Had a good long conversation

Smokler on January 3, 2002

Had a good long conversation with my college roommate Justin tonight, which mostly centered around where to get news and whome to trust in these days of fear, hysteria, and war-hungry blowhards. Justin is among the most savvy media consumers I know, always about 3 months ahead of me on what to read and whom to listen. I owe him for introducing me to Salon (word for word perhaps my favorite site) and AlterNet, where I ended up working 2 years later.

I haven’t been great with news lately, glancing at the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle on the bus ride to work, then submerging myself in the book world for the rest of the day. When Enron bit the dust a few weeks ago and my friends and colleagues were shaking their hands in anger, I could only nod blankly. I knew the company had gone bankrupt, knew they had sunk much of their employee’s 401k’s into their own failing stock but that was about it.

I asked Justin where he gets his news, when he reads and how he makes time. Then I made a mental list of all the first class writers I used to read as a journalism student then as a cub reporter. Then I found their columns on the web and created a aggregate link using Quickbrowse, which I also use for collecting stories for the Re:Read newslog at Central Booking. My plan is to cycle quickly through them in the morning, print what I’d like to read further then either read the printouts later before dinner or on Saturday morning.

My News List, Draft #1