How I Get My News.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am an extremely political person. I come from a very politically active family that always watches the news, and tunes in every election night. In addition, we vote by mail, which is very convenient for us. At Occidental, I was a Politics major. I am a proud member of the Democratic Party as well.
All of this basically started for me when I was in high school and Barack Obama was running for president for the first time. In the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton was heavily favored, and everyone thought that Obama was a long shot. Nevertheless, he stayed in the running and eventually became the Democratic nominee. I tuned in to his every speech, watched his every campaign ad, and checked national polling data on a daily basis. It is safe to say that I was obsessed. After Obama became president, my family and I flew out to Washington, D.C. to attend his inauguration in person.
Because I am a political junkie, following the news is incredibly important to me. I have multiple sources that I rely on. My parents and I have an electronic subscription to the New York Times, which I feel is the most reputable paper in the United States. In addition, a few years ago, my grandma introduced me to political podcasts. She told me about this show called “Sisters in Law.” Every Saturday, they upload a roughly one-hour podcast to their channel. All of the women who are featured on this are distinguished in the field of law. Each week, they break down the news from a legal perspective. The show is incredibly informative and engaging.
In addition, there is “Pod Save America.” This is a political podcast run by some ex-Obama staffers who worked on his campaign and served in his White House. They upload twice a week. At the end of each of their shows, they typically have a guest on who is a politician or expert. The hosts of both podcasts are very fun-loving and informed, and I learn a lot from these shows every time I tune in.
Through Crooked Media, which is the organization behind the “Pod Save America” podcast, I get a once-a-weekday email news blast. This is very concise, but also very informative. Each email starts with a quote and is then broken down into the headlines of the day, and then any news that the editors deem to be positive. These emails are a valuable source of political information for me.
As I was saying—following the news is incredibly important to me. So is being politically active. In my humble opinion, they are basically the same. That is why I vote in every election and complete my research on the various candidates and propositions before doing so. I want to end this post by saying that I am of course always open to hearing and considering political beliefs that are theoretically contradictory to my own.