I am pretty hardcore right wing conservative, but it has gotten to the point both sides of the journalism aisle are more interested in creating the news by stirring emotions that piss people off enough to go out and create newsworthy events. This just reinforces the stereotypes of the fringe minorities on both sides of the political aisle to do stuff that pisses the other side off even more. It has gotten to the point that reading about stuff happening is only keeping me in a pissed off state of mind and at the root of it that seems like a very unhealthy place to be. God gives us only so much time on this Earth to do things we love and enjoy our time with those whom we love to be spending it pissed off at things that, let's face it, are ultimately out of our control. I stopped reading the news about a month ago. I still watch about 10 to 20 minutes of a mainstream network about 3 days a week, but it's nothing heavy that gets much more than a shake of my head. I feel my state of mind has been much more peaceful in that transition. Ignorance is bliss, especially when there is nothing you can really do about the alternative.
Can you give an example of reading the news watching mainstream network ? I myself read a lot of medical journals and have access to medical info not yet released to the public via courtesy of my girlfriend that's a head emergency room nurse plus my own academic background in sciences involving infectious diseases... I tend to not let the news media influence me and get tunnel vision on the facts. Like you, I myself watch about 30 minutes of CNN, MSNBC, EuroNews and CBCNews, TV Monde or i-Télé (now known as Cnews) about 3 - 4 times per week if that's what you mean by watching mainstream network. Mainly to get updates about new Coronavirus rules for my province. wrbtrader
I always like eavesdropping on the local old men in the coffee shop when I'm overseas, arguing local politics that I not only have no opinion on but often don't even comprehend. It kind of puts political passions into perspective when I can honestly in that case view them dispassionately like that. I'm not sure I could follow your path but that's just personal weakness on my part; it sounds enviable (and I'm on the other side of the aisle)!
Not a bad idea I wish I could stick to myself, but the the junk news is like some kind of drug. In this day and age of nearly 100% misinformation at best, outright lies at worst, it's better to be uninformed than intentionally mis-informed. Better for your head to just do the best you can and leave the madness to everyone else. Easy to say, difficult to do.
Not only is there almost always an agenda being pushed - but I also find that most of what is reported is always negative shit. It would be nice to have a news reporting entity that does just that - reports the news and lets the viewer / reader decide. Not much drama, ratings, or opportunity to push ideologies there so you can scratch that off. I don't miss it at all. Welcome to the club.
I assume that you talk about US national news, covering domestic issues. What you could try is to watch how foreign news outlets report about US domestic topics.
That depends on what language(s) you can read. Assuming that is limited to English, and you want to read about US news events, the most obvious choices would be news outlets in e.g. Canada, UK, Australia.