For those of you who’ve been following me for a while, especially those of you whom I’ve met IRL, I’ve developed a bit of a reputation for having very strong opinions about the state of news and media in this world right now. If you’re new here, let me share my most important catchphrase about reading the news:
Your despair is someone else’s business model. They are not selling you honesty or truth, they are selling your attention to advertisers, which is most reliably maintained by a ever-changing slideshow of horrors. Happy people don’t leave 15 comments. Emotionally regulated people don’t watch 6 hours in a row. Despair and division aren’t side-effects, they’re the whole point.
I’ve written about this a number of times before, but it feels critical to write about it again right now. I’m going to give a quick update on what’s going on with the news industry at this moment but first a reminder to ground us: though you might be newly finding out about this, this isn’t a particularly dramatic change. The mainstream media has all been consolidated and controlled under conservative and mega-corporation ownership for years. The sky is not falling, the world is not ending, and truthfully I don’t even think things will look that different on the surface at first, but I hope this gives us the kick in the pants we need to approach things differently. This isn’t “bad news” so much as it’s a clear eyed look at where we stand and thoughts on where we go from here.
In case you haven’t been following what’s been going on with CBS, when Skydance media was attempting to buy their parent network, Paramount, they faced intense pressure from the FCC to address their “anti-trump, liberal bias” and promised that they would work to rectify the situation. They hired the CEO of a conservative think tank to address concerns and complaints of media bias, and this morning confirmed that they’re bringing Bari Weiss—a high profile contrarian and top anti-trans advocate—in as the new editor in chief. Word on the street is that Skydance, who is financially backed by one of the richest men and biggest financial trump supporter in the world, is also looking to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery, which owns CNN, and will likely face similar pressures from the white house to get permission for the merger. We also saw just last month when Jimmy Kimmel was temporarily taken off the air by ABC, owned by Disney, and then further blocked from distribution by conservative owners at Nextstar and Sinclair.
All this to remind us that major news outlets that used to be paragons of rigorous, ethical journalism, should probably not be trusted blindly.
Okay! That’s enough writing about “the problem,” you’re here for solutions! Deep breath. Let’s get into it.
Over the past few months I’ve given you all a lot of firm reminders that it’s critical to find a good balance of trustworthy, non-fearmongering-y news sources, as well as to find folks reporting on good news as well.
A lot of folks have told me that while they appreciate the advice, they aren’t sure what that actually looks like in practice. While it can and should look different for every person based on their specific job, passions, and needs, I thought it might be helpful to share my personal routines and practices about engaging with the news.
There are two big things that shape my personal strategies for news and social media:
Intentionality: When I check the news, it’s on my terms. I don’t have it on in the background or as entertainment, I check at specific times of day, disabled all notifications. I only check the news on purpose.
Balance: I limit my intake of fear-heavy media sources, search for nuanced perspectives on key issues, and make sure I have sources of positive news.
My mantra about the news is that I need to give myself permission to know less to do more. You will find I’m not an expert about every single thing happening in the national news at any given moment. I can’t name every politician in DC (or even in the states where I’ve lived). I can’t currently list out every group in the world that is suffering, though I know it’s a lot. But, I have the emotional bandwidth to actually contribute to the movement and to my community because I’m not completely drained from “staying informed” on every tragedy facing humanity at any given moment.
This is not, however, permission for my more comfortable or privileged folks to check out, turn off the news, and in the name of boundaries pretend everything is okay. Limiting our news intake is a strategy to allow us to make an actual difference for the things we care about. It’s a first step.
Notifications
First up on the media diet list: Which news sources get unfiltered, unlimited, immediate access to my attention? In other words, who can send me push notifications and draw my attention to the news when I’m doing something else?
It’s critical to have times of day where you are genuinely safe from the news. This doesn’t mean nothing bad will happen, but it means a time where you aren’t hypervigilant for a news alert that something bad is happening. Hypervigilance 24/7 is deeply, deeply bad for us!
On my phone and computer, I have disabled almost all notifications. No email, no social media, and no national news. During the workday, I silence most notifications for calls and texts as well (because once I get distracted, it’s often hard for me to get back on track).
My only news notifications come from my local news app, which is permitted to send me weather and traffic alerts, as well as some major city/state news that might impact my day or my immediate safety.
If it makes you nervous to turn off national news alerts, do a trial period. Take 1 week and turn off all national news alerts on your phone and computer. Apple news, new york times, the whole shebang. Check the news on your terms. If any stories that you hear have a different outcome because you saw it two hours later than other people did, my bad! Turn those notifications back on, your job must be really important! But I’m going to guess that the most likely result is a lower blood pressure.
Physical Papers
I’m Gen-Z, so you can probably already guess that I am not subscribed to a mainstream physical newspaper, but I do actually have two news-related mailers I receive monthly.
Mother Jones Magazine: Hard hitting investigative journalism that isn’t owned by a billionaire or openly hostile to trans people! The bar is low, but the writing is great. Heads up though—they are often reporting on very heavy, frightening stuff, and they lean hard into fear for their fundraising campaigns.
The Goodnewspaper: A physical newspaper created by the same folks who make “the goodnewsletter” for free. Each month centers around a theme like relationships, food, the environment, and more! I am so obsessed with this newspaper that I decorated a wall in my office with the gorgeous centerfolds.
Emails
Next up: Who can email me? I get a lot of emails. Substacks, newsletters, favorite nonprofits, my inbox was a deluge of hyper-political content. I would see an email from one of the many political substacks I follow and my stomach would drop even if I resolved not to open it right away.
Some organizations (looking at you, democratic governors association) are WAY over the top for me with their fearmongering donation emails coming multiple times a day.
So I culled my inbox. I unsubscribed from the organizations that I knew I wasn’t going to donate to, that I noticed myself getting stressed when I saw their emails, and that I knew I wasn’t learning anything new from.
I also created a “Substack newspaper” that I will go in depth about in a moment that compiles most of the 80+ Substacks I subscribe to into one email that I treat much like a newspaper. There are very, very few news related emails that get to land directly in my inbox as I trust them explicitly not to fearmonger excessively. They are:
Good Good Good, a daily newsletter of positive news stories from around the world. I LOVE this newsletter. I try to forward at least one story to a different friend each week. They also have a physical newspaper that I adore.
- by KB Brookins has also become a reliable favorite!! KB is a wonderful person and compiles some pretty amazing, hopeful roundups!
1440 Newsletter: a brief, politically neutral and emotionally uncharged daily recap of the most important news stories from around the world. Takes 5 minutes max to read and makes me feel like I know what’s going on.
PFLAG National’s Policy Matters Newsletter, which includes educational resources, national LGBTQ+ policy updates, and salient calls to action based on where you live.
- I can’t say enough good things about the real deal reporting they’re doing over at Uncloseted. Toxic masculinity influencers, faith-based investing firms, trans and queer resilience, and well balanced national news roundups. A lot of wonderful human interest stories too.
- is an amazing, daily email with actions you can take to improve the world around you. I try my best to take at least one action per day. She shares many phenomenal resources, and a weekly good news roundup too!
A4TE’s newsletter: This leading trans rights organization sends relevant actions and resources explaining the impacts of legislation and EO’s. I don’t find it to be excessively fearmongering at all.
PROMO State-level advocacy alerts: PROMO is the Missouri advocacy organization. I am on their newsletter, which is thoughtfully curated to give a range of different local actions and not over-ask from community members. They are very real about the current threads without pointing out every hateful bill proposed as if it’s already passed.
- : This isn’t all the way a news substack, but I’m including it here because Sebastian writes incredibly about mental health, resilience, music, and the beauty of the trans community. This truly is your favorite Substack’s favorite Substack.
In general, what these all have in common is that they are NOT overly emotionally charged in a way meant to activate me, and they either bring me peace, challenge me to think differently, or bring me actions to take. For me, this is the balance that keeps me informed, involved, and sane.
Note: I’m not including in this list here the art/history/education/comedy focused substacks that still come into my inbox. This is specifically about accounts focused on current/breaking news.
Non-News honorable mentions:
- I love these long-form recommendations for ways to retrain your brain to be curious, pay attention, and sit down and learn. Mapu writes gorgeously and I really love the curated roundups of interesting articles, podcasts, and documentaries she shares
- Y’all. This has quickly become a favorite. This substack feels like drinking a cup of tea on a crisp fall day. Michelle writes beautifully about books, community building, personal stories, and has a weekly piece called “open hearted joys” that is absolutely gorgeous.
Creating my own “Newspaper” experience
Now, there are some people who do outstanding deeper dives into current events and politics that I find to be very interesting, and more emotionally heavy to read. So I engage with those journalists/authors on my terms.
I use the service “unroll me”, which was created for people who were getting too many spam/discount emails to roll them up into one daily email. Except instead of using it for spam, I just unsubscribe to the spam and put my political Substack accounts in there. Then, I treat the unroll me “daily rollup” as a newspaper. At some point between 3 and 5:00 in the afternoon, I’ll sit and read through the daily stories from some folks doing phenomenal reporting work. Here are a few of my favorites:
- watches and analyzes fox news so you don’t have to. I think they do a great job removing the barbs from the hateful language while still making sure I can know what the folks on Fox are talking about.
Tangle which also helps me understand what different sources are saying about a hot topic. They do a great job encouraging meaningful dialogue and disagreement while helping me stay up to date on what’s going on and how different people feel about it
- watches the many courts around the country, not just the supreme court, for challenges, trends, victories, and concerns. I am far more legally literate thanks to the great, inclusive reporting that Chris does!
- is a great review of the many local elections around the country that reflect broader trends or represent major victories and challenges.
- , who writes Tertium Quid, which is a phenomenal, no-holds-barred newsletter written by and for trans folks and their families. She writes incredibly about hope, current events, and support.
- is last but CERTAINLY not least on this list. A recent find and a total favorite, Atonia Scatton talks a whole lot about cognitive science and about how we need to be talking about the news differently. Incredibly thought provoking writing with messaging guides that I have been leaning on A LOT in difficult conversations with neighbors and family.
The Comedown
Because I understand the news to be something that activates and drains me, I will plan to engage with it A. when I have energy to give and B. when I have time to also make a plan to get it out of my body. I’ll go for a walk after, or play some videogames, or just take some time to read a fantasy book. Maybe I’ll spend some time doing targeted research about what actions I can take related to the stories I’ve read, and then I can spend some time taking those actions. Whatever your process is, make sure you include some time to re-regulate after reading difficult stories.
Everyone is going to have to build their own relationship with the news. Some people love broadcast news. For a laundry list of reasons, I do not. Some love short news podcasts, while others want a written summary. You don’t need to have the same strategies as me, all I care about is that you bring intention and balance to your news intake. 24/7 exposure to bad news is like an IV drip of poison at all times, and no one is any better off for you exhausting yourself “staying informed”.
I’d love to know who the folks you trust are! Who’s got great, realistic writing without fearmongering? Who brings you joy or great actions to take on?
What does your news hygiene look like? I’m always trying to find ways to improve mine!
That’s all for now! Until next time, with all my love,
Ben :)
Thanks!!! We’re doing our best to hold the people, the money and the power behind America’s anti-LGBTQ ecosystem accountable! BTW — we love your newsletter as well… our stuff is so dark (lol) so it’s GREAT to read your good news to balance things out and to have some hope!
Thank you for sharing this! As someone who has felt completely overwhelmed by the social media news cycle lately, I’ve been trying to limit my consumption of bad news. These are some great tips and resources to do just that. Appreciate all you do!