I’m always ready to try out “news” sources that claim to be objective, continuing the spirit of the Fairness Doctrine. Until now all have failed quickly. Most were immediately transparent, just another DNC talking point vendor.
Today I’m trying Tangle News. So far I haven’t seen any blatant shibboleths or hidden assumptions. They don’t move fast and don’t cover a lot of stories, but what they choose to cover looks objective enough.
Their article on the “shutdown” fraud includes one piece of info that I hadn’t seen before. Congress did one helpful thing this year! Added 10 billion to the Dept of Ag for “emergency relief”. Looking at the details, most of this will go directly to farmers who were damaged by floods or hurricanes. I trust USDA to handle things properly. It’s one of the few “mechanical” agencies, trying to serve its target population instead of enriching billionaires. It still provides plenty of good info and advice to new farmers, a duty that Henry Wallace would approve.
Normally the Repooflican pork-busters try to destroy USDA because it works. Repoofs never try to abolish war or spying, only the few functional parts. This time they made an exception.
Metanote: Detailed info about the “shutdown” deal is undoubtedly available elsewhere, but all other sources are so egregiously horrible that I skip them or turn them off instantly. Tangle invited me in by showing objectivity, so I trusted them enough to read a normally aversive topic. Trust is the KEY.
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A couple days later, after reading more, I like the site more. Tangle is a blog, not a newspaper, with only one or two items per day. But each item is carefully nonpartisan and researched, separating the facts from the takes on both sides. The founder often adds his own thoughts, also carefully separated. Each article specifically invites reader input. Fulfilling the Carver spirit. Take hold of the things that are here, talk to them, let them talk to you. Reminds me of Frank Edwards, though Edwards’s personal view was more contrarian than the Tangle founder.
Opinion: Tangle has only 275k subscribers, not an impressive number after 5 years of operation. Their clear advantage in trustworthiness ought to bring in more readers. I get the impression they simply don’t want to grow. Perhaps they could gain more money to hire more people if they moved closer to the newspaper model, with a wide variety of short articles and one long read per day. It’s entirely possible to write short pieces with strict quality control. Broadcasters did it all the time when the FCC censored them into being trustworthy. Tangle could also do a better job of publicity. I’ve been watching for allegedly non-partisan news, and never heard of them until last week.
Polistra's Mill 