http://larvatusprodeo.net/2006/12/18/the-new-opedders/

To answer your question, suz, I felt quite bad about retreating to my own private concerns and ignoring public ones because I’ve always felt an obligation to do something for others by acting on my politics.

My news comes via the web and is usually international. It’s no guarantee of quality or accuracy and forget about local issues, but it does help keep another tree rooted to the ground.

You could say that most MSM is isomorphic from day-to-day too – but you could particularly apply it to the gay mags modulo the subject of their major stories (the themes are usually the same though). My maths background comes through in using “isomorphic” (and “modulo”) – I use it in a way that means “may not necessarily look the same but is basically/essentially the same” which is connected to its maths meaning. Isomorphism is a powerful tool in algebra!

I suppose my idea is to read and evaluate things – it’s no good to just say “bah, these thigns are just terrible, there’s no point to me reading themâ€?. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you think that.
I think I’m doing myself a service! It’s the only way I can manage to maintain a few shreds of optimism. I know many people who’ve cut off from the mainstream media altogether as they can’t take it any more.
Btw, good word, ‘isomorphic’ to describe the gay rags (which I also hardly ever read any more, though I like the Pink Broad.)

So what do you read, watch or listen to in the mainstream media that keeps you informed and engaged and maybe occasionally inspired?

A lot. Some friends say I absorb the newspapers.

Suz, if you cut yourself off from ideas you don’t agree with you’ll become very happy in your very own personal garden of ideas without being aware of what anyone else thinks.

While I think less and less that the SMH is a serious newspaper, I think that it’s a mistake to think that the writers in The Australian, or many other newspapers, offer a homogeneous, monolithic approach to anything – and you must constantly be prepared to consider ideas from all sorts of sources, lest you cut yourself off from something worthwhile.

For example, Noel Pearson has written a good opinion piece this weekend reflecting his impressions of different approaches to govt indigeneous policies – it may be uncomfortable reading for some on the left but should be compulsory reading for all Labor MPs. He’s charitable to Jenny Macklin in her new role as Shadow Indigeneous Affairs Ministers. To me his piece read as if just reflecting his personal opinions.

In addition to the SMH and The Australian web-sites, I read the ABC web-site, The Age, Mercury, Courier-Mail, The Advertiser, The Mercury, BBC, CNN, Washington Post, NZ Herald, Sacramento Bee, Scientific American, New Scientist, and lots of others (including blogs). I also read some of these magazines, The Economist, local rags including (Sydney) City Hub, some of the local gay mags (which are all isomorphic), National Geographic, the monthly publications of the Planetary Society, the American Mathematical Society and the quarterly publication of the Australian Mathematical Society. This is all I remember. I also watch BBC world-wide and sometimes see bits of CNN and Fox, and (less often now) watch Lateline and the 7:30 report. Sometimes I read the Financial Review. I suppose my idea is to read and evaluate things – it’s no good to just say “bah, these thigns are just terrible, there’s no point to me reading them”. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you think that.

(I don’t read all these sources every day!)