Accessing US news websites from the Philippines

[DinaBill 4]

Thus I mention PBS.

[spicynujac 23]

First of all, if there was something that blocked US media, I'd consider that a blessing, not a curse.  It's not at all controversial or debatable to say the US mainstream media is untrustworthy--it has levels of trust slightly above those of Congress, and more distrust it than trust it (32%!, according to Gallop polling).  The partisan lying started with Faux News a couple of decades ago but now it's spread all around, and one need only look at the treatment by long time leftist journalist Matt Taibbi when he was called in front of the US Congress, by Democratic congresscritters, (or the brilliant debate by Taibbi and Douglas Murray at the famed Munk Debates which garnered their largest ever change in opinion in history after they debated the question Can the Mainstream Media Be Trusted) or the exile of pulitzer winner Glenn Greenwald to Brazil, or the treatment of Julian Assange, to see how censorship, lying, and omission is the norm.

 

This is all to say that reading mainstream media articles is far more likely to misinform one than it is to educate.  

 

On top of that, most news today is infiltrated with the political.  Do you really want to expose your spouse to that?  

 

Personally I'd focus on things she is interested in, hobbies, interests, talents, or skills like cooking-- there are dozens of great sources that talk about American foods (from America's Test Kitchen to video blogs to Diners Dives Drive-ins or whatever that show was).  Focus on feeding her positive information, not the horrible abyss that is US politics or mainstream media.  

 

Also the lament that there's a lack of English Language media to read online strikes me as quite bizarre.  The vast majority of content on the web is in English and there is no difficulty accessing even niche content in English anywhere on the planet. 

 

What does she need to improve?  If it's language and grammar, there are sites, videos and blogs which focus on that.  Likewise culture, history, etc.  Reading is probably best, but there's also a TON of niche English language content on youtube and tiktok (which my spouse prefers).

 

The top "news" stories right now on CNN and Fox are Cuomo endorses VP Harris then slams progressive politics, including the 'dumbest words ever uttered' and Trump is getting wilder, but the race remains a toss-up

 

Is knowing anything about that going to help her prepare for living in USA (other than developing a disgust for our politics and knowing to avoid it   )

[Apologies to those that genuinely like American politics and exclusively consume mainstream media.]

 

One final suggestion:  Local, hometown papers (even those not in your actual city, but preferably in your state or region) still employ independent journalists, and write a lot of articles that are focused on day to day life in America, cultural events, human interest stories, etc. and avoid obsessing about elections that occur maybe 10 times in our lifetime, or the international stories copy/pasted from AP/UPI.  Check out local, small papers in towns of 100,000.  And expect to pay for good content.  The stuff you find out there for free is often clickbait, propaganda, or written by a machine.

[DinaBill 4]

Wow.. If you want to hijack a thread, please ask 1st.

 

I want her to see how screwed up things are. I want to leave the US and maybe go to Tahiti if Trump wins. I want her to see why I feel this. I'm looking for ways she can see all this garbage for herself. You suggest I hide it from her??  Whatever man.

[Talako 781]

4 hours ago, DinaBill said:

Wow.. If you want to hijack a thread, please ask 1st.

 

I want her to see how screwed up things are. I want to leave the US and maybe go to Tahiti if Trump wins. I want her to see why I feel this. I'm looking for ways she can see all this garbage for herself. You suggest I hide it from her??  Whatever man.

 

May I suggest you turn on MSNBC.  It might reduce your tantrums from alternate suggestions.

[David L Visa 0]

On 9/22/2024 at 4:26 PM, DinaBill said:

Not garbage like Facebook or Twitter. Real news like PBS for example.

As I mentioned I've not found any legacy media that I can not access. PBS, MSNBC, CNN, Fox all work where I'm at. Also Yahoo, Google news work, no issues. What news sites is your wife not able to access? Yes there is a lot of garbage on social media but there are also real journalists posting news that the legacy media doesn't cover hence why I mentioned those.

[DinaBill 4]

We'll see in a few days if some of the suggestions here work out. Her eyesight has deteriorated to the point she can't use her laptop. She had an eye exam today and will become Dina four-eyes (a rite of passage of aging). Once specc'ed, we can try things. I wish she a good enuf connection to use a VPN but I don't think that's realistic solution.

 

Mahalo to (most) everyone who have offered suggestions. All we need is one that works. 

[Talako 781]

In an effort to answer the question, here is a possible solution. 

 

If she has a video player on her computer that supports live streaming such as VLC or KODI, there are free IPTV resources.  Github has a collection of publicly available IPTV channels that can be streamed.  I just looked, and there are 10,705 channels from all over the world.  Different playlists are available that cull out what you want by category, country, language or region.

 

To access, insert the following link into the requested URL for the network stream within the video program:  

 

https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/index.m3u  

 

Once VLC or similar program opens the file, you will see all the links.  Then you can find what floats your boat.  I assume it somewhere between Fox and AL-Jazeera.  No MSNBC, but there has to something in there that you approve of like CBS-LA.

[DinaBill 4]

This is interesting. I never knew such existed. I ended up with I think a Greek cooking show. How do you navigate?

[seekingthetruth 1,246]

On 9/24/2024 at 12:11 PM, DinaBill said:

I'm looking for ways she can see all this garbage for herself.

That is easy.  Just take her to any democrat run city.

[Talako 781]

9 hours ago, DinaBill said:

This is interesting. I never knew such existed. I ended up with I think a Greek cooking show. How do you navigate?

 

I don't know which program you are using, but when I open the file in VLC I usually get a news program from Ukraine.  I simply hit stop (the square), and then a list is shown.  The link or file populates your playlist when you first open it.  Whatever program you have, stop whatever is playing and look for the playlist.  The playlist will have thousands of options.

 

After that, use the search function to find what you're looking for.  You could also simply scroll through all the channels from Accion Mexicana to Zoo Moo.  Even farther if you can read Greek, Russian, Chinese, and/or Korean.