I no longer fall for it when somebody says it’s impossible to find news that’s fair.

Now that I think about it, I never fell for it. But I used to let it go.

I no longer let it go.

You can find news that’s fair. 

And you need to.

You’ll find it in the news section of a newspaper or on a news broadcast of any network channel and some streaming channels.

And you’ll be better off for finding it. For finding just a straight up news broadcast or newspaper with straight up news.

Because you’ll know what’s happening in the world, in the nation or in your community, depending on the scope of your media.

And then, if you want some color, some righteous indignation, some reinforcement of your own opinions, you can read the opinion sections or watch the cable pundits or the late-night comedians or scroll Facebook according to your tastes. As long as you note the difference.

There is news and there are views, and they might be just a page apart, but the way you read them should be miles different. And for those of us interested in more than what’s reported, there’s another option. One that opens a whole new world. 

Now that we all have the Internet and now that Google can find out anything we want to know and YouTube can show us anything we want to see, we can get our news unfiltered. Straight from the source.

City council meetings. Presidential speeches. Awards ceremonies. U.N. talks. Rallies. Press conferences.

We can watch them ourselves and see if what’s reported matches our own experience.

It’s one of the amazing positives of the time we live in and one we can take advantage of when we want to make sure we are getting things straight.

You can’t watch everything, even on delay. That’s why the news industry is so incredibly valuable to us.

But only so much fits in a headline. And only so much even fits in an article and yes, it’s what the writer deems most important.

I can say that because I used to write headlines and I used to write articles and I just simply couldn’t include everything in every story. When you watch the actual event, you have the added benefit of observing the body language and hearing the words first-hand, and judging what’s important for yourself.

After reading the headline, “President says it’s not like March 2020,” about President Biden’s efforts to thwart the newest strain of coronavirus, I knew I wanted to know more than what it intimated, and even more than what was included in the article that followed.

A quick search on YouTube took me to the 22-minute speech, where I could hear the pleading in Pres. Biden’s voice one minute and the anger another, and feel the passion in his conclusion:

“I want to sincerely thank you for your perseverance, your courage, your countless acts of kindness, love and sacrifice during these last two years,” he said. “Throughout our history we’ve been tested as a people and as a nation. Through war and turmoil, when asked whether we’d be safe, whether it would be OK, whether we’d get back to who we are, we’ve always endured because remember there’s no challenge too big for America. I mean this -- from the bottom of my heart – no challenge. We’ve come through better and stronger because we stay together as the United States of America. That’s what we have to keep doing today. We can do this together, I guarantee you.”

Maybe the place you get your news didn’t include that. Maybe there wasn’t room for it with all the other important information and the follow-up reactions. But I loved hearing his encouragement and learned from all else he said and, especially, how he said it.

We can get news that’s straight.

We can even get news straight from the source.

We can read it, watch it, relive it.

And we should.