". . . he's satisfied with what he gets from the public news outlets in the US."

I never said that. I'm not going to repeat what I did say because I've already written it above, and you have either not read it carefully or you are deliberately trying to distort what I said. When you distort what others say, it is impossible to have a rational discussion with you.

And as to taking "sides," you most certainly have a viewpoint on things, including very strong feelings about them. You may use whatever verbal chicanery you wish, but you most definitely have a "side," as anyone who has read your posts can attest. Your sudden embrace of Teilhard de Chardin, with whom I have been familiar for some time, doesn't ameliorate that fact.

Having a "side" in the context of this discussion means such things as taking a stand against needless wars, torture, genocide, oppression, neglect or total disregard of the welfare of one's own citizens, and a whole litany of atrocities that groups of human beings visit on each other. And this includes using the press and the media to try to manipulate the populace into going along with these things. Therefore, I am not satisfied with what I get from the public news outlets. However, as I have made abundantly clear, I find that the public news media does a better job of alerting me to people and events that merit further checking than the commercially sponsored ones do.

And furthermore, as I have said repeatedly on this thread and which you keep brushing aside (trying to imply that this is not what I do), you must listen with your brain in gear and not just accept what you read or hear. Think about it. Check it out. Go to a variety of other sources and compare.

I learned this years ago, in my late teens and early twenties. I had a radio with a variety of short-wave bands. When the Korean war ("police action") was on, I used to listen to the domestic news, then I would listen to newscasts from other countries (including Radio Moscow) and compare. What the American news services were calling a "rout," Radio Moscow would report as "a strategic retreat." Then I would listen to the BBC and other news broadcasts and compare their reports with what the American and Soviet news said. I got quite adept at sifting the real happenings from the propaganda.

And I continue that practice today.

Don Firth