June 19, 2025 • 23 mins
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We explore how news media affects investment decision making and identify reliable sources of financial information in today's fragmented media landscape.
• Traditional media networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX) prioritize sensationalism and local stories over global context
• Bloomberg and Reuters provide better global perspectives on how various markets interconnect
• News media has shifted from educating viewers to entertaining them for ratings
• Corporate ownership of media creates conflicts of interest with government oversight
• Seeking Alpha offers valuable investment data and subscriber articles without political bias
• Wall Street Journal delivers quality factual reporting alongside opinion sections
• Social media and TikTok spread misleading investment information, particularly about cryptocurrency
• AI-generated content presents growing concerns for verifying authenticity of news
• Geographic divides in media consumption reinforce regional biases
• Verifying sources and being selective about information consumption is essential
Take a few minutes to evaluate your news sources and focus on channels providing accurate, global perspectives that can truly inform your investment decisions.
Straight Talk for All - Nonsense for None
Please check out our other podcasts:
https://skepticsguidetoinvesting.buzzsprout.com
Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Clement Miller (00:03):
Hello everybody and welcome to Skeptic's Guide
to Investing.
I'm Clem Miller and I'm herewith my partner, steve Davenport
, and today we're going to talkabout the news media and how we
should be looking at differentsources of information in order
to guide our investment decisionmaking.
So, Steve, let's just startright off.
(00:26):
Tell me who you like to look at.
Which news media do you like tolook at for information?
Steve Davenport (00:35):
Well, I find the main three media of four
networks ABC, NBC, CBS, I guessit's five CNN and Fox in the
United States to all be coveredin this very local view and
everything in the US is whatmatters and what happens in the
(00:56):
rest of the world not soimportant.
You know, I use the example ofyou know, when there was a
typhoon in Thailand and 100,000people were killed, I watched
the evening news and they showedme a casket coming off of a
plane from Iraq because onesoldier had been killed.
(01:19):
And I looked at that and Ithought are we really comparing?
The second news story was aboutthe 100,000 people killed in
Thailand, but I was like is thisreally a number one story that
people should see at thebeginning of the news, or should
we have a perspective that,when more lives are affected, if
(01:40):
a plane goes down in Michiganand three people are killed and
a plane goes down in India and240 are killed, what's the story
?
Is the story local or is it astory about bigger things and
bigger ideas?
And that's where I kind of feellike the media in the US is a
little bit too complacent ontrying to provide extreme
(02:06):
violence and other harrowingtales that are going to be good
for ratings and they keep itlocal and in that way, I think
if we're looking for sensationalstorytelling, that's the media
that we have.
If we're looking forinformation to try to make
better decisions, I look toBloomberg or Reuters, bbc, a
(02:32):
group who has a perspective,that is, more global groups that
look at things in terms of howthey all interplay.
How do commodities affectinterest rates, how do interest
rates affect currency rates, howdo those things affect the
price of oil and what's going tohappen to our portfolios if we
(02:53):
have a client who has a lot ofenergy?
That, to me, is our role is tofind the best information to
lead to the best decisions.
And what I would say is newsmedia used to be a source for a
lot of good things, and what Ifeel now is their shows, their
(03:16):
hosts or entertainers, thepeople on, are just trying to
push their brand or theirproduct, and it's a commercial
on a different level.
And I feel that when we look atwriters and newspapers, we're
losing a key part of the newscycle where people sat down
(03:38):
every day and said what can Iwrite to help my reader
understand the world and do abetter job of living in it?
A pretty big goal, but I don'tthink we can just say well,
we're going to get rid of theselocal newspapers because the AP
provides most of the news thatwe need to know.
Well, yeah, I think you might,but there is something about
(04:02):
people trying to help people andit used to be that positions in
media positions, you know, usedto have a lot more respect
because people are affected bythat ability to be a little bit
smarter, do a little bit better.
That's been the goal in Americafor hundreds of years trying to
(04:24):
move forward.
And what I think we're doinghere is we're battling each
other as if the world is a, youknow, winner-take-all event
instead of saying, in a growthmindset, we all win if we all
help each other.
And I think that thatfundamental difference has made
(04:44):
media to me a liability forpeople instead of something that
is going to help, and thereforeI look at it and say we got to
get back to helping people andthat's part of the reason we do
this podcast.
Think that having a voice outthere that says things that
(05:07):
aren't said other places, thattries to get people to move
their wellness IQ higher, that'simportant and the media isn't
doing it.
So I think that podcasters aretrying to step in the void and
provide regular sources of goodideas to try to make lives
better.
Do you agree, glenn?
Clement Miller (05:26):
I agree, in fact , what I would do.
I think it's important to lookat history.
It's always important to lookat history, and you know, for
many of us of a certain age, youknow, history began with like
three or four networks, right?
But if you look further back intime, before the existence of
(06:07):
television and radio, way longtime ago, back towards the
American Revolution, prior tothe Civil War, you had many,
many, many different newspapers.
Cities would have half a dozennewspapers no-transcript, and so
(06:35):
I I don't see anythingparticularly wrong with the fact
that we're moving into this eraof a multiplicity of of pod of
podcasters doing things.
I do think, however, thatthere's a problem in that people
(06:57):
who are less well-educated,people who don't know much about
civics, are not going to beable to distinguish opinion from
fact, and aren't going to beable to distinguish opinion from
fact and aren't going to beable to distinguish true facts
from so-called alternative facts, right, you're just not going
(07:20):
to be able to do that.
If it says social truth.
Steve Davenport (07:26):
by definition, it's going to be the truth,
hasn't it?
I don't know, Can you use aword like that?
Clement Miller (07:29):
and not use it properly.
No, going to be the truthhasn't it?
Steve Davenport (07:31):
I don't know.
Clement Miller (07:31):
You use a word like that and not use it
properly.
No, there's only one truth.
But even even with, um, evenwith any kind of news or
podcasts or whatever you know,just the information you leave
out is just as important as theinformation you leave.
You know you actually present.
So there's always going to besome slant or some opinion
(07:54):
embedded even in seeminglystraightforward news.
So the problem is not theproliferation of it's a good
thing to have a proliferation ofpodcast views.
It's a good thing, uh, but weneed to have a more educated
populace in order to be able tounderstand what's going on.
(08:17):
You know, one of the things, oneof the things I noticed is um,
you know, in various travelswithin the United States, is
that you know, if you go to arestaurant, like a sports bar or
restaurant or bar or whatever,or you know even like a haircut
place or whatever, you have thenews on right If you're on the
(08:39):
East Coast or the West Coast,it's more likely to be CNN.
If you go to the vast middle ofthe country, it's more likely
to be Fox, and so the fact thatyou've got this, you know these
particular networks, you knowbroadcasting in their particular
(09:00):
areas, reinforces opinions inthose areas, right, I mean.
Steve Davenport (09:05):
I look at this as cycles.
Everything is a cycle, it's asine wave, whether one is going
up and one is coming down, and Ibelieve we're in the down
strike right now.
For what is news and media?
I don't think the values arewonderful.
I look at Hearst and whatHearst did with his news empire,
(09:27):
and he basically was aboutsensationalism putting pictures
of burning buildings, puttingpictures of people on the ledge,
putting all of these thingsthat were thought to be
journalistically improper at thetime, and he pushed the
boundaries because he wasgetting more sales.
Surprise, surprise, moneymotivates behavior, and so my
(09:50):
problem with what you just saidis that you're saying hey,
individuals, you need to dobetter.
And what I would say is first,the people who have the licenses
, the people who are givengovernment power to run media,
they need to do better, becausewe can't get to I can consume If
(10:11):
I, if I teach people how toconsume better we still are
producing garbage.
Steve, are you saying?
Clement Miller (10:19):
are you saying?
Are you saying that podcastersshould have FCC licenses?
Steve Davenport (10:24):
No, I'm saying that we are here for educational
purposes, right.
And I thought, silly me, I'mjust being a little bit crazy
here.
I thought that the news mediawas there for educational
purposes, right.
I didn't think they were tryingto get million dollar contracts
by being on the morning show.
Clement Miller (10:45):
Well, the problem is is that the media is
now run by corporations bigcorporations and so they answer
to their shareholders and youknow if they're trying to get
big contracts, you know whathappens when Verizon wants to
have more phones in South Dakota.
Steve Davenport (11:06):
They need to get Spectrum.
They need to apply for Spectrum.
They get Spectrum.
They need to get spectrum, theyneed to apply for spectrum,
(11:35):
they get spectrum.
They open up an office and theysays, hey, why does Congress
not say anything about media?
Because they want media tocover them positively.
Boy, that seems like a conflict.
How?
Clement Miller (11:47):
do we get around that?
Steve Davenport (11:48):
conflict.
If we don't solve the problemof the information that's being
distilled, I don't know how goodwe can get at the people who
are distilling it.
It's a problem that needs to besolved from both directions.
It's not unidirectional.
They're producing goodinformation.
People aren't just finding thegood information.
(12:10):
That's not the problem in mymind.
Flunk, the problem is theproducers, and the producers
have been producing somethingthat is not good.
Therefore, shouldn't there besomebody who takes this to task?
Isn't there an ombudsman ingovernment that says hey, people
, this is.
(12:30):
I thought that was Doge.
I thought Doge was going toclean this whole stuff out.
Clement Miller (12:37):
Do you, do you really want Stephen Miller
controlling our, our media?
Steve Davenport (12:41):
No, I don't.
I want somebody though Clint, Iwant somebody I don't want
anybody.
Clement Miller (12:47):
I don't want anybody controlling the media.
Okay, I don't want anybodycontrolling the media.
Steve Davenport (12:50):
Okay, I want somebody helping the media to do
a better job of serving thelistener.
Our job is to service thelistener.
Listener doesn't want todownload.
He's not going to listen to us.
How do we make sure he does?
By providing information anddetails and education that makes
his life better.
Correct, If people aren't doingthat, I mean, do we need
(13:12):
another QVC?
Do we need another channel toconsume more Like?
If we look at obesityconsumption, the general
problems of civics in societyand how we treat people, are all
these networks additive to thequality of life of Americans?
Clement Miller (13:33):
You mean the corporate media?
Steve Davenport (13:36):
Yeah, I mean it just keeps growing right.
What do you have now?
A thousand channels.
I mean you can go on and getalmost anything right, and it's
Steve.
Clement Miller (13:47):
You know, I got to say I have given up
television.
Okay, the only time I turn upWell, first of all I can get I
mean I use but you're looking at, first of all I can get, I mean
I, I use but you're looking atmedia on your phone, so that's
not really true?
No, I have media on my phonebut I don't use.
I don't turn on the TV andwatch the you know, CBS ABC.
(14:10):
I don't watch any of those,because I think they're useless.
Correct but do you watch CNBCduring the day to see how the
market's going.
Sometimes I'll turn it on tosee what's going on with news in
the markets.
I do that right, but Icompletely ignore their more
sensationalist.
So you've given up.
(14:32):
I've given up with theconventional corporate media.
I used to like CNN a lot.
I don't like them so muchanymore.
Um, fox, I've never been, umyou know, attracted to their
propaganda.
Steve Davenport (14:50):
So, um, if we're trying to help people,
where should they go?
What should they do?
Um, do you have one source thatyou like to look at for
investment ideas and things?
Clement Miller (15:02):
So, when it comes to investment ideas, I'm a
premium subscriber to SeekingAlpha, which is an investment I
don't know what.
You would call it an investmentonline service.
Let's call it a service andthey you know they provide a lot
(15:25):
of data.
I use their data, but, at thesame time, they have a lot of
articles that are written bytheir subscribers, and these
articles are very, very usefulto understand what's going on
with markets and with particularcompanies.
So I mean, yeah, some are moreuseful than others, right, but
(16:00):
in general, they're quite usefulto and what's going on with
companies I'm already investingin.
So, yeah, that's, and thatsource is purposefully
nonpolitical.
Let me put it this way.
What they do is they say youknow, we have a, we have a
(16:20):
special channel within seekingalpha where you can debate
politics, and we're going tokeep politics out of our main,
out of our main channel so Ithink, it's good.
So seeking alpha is is is what Iuse.
I mean, I know this sounds likean advertisement for them.
Believe me, it's not anadvertisement for them, because
there are some.
Steve Davenport (16:41):
We don't take any advertising dollars.
We don't have advertisers.
Clement Miller (16:48):
There are weaknesses to it as well, but I
think I'd say my primary isBloomberg.
Steve Davenport (16:53):
I think Bloomberg does a good job of
taking an international approach.
I think they have their biases,they have their opinion, people
who are one side or another,but I think they are very clear
that that person is this is hisown opinion.
It's not the opinion ofBloomberg.
Clement Miller (17:08):
Bloomberg is very good.
Bloomberg is very good.
I'm a subscriber also to WallStreet Journal.
I think the Wall Street Journalis excellent in terms of
providing commentary or factsand news.
Sometimes I disagree with theiropinion page.
Steve Davenport (17:25):
Yeah, I mean you mentioned another group that
you look through for legalquestions and legal issues.
What's that?
Clement Miller (17:32):
Okay.
So you know this is more on thelegal side and and and I know
some of you know this are goingto think, oh, clem's just a
raging liberal when, because hewatches this, but I think it's.
I know of no other place to getopinion about legal issues.
(17:53):
You know sort of some of thethings that came out of the, the
does regulation and so on, uh,and the courts, and that's uh,
that's Midas, uh, m E, I, d A S,uh, just be aware, when you,
when you uh look at that, thatthey do come at it from a
distinct, uh, liberal,anti-trump, uh perspective.
(18:13):
You can view them as, like theanti-Fox.
You know CNN is no longer theanti-fox, midas is the anti-fox,
and they're actually one of thebiggest online presences around
in terms of providing mostlylegal news, and so you know, I
(18:37):
found it, you know, a veryfascinating place to understand
what's going on with all ofthese legal cases.
Steve Davenport (18:44):
Yeah, I mean, I think there's pockets of good
information out there.
I think there are pockets of ofreal value that people can find
, and that's what I think weneed to probably do a little bit
more of is sharing links andsharing ideas about where people
could find good information.
I would love to say that we'reyou know, I don't want to give
(19:08):
up and turn off the TV and saywe're just going to ignore this
piece of media and say it's notrelevant, because, guess what?
There's still millions andmillions of people watching.
So if we make it less relevantand we just let it exist in a
state that's of disrepair, thenI don't think as a country we're
(19:30):
going to be well served.
So I think there needs to be amedia act that says, first of
all, I'm starting to worry abouthow much of the media itself
could be influenced byAI-generated images and
AI-generated stories.
It feels like that's the nextlevel.
And how do we make sure thatit's true?
(19:53):
How do we make sure it's real?
How do we make sure?
Clement Miller (19:57):
I hope, just like they require a secondary
source, they also do a secondarysource for some of the images
and I and videos right, but II'd hate to even ask how this is
done currently yeah, you're,you're on to something and I
know that we want to wrap upthis segment pretty soon.
(20:18):
But you know, don't believe,don't believe the things that
you see, uh, on posts.
You know, like these memes, youcan tell what a meme is right
away.
Right, don't believe thesethings.
They're like short snippets,they're misleading or they're
just factually inaccurate.
(20:38):
They're meant to createemotional reactions.
People react to them and itspreads like wildfire, virally
in their networks.
Steve Davenport (20:47):
Yeah, I mean, I haven't mentioned TikTok and
these things as news.
Clement Miller (20:51):
TikTok's the same thing.
I think it's entertainment, Idon't think it's news.
At one point TikTok wasinfiltrated by Hamas supporters
and Hamas was creating all sortsof content for that spread like
Wildfire and TikTok, andprobably was responsible for
(21:12):
generating some of the campusunrest and other things in part.
Steve Davenport (21:18):
I don't want to talk about the bad.
I'm trying to talk about themain pieces that we can do
something about.
Clement Miller (21:29):
I think you know we can list five or six places
that we know are just cesspools.
Also, there's a I mean, TikTokis not investment connected in
particular, except in one area,and that's with regard to crypto
.
And if you're going to get yourinformation about investments
off of TikTok and focus oncrypto, then you need an
(21:52):
education then about what reallyan investment is, Because
crypto is not investing.
Steve Davenport (21:59):
Right.
I think that this is a goodpoint to probably say goodbye.
I think that what we're tryingto do for people is, as the
media starts to get louder andthe talk starts to get more
involved, try to do a fewminutes of just verifying your
sources and verifying thechannels that you're watching,
(22:21):
and watch less of the channelsthat you think are inaccurate
and read more of the areas thatyou think are giving you good
information, and we're going totry to share that on our podcast
today and we'll provide somelinks and we really appreciate
you listening and we reallyappreciate you listening and we
really appreciate your support.
So, for the Skeptic's Guide,I'm Steve Davenport and my
(22:46):
partner, clem Miller here andwe're going to say have a great
day and we look forward totalking to you next about Canada
.
Thanks, Steve.
Hello everybody and welcome to Skeptic's Guide
to Investing.
I'm Clem Miller and I'm herewith my partner, steve Davenport
, and today we're going to talkabout the news media and how we
should be looking at differentsources of information in order
to guide our investment decisionmaking.
So, Steve, let's just startright off.
(00:26):
Tell me who you like to look at.
Which news media do you like tolook at for information?
Steve Davenport (00:35):
Well, I find the main three media of four
networks ABC, NBC, CBS, I guessit's five CNN and Fox in the
United States to all be coveredin this very local view and
everything in the US is whatmatters and what happens in the
(00:56):
rest of the world not soimportant.
You know, I use the example ofyou know, when there was a
typhoon in Thailand and 100,000people were killed, I watched
the evening news and they showedme a casket coming off of a
plane from Iraq because onesoldier had been killed.
(01:19):
And I looked at that and Ithought are we really comparing?
The second news story was aboutthe 100,000 people killed in
Thailand, but I was like is thisreally a number one story that
people should see at thebeginning of the news, or should
we have a perspective that,when more lives are affected, if
(01:40):
a plane goes down in Michiganand three people are killed and
a plane goes down in India and240 are killed, what's the story
?
Is the story local or is it astory about bigger things and
bigger ideas?
And that's where I kind of feellike the media in the US is a
little bit too complacent ontrying to provide extreme
(02:06):
violence and other harrowingtales that are going to be good
for ratings and they keep itlocal and in that way, I think
if we're looking for sensationalstorytelling, that's the media
that we have.
If we're looking forinformation to try to make
better decisions, I look toBloomberg or Reuters, bbc, a
(02:32):
group who has a perspective,that is, more global groups that
look at things in terms of howthey all interplay.
How do commodities affectinterest rates, how do interest
rates affect currency rates, howdo those things affect the
price of oil and what's going tohappen to our portfolios if we
(02:53):
have a client who has a lot ofenergy?
That, to me, is our role is tofind the best information to
lead to the best decisions.
And what I would say is newsmedia used to be a source for a
lot of good things, and what Ifeel now is their shows, their
(03:16):
hosts or entertainers, thepeople on, are just trying to
push their brand or theirproduct, and it's a commercial
on a different level.
And I feel that when we look atwriters and newspapers, we're
losing a key part of the newscycle where people sat down
(03:38):
every day and said what can Iwrite to help my reader
understand the world and do abetter job of living in it?
A pretty big goal, but I don'tthink we can just say well,
we're going to get rid of theselocal newspapers because the AP
provides most of the news thatwe need to know.
Well, yeah, I think you might,but there is something about
(04:02):
people trying to help people andit used to be that positions in
media positions, you know, usedto have a lot more respect
because people are affected bythat ability to be a little bit
smarter, do a little bit better.
That's been the goal in Americafor hundreds of years trying to
(04:24):
move forward.
And what I think we're doinghere is we're battling each
other as if the world is a, youknow, winner-take-all event
instead of saying, in a growthmindset, we all win if we all
help each other.
And I think that thatfundamental difference has made
(04:44):
media to me a liability forpeople instead of something that
is going to help, and thereforeI look at it and say we got to
get back to helping people andthat's part of the reason we do
this podcast.
Think that having a voice outthere that says things that
(05:07):
aren't said other places, thattries to get people to move
their wellness IQ higher, that'simportant and the media isn't
doing it.
So I think that podcasters aretrying to step in the void and
provide regular sources of goodideas to try to make lives
better.
Do you agree, glenn?
Clement Miller (05:26):
I agree, in fact , what I would do.
I think it's important to lookat history.
It's always important to lookat history, and you know, for
many of us of a certain age, youknow, history began with like
three or four networks, right?
But if you look further back intime, before the existence of
(06:07):
television and radio, way longtime ago, back towards the
American Revolution, prior tothe Civil War, you had many,
many, many different newspapers.
Cities would have half a dozennewspapers no-transcript, and so
(06:35):
I I don't see anythingparticularly wrong with the fact
that we're moving into this eraof a multiplicity of of pod of
podcasters doing things.
I do think, however, thatthere's a problem in that people
(06:57):
who are less well-educated,people who don't know much about
civics, are not going to beable to distinguish opinion from
fact, and aren't going to beable to distinguish opinion from
fact and aren't going to beable to distinguish true facts
from so-called alternative facts, right, you're just not going
(07:20):
to be able to do that.
If it says social truth.
Steve Davenport (07:26):
by definition, it's going to be the truth,
hasn't it?
I don't know, Can you use aword like that?
Clement Miller (07:29):
and not use it properly.
No, going to be the truthhasn't it?
Steve Davenport (07:31):
I don't know.
Clement Miller (07:31):
You use a word like that and not use it
properly.
No, there's only one truth.
But even even with, um, evenwith any kind of news or
podcasts or whatever you know,just the information you leave
out is just as important as theinformation you leave.
You know you actually present.
So there's always going to besome slant or some opinion
(07:54):
embedded even in seeminglystraightforward news.
So the problem is not theproliferation of it's a good
thing to have a proliferation ofpodcast views.
It's a good thing, uh, but weneed to have a more educated
populace in order to be able tounderstand what's going on.
(08:17):
You know, one of the things, oneof the things I noticed is um,
you know, in various travelswithin the United States, is
that you know, if you go to arestaurant, like a sports bar or
restaurant or bar or whatever,or you know even like a haircut
place or whatever, you have thenews on right If you're on the
(08:39):
East Coast or the West Coast,it's more likely to be CNN.
If you go to the vast middle ofthe country, it's more likely
to be Fox, and so the fact thatyou've got this, you know these
particular networks, you knowbroadcasting in their particular
(09:00):
areas, reinforces opinions inthose areas, right, I mean.
Steve Davenport (09:05):
I look at this as cycles.
Everything is a cycle, it's asine wave, whether one is going
up and one is coming down, and Ibelieve we're in the down
strike right now.
For what is news and media?
I don't think the values arewonderful.
I look at Hearst and whatHearst did with his news empire,
(09:27):
and he basically was aboutsensationalism putting pictures
of burning buildings, puttingpictures of people on the ledge,
putting all of these thingsthat were thought to be
journalistically improper at thetime, and he pushed the
boundaries because he wasgetting more sales.
Surprise, surprise, moneymotivates behavior, and so my
(09:50):
problem with what you just saidis that you're saying hey,
individuals, you need to dobetter.
And what I would say is first,the people who have the licenses
, the people who are givengovernment power to run media,
they need to do better, becausewe can't get to I can consume If
(10:11):
I, if I teach people how toconsume better we still are
producing garbage.
Steve, are you saying?
Clement Miller (10:19):
are you saying?
Are you saying that podcastersshould have FCC licenses?
Steve Davenport (10:24):
No, I'm saying that we are here for educational
purposes, right.
And I thought, silly me, I'mjust being a little bit crazy
here.
I thought that the news mediawas there for educational
purposes, right.
I didn't think they were tryingto get million dollar contracts
by being on the morning show.
Clement Miller (10:45):
Well, the problem is is that the media is
now run by corporations bigcorporations and so they answer
to their shareholders and youknow if they're trying to get
big contracts, you know whathappens when Verizon wants to
have more phones in South Dakota.
Steve Davenport (11:06):
They need to get Spectrum.
They need to apply for Spectrum.
They get Spectrum.
They need to get spectrum, theyneed to apply for spectrum,
(11:35):
they get spectrum.
They open up an office and theysays, hey, why does Congress
not say anything about media?
Because they want media tocover them positively.
Boy, that seems like a conflict.
How?
Clement Miller (11:47):
do we get around that?
Steve Davenport (11:48):
conflict.
If we don't solve the problemof the information that's being
distilled, I don't know how goodwe can get at the people who
are distilling it.
It's a problem that needs to besolved from both directions.
It's not unidirectional.
They're producing goodinformation.
People aren't just finding thegood information.
(12:10):
That's not the problem in mymind.
Flunk, the problem is theproducers, and the producers
have been producing somethingthat is not good.
Therefore, shouldn't there besomebody who takes this to task?
Isn't there an ombudsman ingovernment that says hey, people
, this is.
(12:30):
I thought that was Doge.
I thought Doge was going toclean this whole stuff out.
Clement Miller (12:37):
Do you, do you really want Stephen Miller
controlling our, our media?
Steve Davenport (12:41):
No, I don't.
I want somebody though Clint, Iwant somebody I don't want
anybody.
Clement Miller (12:47):
I don't want anybody controlling the media.
Okay, I don't want anybodycontrolling the media.
Steve Davenport (12:50):
Okay, I want somebody helping the media to do
a better job of serving thelistener.
Our job is to service thelistener.
Listener doesn't want todownload.
He's not going to listen to us.
How do we make sure he does?
By providing information anddetails and education that makes
his life better.
Correct, If people aren't doingthat, I mean, do we need
(13:12):
another QVC?
Do we need another channel toconsume more Like?
If we look at obesityconsumption, the general
problems of civics in societyand how we treat people, are all
these networks additive to thequality of life of Americans?
Clement Miller (13:33):
You mean the corporate media?
Steve Davenport (13:36):
Yeah, I mean it just keeps growing right.
What do you have now?
A thousand channels.
I mean you can go on and getalmost anything right, and it's
Steve.
Clement Miller (13:47):
You know, I got to say I have given up
television.
Okay, the only time I turn upWell, first of all I can get I
mean I use but you're looking at, first of all I can get, I mean
I, I use but you're looking atmedia on your phone, so that's
not really true?
No, I have media on my phonebut I don't use.
I don't turn on the TV andwatch the you know, CBS ABC.
(14:10):
I don't watch any of those,because I think they're useless.
Correct but do you watch CNBCduring the day to see how the
market's going.
Sometimes I'll turn it on tosee what's going on with news in
the markets.
I do that right, but Icompletely ignore their more
sensationalist.
So you've given up.
(14:32):
I've given up with theconventional corporate media.
I used to like CNN a lot.
I don't like them so muchanymore.
Um, fox, I've never been, umyou know, attracted to their
propaganda.
Steve Davenport (14:50):
So, um, if we're trying to help people,
where should they go?
What should they do?
Um, do you have one source thatyou like to look at for
investment ideas and things?
Clement Miller (15:02):
So, when it comes to investment ideas, I'm a
premium subscriber to SeekingAlpha, which is an investment I
don't know what.
You would call it an investmentonline service.
Let's call it a service andthey you know they provide a lot
(15:25):
of data.
I use their data, but, at thesame time, they have a lot of
articles that are written bytheir subscribers, and these
articles are very, very usefulto understand what's going on
with markets and with particularcompanies.
So I mean, yeah, some are moreuseful than others, right, but
(16:00):
in general, they're quite usefulto and what's going on with
companies I'm already investingin.
So, yeah, that's, and thatsource is purposefully
nonpolitical.
Let me put it this way.
What they do is they say youknow, we have a, we have a
(16:20):
special channel within seekingalpha where you can debate
politics, and we're going tokeep politics out of our main,
out of our main channel so Ithink, it's good.
So seeking alpha is is is what Iuse.
I mean, I know this sounds likean advertisement for them.
Believe me, it's not anadvertisement for them, because
there are some.
Steve Davenport (16:41):
We don't take any advertising dollars.
We don't have advertisers.
Clement Miller (16:48):
There are weaknesses to it as well, but I
think I'd say my primary isBloomberg.
Steve Davenport (16:53):
I think Bloomberg does a good job of
taking an international approach.
I think they have their biases,they have their opinion, people
who are one side or another,but I think they are very clear
that that person is this is hisown opinion.
It's not the opinion ofBloomberg.
Clement Miller (17:08):
Bloomberg is very good.
Bloomberg is very good.
I'm a subscriber also to WallStreet Journal.
I think the Wall Street Journalis excellent in terms of
providing commentary or factsand news.
Sometimes I disagree with theiropinion page.
Steve Davenport (17:25):
Yeah, I mean you mentioned another group that
you look through for legalquestions and legal issues.
What's that?
Clement Miller (17:32):
Okay.
So you know this is more on thelegal side and and and I know
some of you know this are goingto think, oh, clem's just a
raging liberal when, because hewatches this, but I think it's.
I know of no other place to getopinion about legal issues.
(17:53):
You know sort of some of thethings that came out of the, the
does regulation and so on, uh,and the courts, and that's uh,
that's Midas, uh, m E, I, d A S,uh, just be aware, when you,
when you uh look at that, thatthey do come at it from a
distinct, uh, liberal,anti-trump, uh perspective.
(18:13):
You can view them as, like theanti-Fox.
You know CNN is no longer theanti-fox, midas is the anti-fox,
and they're actually one of thebiggest online presences around
in terms of providing mostlylegal news, and so you know, I
(18:37):
found it, you know, a veryfascinating place to understand
what's going on with all ofthese legal cases.
Steve Davenport (18:44):
Yeah, I mean, I think there's pockets of good
information out there.
I think there are pockets of ofreal value that people can find
, and that's what I think weneed to probably do a little bit
more of is sharing links andsharing ideas about where people
could find good information.
I would love to say that we'reyou know, I don't want to give
(19:08):
up and turn off the TV and saywe're just going to ignore this
piece of media and say it's notrelevant, because, guess what?
There's still millions andmillions of people watching.
So if we make it less relevantand we just let it exist in a
state that's of disrepair, thenI don't think as a country we're
(19:30):
going to be well served.
So I think there needs to be amedia act that says, first of
all, I'm starting to worry abouthow much of the media itself
could be influenced byAI-generated images and
AI-generated stories.
It feels like that's the nextlevel.
And how do we make sure thatit's true?
(19:53):
How do we make sure it's real?
How do we make sure?
Clement Miller (19:57):
I hope, just like they require a secondary
source, they also do a secondarysource for some of the images
and I and videos right, but II'd hate to even ask how this is
done currently yeah, you're,you're on to something and I
know that we want to wrap upthis segment pretty soon.
(20:18):
But you know, don't believe,don't believe the things that
you see, uh, on posts.
You know, like these memes, youcan tell what a meme is right
away.
Right, don't believe thesethings.
They're like short snippets,they're misleading or they're
just factually inaccurate.
(20:38):
They're meant to createemotional reactions.
People react to them and itspreads like wildfire, virally
in their networks.
Steve Davenport (20:47):
Yeah, I mean, I haven't mentioned TikTok and
these things as news.
Clement Miller (20:51):
TikTok's the same thing.
I think it's entertainment, Idon't think it's news.
At one point TikTok wasinfiltrated by Hamas supporters
and Hamas was creating all sortsof content for that spread like
Wildfire and TikTok, andprobably was responsible for
(21:12):
generating some of the campusunrest and other things in part.
Steve Davenport (21:18):
I don't want to talk about the bad.
I'm trying to talk about themain pieces that we can do
something about.
Clement Miller (21:29):
I think you know we can list five or six places
that we know are just cesspools.
Also, there's a I mean, TikTokis not investment connected in
particular, except in one area,and that's with regard to crypto
.
And if you're going to get yourinformation about investments
off of TikTok and focus oncrypto, then you need an
(21:52):
education then about what reallyan investment is, Because
crypto is not investing.
Steve Davenport (21:59):
Right.
I think that this is a goodpoint to probably say goodbye.
I think that what we're tryingto do for people is, as the
media starts to get louder andthe talk starts to get more
involved, try to do a fewminutes of just verifying your
sources and verifying thechannels that you're watching,
(22:21):
and watch less of the channelsthat you think are inaccurate
and read more of the areas thatyou think are giving you good
information, and we're going totry to share that on our podcast
today and we'll provide somelinks and we really appreciate
you listening and we reallyappreciate you listening and we
really appreciate your support.
So, for the Skeptic's Guide,I'm Steve Davenport and my
(22:46):
partner, clem Miller here andwe're going to say have a great
day and we look forward totalking to you next about Canada
.
Thanks, Steve.
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