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I hate fitting the stereotype of an uninformed American, but I don't have a lot of time to invest on keeping up with national/world events. I'm looking for two or three websites that offer the most important (however you define that, but for me it doesn't include Paris Hilton) stories in an unbiased form (Or offer two sites with opposing biases). What do you suggest?
Posts: 368 | Registered: Dec 2005
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Hatrack does a fairly decent job of keeping me up to date.
Other than that, I use Google News, which pulls from other sites for their front page. Plus, you can customize the sections to make the larger or smaller depending on your tastes.
Posts: 349 | Registered: Oct 2007
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Google, BBC headline news button at the top of my browser, Hatrack. That was in reversed order.
Posts: 2705 | Registered: Sep 2006
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Hatrack is the least biased site I've found, although it does have some it has an equal balance on each side in my opinion.
Sometimes I'll scan the headlines on Digg, but it seems to be having less and less important stuff, and it is extremely biased.
Posts: 2489 | Registered: Jan 2002
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NPR, BBC, CNN for general world news and some national. I hit English Al-Jazeera for their take on Middle East developments. Treehugger.com gives me the bulk of my Green news. CSPAN.com gives me a lot of my political news. Hatrack has a lot of misc. news.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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BBC NPR Christian Science Monitor ArmsControlWonk Slate Salon New Scientist Nature Scientific American Aisa Sentinel The Economist Foreign Affairs Wired Space.com
Others, like CNN, the Bangkok Post, and FOX news I'll occasionally check, but am not in the habit of looking at regularly.
Oh, and I check slashdot a couple of times a day.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I use Google News and read the same story from several different sources when I want to look a little more closely at something.
I go out of my way to look at CBC and Globe and Mail links when I see them on Google News, because I'm Canadian.
Added: For in-depth coverage of mostly U.S. affairs (from a generally liberal perspective), I subscribe to Harper's [note: Harper's archives are free even to non-subscribers]. I also watch Daily Show and Colbert Report clips on Comedy Central's website. Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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My home page is Yahoo News, which I figure will catch most breaking stories since it has AP and Reuters articles.
Posts: 781 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by twinky: I go out of my way to look at CBC and Globe and Mail links when I see them on Google News, because I'm Canadian.
How do you find their coverage? I haven't looked at them much.
quote:Added: For in-depth coverage of mostly U.S. affairs (from a generally liberal perspective), I subscribe to Harper's [note: Harper's archives are free even to non-subscribers].
Oh, yeah, Harper's is great. I only read it in print, though, so I didn't list it (although now that I think about it, by that rationale I shouldn't have listed NPR, since 90% of their material I get from the radio).
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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After that, I read Yahoo news, but I get pissed at them sometimes. They frequently have human interest stories that urge you to break up with your spouse or significant other. "5 Ways you can tell he's cheating on you," "Is it time to Dump him and move on?" "7 Signs you could do better," etc.
Besides, most of the stuff I see on Yahoo I already read on Fark with a wittier headline.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Oh, yeah, I forgot about local news. For that I check the Lawrence Journal World and the Dayton Daily News (both online).
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by twinky: I go out of my way to look at CBC and Globe and Mail links when I see them on Google News, because I'm Canadian.
How do you find their coverage? I haven't looked at them much.
The CBC tends to be good and relatively non-biased but a bit bland when it comes to politics, probably due to their ultimately answering to political control. From an American perspective they will probably seem rather liberal, but that it only because Canadians are rather liberal on average compared to Americans in their first place. I usually check BBC world news first since the CBC international coverage is a bit of a pale imitation.
The Globe And Mail is more focused on business news and thus usually strays to the right a bit more, but not too much. I like reading it, but the annoying part is that some articles require payment.
The National Post is much more right wing and generally echos a Conservative viewpoint. The Toronto Star is much more left wing and favours a NDP viewpoint.
I use RSS feeds with Sage in Firefox so I usually just hit interesting stories starting with BBC for world news, GlobeAndMail for business, The Star for "local" Ontario and Toronto interest, the National Post for a contrary view point, and so on.
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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iGoogle. It's another google homepage, quite similar to google news, and fully customizable. Various people develop different plugins/applets/whateveryouwanttocallthem for the page. It's easy to use, and intuitive.
Posts: 39 | Registered: Apr 2007
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quote:After that, I read Yahoo news, but I get pissed at them sometimes. They frequently have human interest stories that urge you to break up with your spouse or significant other. "5 Ways you can tell he's cheating on you," "Is it time to Dump him and move on?" "7 Signs you could do better," etc.
"Why flirting with other people is good for your relationship!" And it's generally a link to, like, someone's blog post, not even a real well-researched article...
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KQ: Exactly! That one was this week wasn't it? Why is Yahoo so fixated on breaking people up??
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:The CBC tends to be good and relatively non-biased but a bit bland when it comes to politics, probably due to their ultimately answering to political control.
The BBC does the same thing. All news outlets answer to something, whether it be a company, a head honcho or a government. I've never liked this argument unless there's real evidence to prove that news is being censured by the government proper and doesn't just happen to walk a similar path.
That said, I agree that the CBC can be bland, but I don't think it's because of government intervention. I think it's just because of a general lack of political inventiveness.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Originally posted by The Pixiest: KQ: Exactly! That one was this week wasn't it? Why is Yahoo so fixated on breaking people up??
Do these articles contain ads for Yahoo Personals, by any chance?
Strangely enough ( ), I believe many of them have links, ads, or sponsorships from Yahoo Personals on the page.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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If I am doing a quick review of headlines, I use BBC (world) and Drudge Report or USA Today (local). I sometimes look at CNN. If I am invested in the news, I will then use more specialized sources. I also use google to look up topics in more detail.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:Originally posted by twinky: I go out of my way to look at CBC and Globe and Mail links when I see them on Google News, because I'm Canadian.
How do you find their coverage? I haven't looked at them much.
I like the CBC's in depth stuff, particularly election coverage since they provide pretty detailed information. Their general stuff is a little bland (as has been noted).
I'm a fan of the Globe and Mail, but I don't like their front page format. Generally what I do is if I find a story I want to read more about on Google News, I specifically look for a Globe link.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Teshi: The BBC does the same thing. All news outlets answer to something, whether it be a company, a head honcho or a government. I've never liked this argument unless there's real evidence to prove that news is being censured by the government proper and doesn't just happen to walk a similar path.
I never said the BBC did not. I also never said that there was any *actual* censuring. Just saying that I've noticed a lot of bland articles that go out of their way to be extremely non-biased in order to offend absolutely no one. Perhaps people tend not to want to write articles that "rock the boat" too much. Its only natural.
quote: I think it's just because of a general lack of political inventiveness.
Possibly. You're going to have to elaborate on what you mean by "political inventiveness".
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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