what i meant was everything you see (and dont see) is there to shift your beliefs, as you noted... i like your idea of trying to stay rooted in facts and i agree this is a good strategy. however, the sheer number of sources competing for mind share nowadays is astonishing and i think facts are very hard to come by. so i try to err on the side of disbelief no matter the source (unless i see the same facts from multiple non-connected sources). again, non-connected source is a very difficult thing to determine too. often, its a case of follow the money, or follow the power, or just look at whos suffering and who isnt, while ignoring all the other messages.
I cannot possibly explain in a full how I deal with it, but I can give you advice.
Pick a few sources and stick with them. Pick carefully, they must be a professional media. They must separate opinions and facts. They must avoid emotional arguments and judgements. They must check facts and communicate the quality of their checks if they are not completely sure.
If you watch them over a prolonged period of time, you'll learn their biases. You'll learn their tricks and systematic failures. In some cases you can even learn biases of individual reporters. When you know biases you can correct them, either by thought alone or by a few google queries.
