I Like My News Like My Water: Unflavored



When I ask for a glass of water in a restaurant now it invariably comes with a wedge of lemon. When and why did this become the norm? Was this the idea of the Lemon Council? There is a Lemon Council, right? There must be as there are lobbyists for everything now. Did their sour, puckered lips sweet talk every eating and drinking establishment in country with promised tax loopholes? Or maybe its a Lemon Consortium that strong arms bars to "add a slice if theys knows what's good for 'em." I'm thinking they are just taking their lead from news organizations.
News organizations all flavor their news. That goes for whether whether they are online, on air, or on Death Row (the medium formally known as "Print".) Rather than scouring the Internet looking for news I find myself scouring the news looking for unfiltered versions. Most have an overtly political bent, others focus on technology, or sensationalism.
It annoys me to no end that I have to go out of my way to request water without lemon when without lemon is the way it should be served. And it's nearly impossible finding straight news sources these days. Where do you go for your news?
The point of social media news is to supply the facts while they occur without any agenda. For me, the opinions of other news readers seem to carry the most validity. I now like the sites like Reddit that rank their featured news by reader views as it saves me the time and frustration of reading through the muck. Yes Reddit, whose viewers in an interview with President Obama posed the very important question of "Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?" Make fun of Reddit as much as like — in fact it's encouraged. It keeps the news posts and posters honest.
Of course there are many sites that let you tailor your news page to your liking. But really it's the equivalent of letting you choose which lemons you'd like in your water and how many slices you'd like to add.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to discern what agenda is being pushed upon us and ever more clear that skepticism is required for nearly every news source we encounter. The point is if I want to flavor my water I shall do so myself. And I want my news like my water: fresh, in a clear glass, and unflavored.
Article first published as A Glass of News; No Lemon, Please on Technorati.

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