Playing a little catch up on the blogs this week, after this they will be updated once a week as planned.
When I get news, I will either go online (almost always CNN.com) or I'll turn on MSNBC on the television. I have found that if I take the time to read up on a story in the newspaper, I get too aggravated if I sense too much of a liberal or conservative twist on the story from the writer's perspective. If I only read the headlines before it gets too in depth, I'm more likely to form my own opinions about the story before it gets too watered down or too twisted.
I usually only get the news when it's an out of the ordinary story. My top 3 I can think of in recent memory, in no particular order, are Hurricane Katrina, the Virginia Tech shooting, and Steve Irwin being killed by a stingray. I'll glance at CNN once or twice a week, but I don't turn the news on and leave it on. I'll probably get into it around July of next year when the presidential race is finally narrowing down into two candidates. I am sure the reason I avoid the news so much is because both of my parents can sit around the television for hours just watching the news, and by the time they're done, I don't get to hear their views on anything, just their news anchor's opinions instead. So, I usually try to avoid the news, but I will check it out occasionally.
As far as news media towards different races, genders, sexualities, and disabilities goes, I think it varies. It's amazing that whole groups of people could be left out, like Native Americans. We only live an hour from Oklahoma, home to several Native American tribes and nations, but the only thing most of us know about those tribes is what casinos they own. One problem that contributes to the polarization between white America and the Hispanic, Latino, Mexican, and South American communities is that the media fails to differentiate between the different groups. There is usually an umbrella term, which seems to switch between Hispanic and Latino depending on what a style book decides is correct that year. Even if I don't tune in that much, I tune in enough to see that there's a problem.