I was watching the show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” the other night, and was struck by his call to action.

The show is part satire and part news commentary, but tends to delve into the heart of hard news issues that mainstream news sites often ignore. On this particular evening, just a few nights after the election, Oliver did not call for protest, he did not call for vengeance against Donald Trump supporters, he did not call for you to put your chin up and carry on, but rather made a plea to the American people to be better informed.

More than 40 percent of American adults get news on Facebook, according to a report by the Pew Research Center and the Knight Foundation. When people view their news on social media they tend to only see sites and posts that they like or agree with, which is a not a fair and balanced view of the world. There are liberal and conservative websites that are both guilty of spreading outright lies on social media. Biased posts streaming on a website cannot be the main resource that we use to make decisions.

So I am asking you to diversify the news you consume. Go ahead and watch Fox News and CNN, but also check out entities like ProPublica, which is an independent non-profit news source that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Get a subscription to your local paper. For just 75 cents you can support journalism at the local level.

As a free and independent news source, we rely on you for feedback. If you don’t agree that a story is fair or balanced, please contact us and help us grow. Don’t be silent and don’t be apathetic. Join us in the fight to tell the stories that need to be heard.

Call 376-4500 right now and get a subscription.

Do your part.

Buy a subscription now and $5 will go toward support for Standing Rock.