Israel: How to find out useful information

There are a few problems with what is now called legacy media, which is why I don’t rely on it. Some problems are inherent, while others are a function of who works at each of the outlets – usually leftists, with the exception Fox News, Arutz Sheva (israelnationalnews.com) and Channel 14 in Israel.

Inherent problem #1 – The reporter is the most ignorant person in the room. A reporter finds out about a story, with which they have no former connection. They then run to it and try to find out, from scratch, what is going on, and then relay whatever they just learned to the audience. If you’ve ever read or seen a story with which you were familiar, you’ll notice that there’s always something glaringly incorrect.

Inherent problem #2 – In headline-based news, the turnaround time is too short. The reporter has to turn in whatever they know, usually within minutes. As mentioned, this is usually a subject they know nothing about. Therefore, the stories are often too lacking in facts and details to be useful. A headline says, “Shooting at Mall” and there will be no information, or incorrect information, in the story about who was shot, by whom and why. Sometimes, it’s even missing which mall. Everything I could know from the article was in the headline.

Bias problem #1 – The headline is often incorrect and often in conflict with the story. One story I recall in the Times of Israel, said that one Arab had been shot in protests by Jews. In the article, it turns out the Arab was killed a mile away and no one knows by whom.

Bias problem #2 – Emotional words are used as filler to bypass the fact that the article is missing facts. My pet peeve at the moment is, “without evidence”, as in “Trump claimed, without evidence, that…” Did you look it up? Often a simple Google search can tell you if a claim is right or wrong.

Bias problem #3 – Most articles are “He said, she said”. “Israel says this, but Hamas says the opposite.” Take this article: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/28/middleeast/israel-military-strikes-gaza-latam-intl

“The Israeli military also released a drone video on Tuesday that it said shows Hamas operatives burying a white cloth containing a body in Gaza City and then staging its discovery in front of the Red Cross.” It sounds like Israel made a claim that can’t be verified! EXCEPT, in the same article they describe what’s in the video which PROVES that’s what happened. So why say, “it said” referring to Israel? Remove those two words and you have a useful sentence that tells me something.

Bias problem #4 – They outright lie. There are too many examples of this to count. Honestreporting.com documents some of them.

I probably missed some problems, but please forgive the omission.

Where should you get information?

• Long form podcasts which either have a host who is a subject matter expert, or have a knowledgeable interviewee interviewed by a host who is good at letting that person speak and asking the questions you want the answers to.
• “Channels” dedicated to topics you’re interested in. A channel is the term for groups on Telegram or WhatsApp where the moderator posts regularly and comments are usually only available via a link. Telegram is much better for this because it is less likely to get blocked and they seem to have an unlimited number of recipients in a group, unlike WhatsApp. It also keeps my WhatsApp chats separate from my news, which I prefer.
• Researching. Often, the facts of a topic may be scattered through years of articles from legacy media, or from other websites. Grok and ChatGPT AIs can help a lot with this, as long as you follow up on the sources they bring.

The first two rely much on word-of-mouth to know whom to listen to, which is why I’m providing a list of recommended sources. The third can take a great deal of time, but I can’t help with that.

None of the sources listed below directly reflect my views. Many times they interview horrible people, like Piers Morgan. Sometimes, they speak on areas outside their expertise, so I ignore those statements, but they contain a lot of facts. Given the facts, I can form my own opinions.

Long-form podcasts. Almost all are available on Youtube. 

• Triggernometry – https://www.youtube.com/@triggerpod
  • Hit and miss with who they interview, but they do a good job interviewing
  • One of the more important ones: “It’s Not Genocide – It’s What Hamas Want!” – Combat Veteran Nick Freitas
• Israel Update with Gadi Taub and Mike Doran – https://www.youtube.com/@IsraelUpdate-
  • Indispensable for learning about what’s going on inside Israel
  • Gadi is Israeli and a former leftist turned center-right. Mike is a US intelligence analyst
• Haviv Rettig Gur
  • “Ask Haviv Anything” is his podcast : https://www.youtube.com/@AskHavivAnything
  • Journalist for Times of Israel, et. al.
  • He is great on history, both Arab and Israeli. He leans left and I don’t buy many of his conclusions. I think he has been shown to have been completely wrong about “hunger in Gaza”
  • There are other lectures of his on Youtube worth watching explaining how Israel became what it is
• JNS’s Our Middle East – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsksduy16U5LdRbWe8glxKabHdGAdU7dB
  • Israeli Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh cohosts
  • Other shows on JNS can also be good.

• BONUS: Viva Barnes Law https://rumble.com/user/vivafrei
  • Great for what is going on in the US legal system. Two lawyers discussing current cases.
  • Horrible for Israel and international relations. David Freiheit (Viva Frei) is one of the most Jewishly-ignorant Jews you can find

Telegram Channels in English

• Abu Ali Express
  • It’s a play on Ali Express (like Temu and very popular in Israel) and “Abu Ali” (lit. “father of Ali” local slang for “tough guy”)
  • A former Israeli intelligence person who translates and summarizes Arab social media along with a bit of other news in Hebrew and English.
  • Best for up-to-the-minute reporting
  • https://abualiexpress.com/en/home/ is the website, but I recommend the Telegram channel
• Israel Realtime – https://israelrealtime.com/
  • Good for finding out about stories you may not have heard of
  • Bad side is that it does not list sources, it often has typos and other errors, sometimes correcting that stories were mistaken