political hacks from both sides lack the imagination to enjoy the form.  Three of the non- science fiction books that I read during this period: Radical Son by David Horowitz, Vision of the Anointed by Thomas Sowell, and Darwin’s Black Box: The Biomedical Challenge to Evolution by Michael J. Behe are in my top 25 “life changer” list.

As you can see, my consumption of news and information fell well within the normal parameters of the last 50 years—nothing going on that Walter Cronkite wouldn’t recognize.

Fast forward to a normal day circa 2013. After making my morning coffee, the first thing I do is check out “The Drudge Report.” Drudge collects news stories from all over the world and posts them on a fast paced, ever-changing site that also contains dozens of editorials from writers across the spectrum and online versions of newspapers from all over the world. I read the stories that interest me, often “link surfing” into territories unknown. I routinely visit the English Language versions of Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Xinhua, Kyodo, Pravda (my favorite), and Yonhap, often link-surfing deep into some really wild stuff. I actually find out more about what is going on in the U.S. from Pravda than I ever did in the New York Times.

I never understand the aversion some of my leftie friends have for the site. Drudge is a collector and compiler of news — he produces very little content. Certainly he filters it to suit his own world view, but then again doesn’t every editor?

After Drudge I like to check into what is going on in the Matrix, so I pull up the Huffington Post or Politico. A quick spin and I’m into my e-mail. This is where the fun really begins. For the last five years I have been building a network of “interesting people who send me stuff.” I get “stuff” from police and firemen, a retired general, an investment banker, dozens of my father’s WWII buddies, and even a retired Secret Service agent. Some days I get dozens of things to read; it really can be overwhelming. I read Stratford and Stansberry Research and get “blasts” from Townhall.com, Frontpagemag.com and Worldnetdaily.com. While I can’t say that I read it all, I do spend a good two hours in front of my computer each morning, and not a tree dies in the process.

I try not to think about the starving lumberjacks and their children.

As far as television goes, there is very little I watch. About five years ago I wearied of paying money for the cradle of filth that modern television has become and canceled the cable. This effectively ended my television viewing. I do not miss it. If my wife wants to watch a show, one of my sons gets it off the Internet. My local saloons appreciate the extra business during football season.

My consumption of books has also radically changed with the arrival of my son’s Kindle, which I instantly snatched. I have not purchased a real book, other than from a used book store, since I grabbed the Kindle.

Don’t get me wrong; the Kindle is not that pleasant to read on, but it’s so damn convenient. I have also begun to fill it with public domain books such as Poverty and Progress by Henry George—the most widely read economics book in history. There are thousands of free books for the Kindle. In addition I have loaded some of my “go to” volumes, such as Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Now I don’t have to leave home without them.

I have a visceral dislike of computers and the Internet but find myself “caught in the Web” more and more often. If a Luddite like me can be sucked in, anyone can. I’m interested to know, of course, whether your reading habits have changed over the past decade. Oh, and give Pravda a read. Then let me know whether you still think the New York Times should be called “the paper of record.”