You need to budget at least $200 USD per month for substack subscriptions. After that, you will need to budget about 10-20h per month to parsing their output and deciding which of the approved media outlets they would be allowed to write for if they weren't making more money with their own audiences. This will help you think critically about what they're trying to have you believe. For those who would not be welcome at even the most heterodox mainstream publications, you will need to spend a bit of time deciding how it is they can afford to be writing for a living. You will need to track down their incomes until you are satisfied that their shadowy patrons are either dark money influence campaigns and/or CIA-NGO grants. Use this information to triangulate the various positions you are presented with. The truth is somewhere in the nexus of lies.