Today is I believe the coldest day of record so far this year. Finding something interesting to read or to listen to is not always a productive undertaking under this or any other circumstance. Just recently I cancelled our free introductory subscription to Sirius XM radio. For years we have been accustomed to listening to Sirius XM radio in the car, mostly for music and sometimes for news. I qualify the news feature in particular because it was always the same, predictable, “feed the audience” news one learns to expect from CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS, BBC and NPR. Seldom did we listen to CBC in the car because we predominantly get our local national news in our residence; but when we were listening to news in the car we were usually travelling in the United States of America.
What happened to precipitate the cancellation of Sirius XM radio was the sudden recognition that, with our car now connected to the iPhone and thus to Apple Music (about which I cannot say enough complimentary) it was patently superfluous to pay Sirius XM for music (most of which we discovered was on a reel and repetitive).
The corollary to this cancellation was the need to acquaint myself with local radio stations which I could add to my car as “Favourites” (just in case I felt the sudden need for news) During this process I selected the usual stations CBC FM (French and English) mostly for classical music and CBC AM (English) for news. What I hadn’t anticipated however as I scrolled aimlessly across the atmostphere was bumping into FM CHUO 89.1. As you might have discerned, or may already know, CHUO signifies University of Ottawa. I will not bother to broaden the particulars of the station other than to mention the programme which I unwittingly listened to today called “Democracy Now”. The inclusion of this programme on a university radio station is in my mind a huge compliment.
Democracy Now! is a left-wing hour-long TV, radio, and Internet news program based in Manhattan and hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show’s executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at 8 a.m. Eastern Time, is broadcast on the Internet and via more than 1,400 radio and television stations worldwide
I was astounded to hear the quality of language and journalistic investigation. There was nothing other than blunt fact which predominated. The usual grandstanding and whatever else it is that the popular media uses to afford what it deceives itself to think of as entertainment was happily lacking.