How do I resist being sucked into the 24/7 news cycle?
At least once a week, one of my clinic patients laments that they can’t fall asleep, and then sheepishly admits— “Doc, I can’t turn off the news and I get so ANGRY watching BLANK” (fill in your favorite TV cable channel or talk show.) I addressed doom scrolling, the compulsive, excessive consumption of negative news or social media content, in a recent article published by Self magazine. As a sleep neurologist, I focused on the downside of doom scrolling on health when trying to get to bed.
It’s easy to bash the media. However, we can also turn to the media, and even AI (!), to help us find “balanced news”. I asked Google Gemini the question: “What news sources can I turn to for balanced news” and came up with the response below (in italics) which I reviewed for accuracy, edited for brevity, and added links. While I’m not advocating doing this reading before bed (a novel or soothing music will be more conducive to sleep), consuming these news sources during the day may be just the prescription you need to help with outrage, and get a good night’s sleep. For me, when I consume balanced news, it helps me realize there are many sides to a story and gives me agency to think more independently.
Here’s what AI and I came up with (if you have another source we left out, let us know):
Provide Daily Email:
Tangle: Every day, Tangle takes one major news story and breaks it down. It provides a quick summary of the facts, curates the best arguments from the Left, curates the best arguments from the Right, and then the editor gives his own synthesized take.
The Flip Side: They take one pressing issue each day and provide a digest of quotes and excerpts from liberal and conservative commentators, allowing you to see the strongest arguments from both camps side-by-side.
Side-by-Side Aggregators
If you prefer browsing the news yourself rather than reading a newsletter, these websites are designed to show you how different media ecosystems are framing the exact same event.
AllSides: When a major event happens, AllSides puts a headline from a Left-leaning outlet (like MSNBC or The New York Times), a Center outlet (like AP or Reuters), and a Right-leaning outlet (like Fox News or The Wall Street Journal) right next to each other. You can immediately see what details each side is choosing to emphasize or ignore.
Ground News: This platform identifies media “blind spots.” If a story breaks, Ground News will tell you if it’s being heavily covered by one side of the political spectrum and ignored by the other. It allows you to swipe between coverage of the same event from thousands of publications globally.
I wanted to add a source that one of our subscribers mentioned to me— Straight Arrow News. If you are aware of any additional sources, please message us at connect@beyondthepoliticsofcontempt.com so we can expand the list.
Now a question for you- -
If you use these sites, how do you feel after you do?
More informed?
Less outraged?
Smarter?
More open-minded?
Or something else?