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    PoliticsAndGovernment
Politics, Boomers, and Senior Citizens

Senior Political News

Politics: The third rail of life, coworkers, family, and friends.

The 535 men and women in Congress, the President, and nine Justices have more influence and power over you than any other group in this country. Love them or hate them, you are shortsighted to ignore them.

Traditionally, seniors follow political issues more than other age groups. Seniors vote in greater numbers and are a formidable political force. Being retired may give you more interest in and more time to participate in government. Being unemployed may motivate your interest in politics and what brought you to the unemployment line.

In order to vote well and to have informed opinions, you need to know what's happening around you. You need news. It is important where you get it.

Politics is about policies and laws, sure, but it is really about persuasion. Sadly, news has become about persuasion as well.

Objective journalism is old-school. Advocacy journalism is the norm. Investigative journalism goes even further, portraying one side as right and the other as wrong as starkly as they dare. Journalists exaggerate events to make them "clearer" to us rubes. Some news people act as if the public is stupid.

News editors have almighty power in molding your thoughts, feelings, and attitudes, and you can be sure that they exercise that power. Editors can pick a story with a particular slant. Most powerfully, they can omit stories they don't want you to hear, the retraction two days after a sensational charge, or a scandal that rocks one of their sacred cows.

Editors can question the authenticity of protest groups they don't like and remain silent on ones they like. They can name the political party when a scandal hits the party they don't like, and not mention the party when it's someone they like. Some try to influence you in subtle ways so that you may not notice.

It is important for you to have unfiltered access to the news as much as is possible. You still get stories written with a bias, some more and some less, but you are able to choose from a stream of stories from all sides and perspectives, not just the one side you usually get.

Sure, it takes more time to wade through them, but that is the price for making up your own mind rather than letting someone else do it for you.


News stories aggregated by Senior News Service from Elder-Gateway.