Where do you get your news? (2 Viewers)

rowlin

rowlin

Full House
Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Messages
2,962
Reaction score
3,317
Location
USA
I am wondering which news sites people like best. It seems like the free sites for a lot of the big names in media are total garbage. Are there any pay-walled sources worth the cost of subscription? I probably cannot subscribe to every site I would like, so am interested to hear which ones you all recommend.

In the past I have read some of the big names like the N.Y. Times, Washington Post, Economist, Wall Street Journal, L.A. Times, Financial Times etc. when I have followed current events, but I don't really know which subset of those are best - or even worthwhile - and would imagine there are other good sources that I have no idea exist.

I would appreciate any suggestions, preferences, or funny jokes that you may have to offer. Thanks!
 
Even though they can sometimes trend into regressive left territory and Cenk Uygur can be quite full of himself, The Young Turks is where I get most of my national news from. I will troll through Gawker and the other Kinja sites for interesting stuff to follow up and do more research on also.

I can't remember the last time I watched local news coverage.
 
tommythecat said:
Even though they can sometimes trend into regressive left territory and Cenk Uygur can be quite full of himself, The Young Turks is where I get most of my national news from. I will troll through Gawker and the other Kinja sites for interesting stuff to follow up and do more research on also.

I can't remember the last time I watched local news coverage.
Click to expand...

My wife likes it. Otherwise I wouldn't watch it. If she isn't down stairs in the morning I usually stream something.
 
I'm a news junky. The wider the net, the better though you need to know who the crazy folks are well enough that you don't take unreasonable things at face value.

I try to find "uncomfortable" sources, things that make me think or challenge my assumptions. One that I find uncomfortable - http://www.juancole.com/

Nate Silver's site has some interesting things too, http://fivethirtyeight.com/

I make sure to watch or listen or read to a little of both political outlets plus the major news wire services.
 
DrStrange said:
I try to find "uncomfortable" sources, things that make me think or challenge my assumptions.
Click to expand...
Love that. Good on you, mate! Hopefully we're all open to things that make us think, which brings me to the crazy truth...

I get more insightful thought and references to seemingly credible information from the folks on this site than I do in most other places. For all the bat-shit-crazy-and-comical there is in the Off-topic sub, there's lots of relevant, poignant discussion - even if it does get heated or pointed sometimes. You learn to see through the bullshit and find the golden nuggets, though, and there's a lot of them. I don't frequently comment in there, but I do follow the discussions, and they at least make me think.

As for traditional news sources...well, the Google News page does a reasonably good job of pulling in decent stuff across many sites for me. I've given up on trying to find a single news source that is highly informative, relevant, minimizes sensationalism, maintains high levels of journalistic integrity, and generally lacking in political or ulterior motivations.
 
The state of the "news" is depressing. It's really not news. It's paid advertising with an agenda. I wish folks would take off the blinkers and wake the F up.

The next time you hear a story, pause for a second and ask yourself two questions, 1) where does the money flow & 2) who stands to benefit. You'll suddenly see the story in a whole different light.

Its amazing how a few key words in a headline can make the story mean something completely different.

To answer your question, NPR, BBC and Zero Hedge.

 
mummel said:
The state of the "news" is depressing. It's really not news. It's paid advertising with an agenda. I wish folks would take off the blinkers and wake the F up.

The next time you hear a story, pause for a second and ask yourself two questions, 1) where does the money flow & 2) who stands to benefit. You'll suddenly see the story in a whole different light.

Its amazing how a few key words in a headline can make the story mean something completely different.

To answer your question, NPR, BBC and Zero Hedge.

Click to expand...

mummel said:
What a joke.

Click to expand...

mummel said:
"hit it again".

Click to expand...

I don't think you're going to get a lot of argument that the news isn't optimized for distribution of pure truth, but this is a thread about where you get your news, not about how news is awful.

At the very least you could keep the clutter to one post rather than spreading it across three posted in a 20 minute window.
 
Agreed with @DrStrange that it's helpful and interesting to find people who present an alternative view. It's not really hard since the wildest sites, in addition to being representative of a portion of the spectrum, are just flat out entertaining.

My daily clicks at the moment:

Center: NY Times, Washington Post, Politico
Left: Huffington Post, Gawker, Jezebel, Slate
Right: Red State, Drudge Report, The Resurgent

News/analysis podcasts (mostly weekly):

Slate Political Gabfest
Real Time with Bill Maher (comedy to an extent, but is full of topical commentary and debate)
Meet the Press
On the Media
PBS Newshour

I also tend to get a lot of news from Twitter. My feed is filled with journalists from the above outlets as well as lots of political operatives from the left and the right, so I watch those conversations as well.
 
My list is similar to jbutler's, although everyone he has as center, I called "left",
( I agree with his overall distribution).

Two unmentioned sites I like are
instapundit.com and
hot-air.com,

both are aggregator sites (links to other sites) and both are left of Drudge but right of center.
 
We subscribe to NYT, WashPost, and WSJ for my wife's work. When she retires at the end of this month, we'll probably drop WSJ. Can't see not having the other two.

She's also a member of the National Press Club, which offers a lot of resources, and which we will maintain.

We also read frequently BBC, CNN, London Times, Toronto Star, and, formerly, Al Jazeera America. Politico and Slate are good online.

Some of our friends are editors and writers for AP and CQ, so we receive links to most of their works as they're distributed.

Since Jon Stewart retired, we're even more addicted to Rachel Maddow for fact-based entertainment. Remember, facts have an inherent liberal bias...
 
pltrgyst said:
We subscribe to NYT, WashPost, and WSJ for my wife's work. When she retires at the end of this month, we'll probably drop WSJ. Can't see not having the other two.

She's also a member of the National Press Club, which offers a lot of resources, and which we will maintain.

We also read frequently BBC, CNN, London Times, Toronto Star, and, formerly, Al Jazeera America. Politico and Slate are good online.

Some of our friends are editors and writers for AP and CQ, so we receive links to most of their works as they're distributed.

Since Jon Stewart retired, we're even more addicted to Rachel Maddow for fact-based entertainment. Remember, facts have an inherent liberal bias...
Click to expand...

Urrghh, News Corp owns the WSJ.
 
DrStrange said:
I'm a news junky. The wider the net, the better though you need to know who the crazy folks are well enough that you don't take unreasonable things at face value.

I try to find "uncomfortable" sources, things that make me think or challenge my assumptions. One that I find uncomfortable - http://www.juancole.com/

Nate Silver's site has some interesting things too, http://fivethirtyeight.com/

I make sure to watch or listen or read to a little of both political outlets plus the major news wire services.
Click to expand...
Hadn't read Juan Cole, just checked it out. What I read wouldn't seem to challenge your assumptions as I can gather them from your posts. Seems to be in line with core liberal/progressive writing. In what way does the site challenge your assumptions?
 
Juan Cole's site is pro Palestinian, pro Islamic, with content from Middle Eastern sources. I read him mainly for that perspective, not his take on domestic politics. I rarely find any other sources from that angle. I do not agree with much of it, but it is interesting and informative because a lot of people in that part of the world do think that way.

Given how many lives have been lost, money spent and political capital squandered over Middle Eastern issues the last 40 years and the emergence of radical Islam, it is a shame that we don't give a little more attention to the full spectrum of information and opinion.
 
I just wait for @jbutler to tell me what I need to know. :LOL: :laugh:

The Wall Street Journal is the only thing I can honestly claim to read regularly. Otherwise I make the circuit once or twice a day, a two minute scan of the major network news sources. When there's breaking national news I tend to turn to the UK news sources: BBC, The Guardian, Daily Mail, etc. They usually have more comprehensive updates and "what we know so far" type information than you'll find with the US networks. Meanwhile CNN is busy trying to find a gay rights angle and Fox News is trying to figure out how it's Obama's fault. When I'm in the car I've almost always got some talk station on, whether it's NPR or the local news station.

The local newspaper is a shadow of its former self. They don't even deliver daily, instead trying to drive people to their website which is more or less maintained by college interns. I don't think they even have reporters anymore. It's rife with typographical errors, click bait stories that literally tell you nothing you couldn't get in the headline, e.g. "Headline: Man shot on east side. Story: Check back for updates." Living where we do we can get the local county daily paper. It's not great and definitely has the small town feel to it but they do a great job elevating the local kids to sports star status. A little league championship will get two pages of coverage, complete with box scores, photos, and player interviews. Meanwhile the MLB results are listed in a box on page 3.
 
mummel said:
The state of the "news" is depressing. It's really not news. It's paid advertising with an agenda. I wish folks would take off the blinkers and wake the F up.

The next time you hear a story, pause for a second and ask yourself two questions, 1) where does the money flow & 2) who stands to benefit. You'll suddenly see the story in a whole different light.

Its amazing how a few key words in a headline can make the story mean something completely different.
Click to expand...
The video isn't an example of the news being scripted, it's all scripted so they can read it off the teleprompters, it's actually an example that the news they regurgitate is bought and paid for instead of discovered. A lot of the news you watch and read on the networks is picked from Reuters so there will often be identical stories in different news organizations. In print it's easy to identify since they add a credit line. In video it's funny to watch, but I wouldn't say that the repetition is evidence of an agenda. Not that they dont have an agenda, they all do, left right or middle, it's just that the video shows evidence of syndicated articles, not conspiracy.
 
The opinion page in the WSJ is garbage, but otherwise it is a reliable source imo.
 
Yes, the WSJ editorial pages can be pretty astonishing. There have been times that the reporting on economic reports on news pages were directly refuted by the op. ed. writers at the back of the first section. I wondered how you could work at the highest circulation business publication in the world and get basic facts printed in your own paper so totally wrong when writing the editorials.
 
They started putting ops on the front page about 6 months after the News Corp buyout. They made it look like the "latest headlines". I stopped reading the journal around that time.
 
Thanks for all the good suggestions! Please keep them coming. Likes all around.

One of my guilty pleasures is watching long-form interviews like the Charlie Rose show. I don't have much experience with the blogosphere or podcasts.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account and join our community. It's easy!

Register

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Similar threads

MrCatPants
I beg you, how doth one poker?
2
Replies
34
Views
1K
WedgeRock
WedgeRock
LZM
What would you do?
Replies
12
Views
689
LZM
LZM
C
Where to play?
Replies
11
Views
467
carpenter
C
L
Which would you rather, Milano or 12 Stripe?
Replies
10
Views
462
Nanook
Nanook
K
What do you look for from a website when trying to play online poker?
Replies
0
Views
203
Kolly1
K
Back
Top Bottom