Suggest a good news site

[The Grim Ghost]

I need some new places to get my news from online.

I've been using the Drudgereport for years, mainly due to it being the most famous. It's always been a right wing site, which didn't bother me too much since I can easily read between the lines.. but lately I've just gotten sick of it.

Could somebody please suggest some good non-biased places (or as close to that as it is possible to get anyway) to get my daily news fix? I'm not looking for a left wing version of the drudgereport either.

I just want facts, not something slanted towards one side or the other and I especially don't want commentators disguising themselves as unbiased reporters.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[thestrangequark]

I think the best way to deal with the slant and spin is to be aware that most every news source is going to have it to a degree, and to try to achieve a balance by getting your news from multiple sources.

The Newshour with Jim Lehrer is pretty straightforward and unbiased -- it's news, not entertainment -- and the website is good for headlines. I don't think BBC news is too biased, though some would argue, and their site is well-designed and thorough.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

Yeah, I realize it is impossible to completely escape biased reporting. I guess I should say that I'm at least looking for something less biased than Drudge.


Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Small White Car]

http://www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.nytimes.com

Anyone who says they're biased doesn't understand the difference between news and editorials. Stick to the news stories and you'll be fine.

 

[TheLonelySquire]

I need some new places to get my news from online.

I've been using the Drudgereport for years, mainly due to it being the most famous. It's always been a right wing site, which didn't bother me too much since I can easily read between the lines.. but lately I've just gotten sick of it.

Could somebody please suggest some good non-biased places (or as close to that as it is possible to get anyway) to get my daily news fix? I'm not looking for a left wing version of the drudgereport either.

I just want facts, not something slanted towards one side or the other and I especially don't want commentators disguising themselves as unbiased reporters.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Foxnews.com. Fair and balanced.

 

[Mr. B]

Drudge is the go-to source for me. Aside from some of the human interest fluff he posts, a good portion of what is there interests me and during the day it's on top of the latest happenings. It's a site journalists use for a reason.

For the remainder of my hard news consumption I have a handful of RSS feeds on my google homepage, mostly wire services... Reuters: Top News, US, Politics, International News, AP Top Headlines, Google News Top Stories, Breitbart Wires (channel BNews) and the National Hurricane Center (Atlantic).

I also follow a bunch of blogs. Aside from all the tech related ones, I'm subscribed to feeds like Politico (top stories and top 10 blogs), the Economist, Sweetness and Light and Google Hot Trends.

I just want facts, not something slanted towards one side or the other and I especially don't want commentators disguising themselves as unbiased reporters.

Sorry, that has never existed.

 

[Gepard]

Foxnews.com. Fair and balanced.

Oh, sorry. You were serious.

 

[chrisspringob]

http://news.google.com/

News from every source out there on one website.

 

[Australis]

I was going to suggest News Hour as well. We get it in Australia and it's pretty good. The 'fair and balanced' that Fox aspires to but never even vaguely reaches. CNN seems pretty useful, though I'm not fond of the site design.

I'd also suggest outside US sites for a variety of diet - BBC and Australian ABC (which is my home page) are the main ones I use.

Here's another one:

http://www.sbs.com.au/

This is the home page for SBS, a TV station in Australia that specialises in broadcasting foreign programmes, including news, from all over the world. SBS2 is just news, Turkish, Greek, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, too many to list. They therefore have a huge range of stories and footage to access, which appear on the website. Certainly interesting to get a perspective from the other side

 

[Mr. B]

I'd also suggest outside US sites for a variety of diet - BBC and Australian ABC (which is my home page) are the main ones I use.

Good suggestions. Geographic detachment is a decent substitute for pure objectivity.

 

[thestrangequark]

http://www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.nytimes.com

Anyone who says they're biased doesn't understand the difference between news and editorials. Stick to the news stories and you'll be fine.

Well, to be fair, news organizations can show bias by what they choose to cover, not just by how they cover it. I think you're right that a lot of people confuse news and commentary -- those who chose to call the Fox "News" Channel "news" are forefront in my mind -- but even a source with the most straightforward and clean reporting could still present as very biased should they choose to report on some stories and exclude others.

Not that I'm accusing either of those papers of doing this, I think they are both, in general, very creditable.

I write this as I watch one of my favorite news/commentary programs, Countdown with Keith Olberman. This show is very clearly liberally biased, but that's the important distinction between this and the BS on Fox -- Olberman isn't trying to pass himself off as unbiased, he couldn't be more obviously liberal. I echo what's been said before about Fox "News," there's nothing wrong with the right-wing commentary, it's the attempt to pass it off as news that is appalling.

 

[Shatmandu]

My Way News

No drama, no slant, no bullshit blinky lights trying to sell you a razor or some shit horror movie (Hi, trekbbs.com!).

It's just the news.

Joe, easy reader

 

[Australis]

Countdown with Keith Olberman. This show is very clearly liberally biased, but that's the important distinction between this and the BS on Fox -- Olberman isn't trying to pass himself off as unbiased, he couldn't be more obviously liberal.

Agreed. Olbermann is biased, but at least he's interesting and a bit tongue in cheek. Fox is so po-faced serious in its way of presenting 'facts' that it just comes across as dumb. Or worse, treating their viewers as dumb.

 

[chrisspringob]

I just want facts, not something slanted towards one side or the other and I especially don't want commentators disguising themselves as unbiased reporters.

Sorry, that has never existed.

Well, it depends on how much analysis you want. The AP is a pretty good news source for just giving you simple, straightforward descriptions of what's going on, with minimal attempt (at least, compared to other news outlets) to put things in any kind of a broader context or offer analysis. The New York Times, on the other hand, includes a lot of analysis in their news stories, which of course opens them up to more accusations of bias.

If all you want is a straighforward description of what's happening, then the AP is better, but if you never read any pieces from any news outlet that try to put the news in context, then you'll end up missing half the story.

 

[Finnegan]

Rawstory.com is an excellent site.

Huffingtonpost.com always has a good selection of articles,
(and there are plenty of left-leaning columnists for opinion, too).

Whatreallyhappened.com is another favorite of mine.

Antiwar.com is an excellent source, also--don't be misled
by it's name--their reporting and linking to important stories
is top-notch.

Crooksandliars.com has all the U.S. political news you'll ever need, and always has links to lots of videos/interviews.

 

[Kelso]

I stick with theonion.com

It's the only one that makes any sense.

 

[Rii]

World News?

Spiegel
BBC
Al Jazeera

 

[What's his face]

I get my news from the following sites:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news
http://www.cbc.ca/news
http://www.globeandmail.com
http://www.nationalpost.com
http://www.thestar.ca
http://www.cnn.com

A variety of sources gets you a clearer picture of what's going on. The contrast between the pro-Conservative National Post and the pro-Liberal Toronto Star is particularly interesting.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

Fox news is a cesspool of pathological liars. Anyone who watches them does so only to reinforce their distorted sense of reality. Anyone repeating their dishonest BS is also a liar in the worst sense, knowing what they preach is false and doing it anyway.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I'll give them all a test run.

I think in the end I'll probably just have to go back and forth between left/right sites and try and sort it all out myself.

I was sort of naively hoping I could find a "just the facts" type of place and maybe one of your suggestions will be what I want. I haven't had time to start looking at all of them yet.

I want news given to me as if it was written by Data, but without him going on for an hour about it.