Decent news sources

SveNitoR

SveNitoR

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In this time of hyper information, social media spectacles, fear mongering, and sometimes outright propaganda, I thought it would be interesting to see what news sources people here consider decent enough to take somewhat at their word. I know there are internet sites rating news sites and newspapers, but going through them is boring.

Since I'm Swedish, I'd start with saying that if you ever want decent Swedish news there are three newspapers worth something: Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgsposten. They all have their biases, but they take news reporting seriously.

When it comes to other countries I'm less sure what I can trust somewhat. In England I'd guess the Guardian and BBC? In US maybe NY Times, Washington post, Wall Street journal? I have no idea what TV channels have decent news.

I'd love to hear about news sources in other languages than English as well, since that would make it fun to Google translate some articles about recent news and happenings. Sometimes it would be great to read news about a country from the countries' own media sources.

I understand some will disagree on what is a good source, and reading that can be interesting as well, since it might add to the understanding of biases a news source might have.
 
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The Guardian isn't bad but is lefty. BBC is a bit more centric but has people's sensitivities it thinks about, so for example will avoid offending people where it can.

I like the Economist, but they're not for everyone. I think they're not neutral but they explain it very clearly...

I. E. They would say, from our liberal point of view. Or as a liberal newspaper we....
I think they articles are well thought out and reasoned though. They're not so much into breaking breaking breaking
 
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Here in Oz, I get most of my basic news from online site news.com.au which is reasonable without being great.
 
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In the U.S., I'd say you have it right. All 3 of those major national papers all write decent news stories, by and large.

Doesn't sound like you're interested, but I'd urge caution or avoidance of their editorial pages, as we've all lost our minds over here, including those who are supposed to maintain the facade of sanity. The NYT editorial board, lefty, lost its mind some time ago. The WSJ, righty, more recently walked the planked of advocacy and really took the plunge in a more dangerous way. The WP -- I suppose you could say centrist, but I think of it as a blue-collar city paper you'd pick up and read on the train. They approach national news, generally, in the same kind of simple, straightforward city-desk manner. I don't read editorials much, but theirs seems pretty normal still to me when I do. They just punch the clock and go to work. So, the newspapers played out pretty much the same as the rest of the country. Go figure.

For free online stories, I like the wire services, AP and, more so, Reuters. The Hill is super simple and straightforward for political stories. Their editorials lean right and can get pretty nuts. Also simple, to the point and free are Business Insider and Axios, though the latter was recently sold to another company.

TV? Not sure I could really recommend much. CSPN for politics. Those folks treat neutrality like religion. The News Hour on PBS is pretty straight and simple, while leaning to the left in story selection. That woman Amanpour has a decent show that often comes on after that leans more toward international news. Nicole Wallace, a former Republican on the lefty MSNBC, makes no pretense toward neutrality but warrants an honorable mention from me for her relentless defense of democracy. Also, the BBC.
 
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The European Politico is rather good, though leaning a bit on the left.

In Belgium (French part), the 2 main newspapers must be Le Soir (liberal) and La Libre Belgique (Catholic). I prefer Trends-Tendances and L'Echo de la Bourse (economics/financial) which I think are rather neutral and usually more reliable, though less focused on local news. They have their Dutch counterparts but I don't know if that's the most read in that part of the country, and I have no idea about the German region.

For more important matters I've heard that this site was particularly good ;)
 
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Ha in the US good luck as most sites swing to the left or right. Finding a balanced centrist site is like finding a living dinosaur. Anyway most news comes with an opinion disclaimer.

Honest opinion though more news is liberal bent and supports democrats. I'm not making that up either just look at most sources during and after the Trump presidency in the US.

The bigger problem is most News sites and parent compines are more worried about ratings and profits. When that happened the click bait rage news cycle is in full affect.
 
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You could do worse, when considering the discussions as a whole, when they happen. Most of TV news is worse.

Edit: This was in response to Stingray, as I have already forgotten his trick of quoting into an old post.
 
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Pladio said:
The Guardian isn't bad but is lefty. BBC is a bit more centric but has people's sensitivities it thinks about, so for example will avoid offending people where it can.

I like the Economist, but they're not for everyone. I think they're not neutral but they explain it very clearly...

I. E. They would say, from our liberal point of view. Or as a liberal newspaper we....
I think they articles are well thought out and reasoned though. They're not so much into breaking breaking breaking
Click to expand...
Thanks. I didn't know the Guardian was slightly left leaning. Good to know.
Capt. Huggy Face said:
In the U.S., I'd say you have it right. All 3 of those major national papers all write decent news stories, by and large.

Doesn't sound like you're interested, but I'd urge caution or avoidance of their editorial pages, as we've all lost our minds over here, including those who are supposed to maintain the facade of sanity. The NYT editorial board, lefty, lost its mind some time ago. The WSJ, righty, more recently walked the planked of advocacy and really took the plunge in a more dangerous way. The WP -- I suppose you could say centrist, but I think of it as a blue-collar city paper you'd pick up and read on the train. They approach national news, generally, in the same kind of simple, straightforward city-desk manner. I don't read editorials much, but theirs seems pretty normal still to me when I do. They just punch the clock and go to work. So, the newspapers played out pretty much the same as the rest of the country. Go figure.

For free online stories, I like the wire services, AP and, more so, Reuters. The Hill is super simple and straightforward for political stories. Their editorials lean right and can get pretty nuts. Also simple, to the point and free are Business Insider and Axios, though the latter was recently sold to another company.

TV? Not sure I could really recommend much. CSPN for politics. Those folks treat neutrality like religion. The News Hour on PBS is pretty straight and simple, while leaning to the left in story selection. That woman Amanpour has a decent show that often comes on after that leans more toward international news. Nicole Wallace, a former Republican on the lefty MSNBC, makes no pretense toward neutrality but warrants an honorable mention from me for her relentless defense of democracy. Also, the BBC.
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Yeah, I avoid editorials, since I consider political ramblings from journalists quite uninteresting. Thanks for your input.
 
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Stingray said:
For sure. They are always on top of the most critical news that actually matters in daily life, and the articles never show any political bias.
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Hehe, yeah it's a forum where brilliant minds share neutral and well thought out opinions all the time. 😜
 
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Redglyph said:
The European Politico is rather good, though leaning a bit on the left.

In Belgium (French part), the 2 main newspapers must be Le Soir (liberal) and La Libre Belgique (Catholic). I prefer Trends-Tendances and L'Echo de la Bourse (economics/financial) which I think are rather neutral and usually more reliable, though less focused on local news. They have their Dutch counterparts but I don't know if that's the most read in that part of the country, and I have no idea about the German region.

For more important matters I've heard that this site was particularly good ;)
Click to expand...
Since some papers there are in French, do you think they also can get a better outside view on French society, since they get nuances of the French language and culture better?
 
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A good German news source is the Deutsche Welle DW (German Wave).

News and current affairs from Germany and around the world | DW

News, off-beat stories and analysis of German and international affairs. Dive deeper with our features from Europe and beyond. Watch our 24/7 TV stream.
www.dw.com www.dw.com

(They feature many languages)
 
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SveNitoR said:
Since some papers there are in French, do you think they also can get a better outside view on French society, since they get nuances of the French language and culture better?
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I've never compared. I think both versions (of the multiple newspapers) cover the whole country for the important or general matter, but as you said they otherwise tend to cover more news for their own region as any local paper would do.

For the culture, it varies depending on how relevant they think it will be. For example, there are famous Flemish painters and when they're shown at an exhibition, this is reported no matter where (it's a small country after all). I don't think Flemish / Dutch literature or shows are much covered, however, but what is happening in France usually is. I may be wrong, I'm not reading newspapers on a regular basis anymore.
 
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I have double-checked but the newspaper and their associated websites don't have an English version, so you'll have to learn French. ;) Or you may be able to understand the Dutch version or at least get a good idea, perhaps?

Anyway, a small and relatively uninteresting country so I don't think it's worth it.
 
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SveNitoR said:
I understand some will disagree on what is a good source, and reading that can be interesting as well, since it might add to the understanding of biases a news source might have.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there's a strange phenomenon at the moment, where it's like everyone has suddenly woken up to the idea of treating the press skeptically. The trouble is, I think a lot of folks have got a bit carried away with it.

I think it's obvious that there's no such thing as a perfect source, and every one has to be examined and considered for its assumptions, biases, ideology, and so on. But I don't think it's that hard to identify reasonably reliable journalistic outlets. There's an old saying about the ruthless, vile, British gutter press - that it's made by clever people for thick people. That's a bit blunt, but I think what defines the more serious press is that its audience is essentially informed people who want to be further informed. If they trash their reputation for providing that, their model will fail.

Looking at two examples I read - The Guardian and the WSJ - both of those I would say have a credible mission to do serious journalism. Both have their strengths - The Guardian has an excellent record of investigating things governments and corpos really didn't want investigated. And the WSJ is definitely doing serious reporting about what's going in that world.

On the other hand, both publish columnists that make me roll my eyes so hard I fall over backwards. In The Guardian it's some wokester nonsense presented with preening smugness, and in the WSJ it will be some shill talking pure shite about climate change.

So, I tend to look first at the question of whether the organisation is serious, making an offer for people that are seriously interested. Then take any bias into account, and think of John Stuart Mill: He who knows only his side of the argument knows little of that. (I mentioned that one recently, but it bears repeating.)
 
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Possibly this is an economic issue rather than a social one? Capitalism drives the system toward monopoly until such time as it becomes so top heavy that it collapses, right? So, there's been quite the consolidation in the media over the past few decades. You're down to a handful of major players now in traditional media. You throw in the pressure of the rise of electronic media plus the discarding of the facade of neutrality and the top of the pyramid is really starting to teeter. The problem to me seems to be the high barrier to entry- the cost to put together a decent news source (not just a regurgitator) is insanely high. So as the top crumbles, there's not a new crop of start-ups filling in the gaps from the bottom to build a new pyramid. So we're stuck in no man's land, with something nobody likes/trusts but no serious alternatives to embrace.

You almost need non-profit news. Of course, around these parts non-profit generally equals government run, which obviously doesn't work for media.
 
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