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Okay, online news. Let's have us a frank lil' talk.
Pheezer
Registered User, ClubPA regular
Registered User, ClubPA regular
First off, I don't care about the woes of the dead tree marketplace. I'm sure there's going to be some bad stuff associated with the upcoming upheaval in the state of worldwide news reporting, but most of the people who are going to suffer have been doing such a piss poor job of reporting basic facts that I'd be unwilling to support them even if they were the only game in town. So fuck them.
Also, the best news reporting took place in the era before networks considered the news a money maker. It was originally done at a pure loss as a community service and that's when you had shit go down like Murrow's denouncement of McCarthyism. Because it wasn't a money maker. Because things were newsworthy because they were newsworthy, not because you could draw more eyeballs by scaring people better than the other station and inserting fluff bits about topless carwashes or whatever else before and after commercial breaks to tease a few more bucks out of your advertisers.
So, let's talk about online journalism.
Right now I get most of my news from the Google variety. I like it for a few reasons:
Top stories are aggregated based on how many places are reporting them. I probably don't miss too much that's particularly noteworthy.
All stories immediately provide me with 3 or 4 different sources to read, or more if I click a link. This means I can get my news from places that aren't FOX, and I can compare a couple.
The way stories are categorized makes decent sense AND I can easily prevent myself from ever having to scroll past the sports section.
My problem with it? It only shows me what's popular. Most of what I find is just AP wire feeds. Not that those are typically bad (they often are above average), but I don't feel I get much of a hands on feel for what's going on. I don't feel like I'm street level. I'm not, so that's fair, but I'd like to feel moreso as if I were.
The other big sources I consult are slashdot.org and engadget.com. Both are fairly specialized, though engadget is of FAR higher quality it only provides information about products for the most part so it's not really "news" so much as it is a catalogue of future technological fetishism. Slashdot is shit. It just is. The editors don't edit submissions and the submissions and most of the attached dialogue is garbage and in a lot of cases, the linked stories are just as bad. The sad thing is, I can't think of a tech centric site that sucks less.
So now this is what I pose to you guys:
Are there any good news sites online?
Like, actually good. As in, facts are reported faithfully. Biases are reserved or at least minor and easily detected. A broad selection of reporting is done. I can read about the major stories but get an actual sense for what's going on without feeling like I'm being lied to.
Failing that, are there tech news mills that suck less than Slashdot?
Also, "alternative" news. Tin foil hats aside, are there any non-mainstream oriented news sites that tend to be better than the rest for journalistic responsibility? Such as not going with A GUY TOLD ME SO stories as if they were purest fact?
Seriously, the news is way more complicated than you realize until you type out a post about it.
Also, I do not care one bit about either celebrity or sports related news. At all. Music news is of almost no value to me either. Technology, politics, business, these are the things I crave information regarding.
Also, the best news reporting took place in the era before networks considered the news a money maker. It was originally done at a pure loss as a community service and that's when you had shit go down like Murrow's denouncement of McCarthyism. Because it wasn't a money maker. Because things were newsworthy because they were newsworthy, not because you could draw more eyeballs by scaring people better than the other station and inserting fluff bits about topless carwashes or whatever else before and after commercial breaks to tease a few more bucks out of your advertisers.
So, let's talk about online journalism.
Right now I get most of my news from the Google variety. I like it for a few reasons:
Top stories are aggregated based on how many places are reporting them. I probably don't miss too much that's particularly noteworthy.
All stories immediately provide me with 3 or 4 different sources to read, or more if I click a link. This means I can get my news from places that aren't FOX, and I can compare a couple.
The way stories are categorized makes decent sense AND I can easily prevent myself from ever having to scroll past the sports section.
My problem with it? It only shows me what's popular. Most of what I find is just AP wire feeds. Not that those are typically bad (they often are above average), but I don't feel I get much of a hands on feel for what's going on. I don't feel like I'm street level. I'm not, so that's fair, but I'd like to feel moreso as if I were.
The other big sources I consult are slashdot.org and engadget.com. Both are fairly specialized, though engadget is of FAR higher quality it only provides information about products for the most part so it's not really "news" so much as it is a catalogue of future technological fetishism. Slashdot is shit. It just is. The editors don't edit submissions and the submissions and most of the attached dialogue is garbage and in a lot of cases, the linked stories are just as bad. The sad thing is, I can't think of a tech centric site that sucks less.
So now this is what I pose to you guys:
Are there any good news sites online?
Like, actually good. As in, facts are reported faithfully. Biases are reserved or at least minor and easily detected. A broad selection of reporting is done. I can read about the major stories but get an actual sense for what's going on without feeling like I'm being lied to.
Failing that, are there tech news mills that suck less than Slashdot?
Also, "alternative" news. Tin foil hats aside, are there any non-mainstream oriented news sites that tend to be better than the rest for journalistic responsibility? Such as not going with A GUY TOLD ME SO stories as if they were purest fact?
Seriously, the news is way more complicated than you realize until you type out a post about it.
Also, I do not care one bit about either celebrity or sports related news. At all. Music news is of almost no value to me either. Technology, politics, business, these are the things I crave information regarding.
IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Pheezer on
0
Posts
I'm Canadian and I'm interested in news beyond just American politics. I should have clarified that. I also should have probably made fewer references at American politics in my thread if I wasn't going to mention that. Sorry.
But yeah, I honestly want to vomit most of the time I read a news story that's about the political parties involved in a situation, rather than the situation itself. "X to Y: You're a dick" is not a headline I'm interested in clicking on. Unless someone actually called another politician a dick. That would be awesome.
Anyhow something less concerned with the American two party system is in order for my purposes.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
As far as independent news, there's ITN but they are sometime sourced by PBS and so I generally feel that if Jim Lehrer didn't tap 'em then meh.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
They just put up a paywall, but you can still access a lot of stuff for free so long as it's not more than a week old. I've always used the site rather than the actual magazine, with a few exceptions, and find it navigable enough.
My dad told me I need to read the Weekly Standard instead, because he is... well.
The BBC may have its flaws, but they still run the best news website in the world.
Disinformation can be entertaining and interesting. The biases are usually blatantly obvious, and some of the stories can just be plain weird at times.
Man, I'm sorry to hear that.
Usually my go-to news site after main stream stories.
It is one of the best print and online newspapers I have seen, though, and I much prefer it to BBC news, which I only go to for local news.
Does anyone watch/read the French/German English news channels? I am thinking France 24 for the former and DWTV for the latter
ed: propublica.org/about/
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
For politics and economics I read The Economist, Ezra Klein, The Daily Dish, and The Consumerist. For general news I read the BBC's website.
Why? The news channels have a vested interest in a horserace for every election. His website did not
And despite the name it's not a religious publication.
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/
Anything actually really newsworthy gets posted, and the comments in the thread allow you to delve deeper than the article does with (admittedly, few) informed posters.
Way better than slashdot anyways.
BBC is pretty good too. But maybe being Canadian I don't see their bias.
I'm sorry.
Mine too.
Ars Technica?
The Microsoft and Apple sections can read a bit like press releases sometimes, but the gaming, science, tech industry and stuff are usually really good. They frequently have pretty deep articles written by people who know what they're talking about, and the discussions are usually good (though the apple and microsoft categories have flamewars to an extent, and any science article even tangentially related to global warming attracts droves of trolls. We have better GW discussions here generally largely because there's fewer people involved.)