Trust but Verify: My Journey Away from Cable News

It was pre-COVID, let’s say 2018, when I finally weaned myself off cable news completely. I had always loved the news, but I preferred reading it in newspapers. Newspapers challenged my mind, gave me room to think, and allowed me to process information at my own pace.

During COVID, I lost whatever respect I still had left for cable news. At the height of the pandemic, channels like CNN ran death tickers across their screens. For our Zoomer generation, already raised in a culture of constant news consumption, this was toxic. It was especially cruel for those in nursing homes and hospitals-the sick and dying were fed a relentless stream of bad news about rising infections and death counts.

I hated it so much because I was watching it firsthand while working in some of those hospitals between two states. When newspapers weren’t available, I turned to YouTube for headlines and clips. Today, I consume so much content on YouTube that it’s almost frightening.

But I approach everything with skepticism. Being able to choose what I want to read or listen to is liberating. And I know I’m not alone. Many of us have become aware of how news channels are bought and paid for by powerful elites to push propaganda. I’ve reached a point where I can predict what a cable news anchor will say before they say it. That predictability, that manufactured narrative, totally killed my desire to watch them. If they surprise me at all, it’s usually with something I didn’t know but that still turns out to be propaganda.

Fast forward to 2025. It’s clear that these powers know their viewership is collapsing. People like me are sourcing our news from YouTube instead. To keep influencing the public, they’re now buying up or funding large channels, even smaller ones, to push their narratives.

Just last week, it was reported that Israel is paying influencers up to $7,000 a post to push its narrative on Gaza. The same thing happened four years ago during the pandemic: people knew the truth about the virus and the “not-so-safe” vaccines, yet they still took money to push certain messages on their platforms.

The main point of this piece is simple: don’t consume anything online at face value, no matter how truthful it appears. Trust but verify. In this system, it looks like everything, and everyone is for sale. Please, have a soul. Don’t sell out your trusted audience for a few pieces of silver. It’s toxic to the soul.

God bless,
from the table of your pal,
Ronnie