Information is where?

In my search for news and information I'm already tired of podcasts, audio and video. Just a six months ago I was regularly listening to and searching for podcasts on various topics. Just a month ago I was watching and seeking out video podcasts on a wide variety of subjects. Now I'm behind in every category. I just stopped listening to and watching them and I'm not exactly sure why.

I know why I started. Itunes made it easy and I enjoyed not getting all my information from the corporate media. I'm a news junkie in a land without news. I have cable TV but CNN, Fox, CNBC and MSNBC barely even count as news. It is amazing to me that you can flip from one channel to the next and half the time they are all running the same story within minutes of each other. The 24 hour news channels are all disguised entertainment designed to get ratings and not rock the money boat. Network news is the same thing only condensed for your pleasure.

Don't get me started about the programs with the "Liberal" and the "Conservative". Everyone knows what they are going to say even before they say it. The only time something interesting happens on one of those shows is when, usually do to a scandal, the liberal and the conservative have to briefly switch sides. It's always amusing to see each defend a position they usually attack as they try to pretend they are not opportunists interested only in their own power. They want you to believe they have lofty ideals as they struggle to pad their salaries.

So I went to podcasts to find something new. And that is what I found for a while. Some new voices, some decent entertainment, but right now it all seems so pointless. No one really has anything to say; at least not to me. A lot of them are trying to be slick mainstream entertainment and that is just what I was trying to escape. Quick segments, promos, commercials for other podcasts and wacky radio FX I don't need. I know it's a tough thing to keep doing a podcast for free. It's work and many drop out so when you find a good one it could be gone quickly. You have to keep looking. Maybe I'm just winded.

I often find myself watching news from France. It runs on one of those local public channels and is subtitled. They tell you how the crops are doing, how the politicians are doing, what the latest social trends are, how the sports teams are doing and lots of other things that never show up on the US news because they are not sensational enough.

My best source for news is C-Span's Book TV. All weekend they play lectures from non-fiction authors that are usually an hour long presentation. They go deep into their subjects in a way that mainstream news, where six minutes is a long piece, just can't. Sometimes the news on Book TV is a couple of hundred years old but often the book topics are current and relevant. Big ups for C-Span.

And I do like documentaries.

And reading. That's always good.

But how come I've turned away from podcasts so quickly?