A thought provoking piece, Jeff. Easy accessibility and overwhelming choice certainly have caused a media (and social media) frenzy for our attention.

That said, we all have God given free choice and, at least for now in this country, freedom of speech. To wit, the older I get and the less time I have left in this veil of tears, the more cognizant I have become of how valuable my time is and how discerning I need to be in the use of it.

With regard to current events, I have become more and more selective about where I obtain my news. For example, after reading “the newspaper of record” religiously for decades, I stopped going to the New York Times in 2000 as I saw more and more biased editorializing instead of hard news on the front page.

I stopped watching cable and network news during the 2016 campaign as I watched the emergence of the almost 100% negative echo chamber against Trump. I’m sure you have seen the montages of multiple mainstream media commentators parroting the same talking points at the same time. Epoch Times online is now my preferred authority: a truly balanced, worldwide perspective along with excellent commentary and opinion identified as such.

And even in the entertainment realm, we really do have a choice. Most of what is on cable is insipid trash, but several streaming services offer much better fare. And even if there is still questionable material (the Obamas on Netflix comes to mind), the beauty of streaming is that you can watch quality documentaries and films of your own choice when you want to, free of intrusive commercial ads (for the most part).

My point: deregulation has an upside as well. I shudder to think of the alternative given the current trend of corporate/intelligence/media/government control in our country. Is it better to have government over-regulation, such as the CCP social credit system where you only hear and see what you are allowed to by a tyrannical regime?

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