I love listening to public radio.  Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, Marketplace, BBC World Service, City Arts and Lectures, The California Report — they’re all great shows.  I learn an awful lot.  But…

There’s only so much airtime.  There are times when I crave  the rest of the story.  More than the sensational headlines.  More than the sound bites from the big names.  And the other side of the story.   The side that would be mortified (as I would) if Obama really did prefer “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” over the “Star Spangled Banner.”

And I really get riled when the public radio stations decide not  to pre-empt their regular programming to air a speech by President Bush.   “Somewhere in Texas, a Village is Missing Its Idiot” might be their point of view, but the man is our President, and I, for one, want to hear what he has to say!

Listening to Fox or CBS doesn’t help.  Their stories are even shorter.  Listening to talk shows drives me up the wall.  I guess they have to be provocative to get people to call in.  Buying a newspaper or magazine is okay once in a while, but a subscription gives me dead tree guilt, and yet another pile of clutter to deal with.

But the new age of the Internet has arrived.  Search engines are great for ferreting out the details.  But the best bit is the blogging.   In the blogs, I can find folks like me, who are looking at the story from the other side.   Folks who have the facts, have a different world view than the press, and are sharing it with the rest of us.

I just found such a blog,  Blackfive.   The tenets of his blog:

Supporting the Military
Caring for the Wounded
Remembering the Fallen
Honoring the Sacrifices

Blackfive’s now on my blogroll and now on my reader at My Yahoo!  You might be interested in reading what he has to say about the military waivers that have been getting the press lately.   And if you want to watch his blog, my blog, and other blogs and news feeds on a regular basis — establishing your own little computer newspaper — check out the RSS feed video in my new Learn More section (right margin).   You, too, can start using blogs for balance.