… are definitely The Daily Show and The Colbert Report!

Why? Because they look at the mainstream media/news with a saner view, and it really is the only way I am able to consume mainstream news. The REAL news are not on TV… turn off the damn tube and get online.

Both shows can be watched online directly from the respective websites (here and here) the day after they aired, and for the real junkie they are available via torrent almost instantly after airing. Thanks to torrents, I actually watched all shows from 2009 and currently catch up on 2008.

Both shows are in the good sense of humor, but feature real news, events and people. It is amazing how they manage to put everything in perspective so that you can easily see what is really going on, while mostly featuring footage from other “real” news channels. For example, they catch politician totally contradicting themselves, one time saying “yey” and then later in another video saying “I would never ever agree to that”. They also expose channels like Fox News for being biased, my favorite slogan for Fox News that The Daily Show came up with is: FOX NEWS : We alter reality. You are being sold a preconceived narrative.

If you are interested to see some honest and fun news comments, you will love these shows!

This fascinating essay, written by King Hussein’s grandfather King Abdullah, appeared in the United States six months before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In the article, King Abdullah disputes the mistaken view that Arab opposition to Zionism (and later the state of Israel) is because of longstanding religious or ethnic hatred. He notes that Jews and Muslims enjoyed a long history of peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, and that Jews have historically suffered far more at the hands of Christian Europe. Pointing to the tragedy of the holocaust that Jews suffered during World War II, the monarch asks why America and Europe are refusing to accept more than a token handful of Jewish immigrants and refugees. It is unfair, he argues, to make Palestine, which is innocent of anti-Semitism, pay for the crimes of Europe. King Abdullah also asks how Jews can claim a historic right to Palestine, when Arabs have been the overwhelming majority there for nearly 1300 uninterrupted years? The essay ends on an ominous note, warning of dire consequences if a peaceful solution cannot be found to protect the rights of the indigenous Arabs of Palestine.

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