Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sunday Question for Liberals

Where do you get your news?  Not opinions, or analysis, but basic news?

Are you reasonably satisfied with your news sources?  Do you worry a lot about bias?

19 comments:

  1. Various Independent news sites on the web. I also use Financial Times and other out of US newspapers and listen to and read some BBC.

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  2. Drudge Report. I'm usually entertained by the bias.

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  3. NPR. Some people say they're biased against Israel. I don't really get that impression. During the Gaza war they tended not to have a lot of input from Israeli officials, but that was because the media was largely kept out of Gaza and Israel didn't participate in any outside investigations. I'm not sure if I'm "worried" about bias as much as I'm annoyed by it, particularly when discussing the bail outs. There seem to be two modes of covering this issue: people opposed are nutjobs who have unreasonable concerns about moral hazard, and people in support are what Krugman would call Very Serious People. The other mode is that people opposed to the bailouts are freedom-fighting tea partiers who wage a war against socialism, and the cultural elites who ride above the law. I think both of these narratives are annoyingly two-dimensional. There isn't much representation in any major news outlets for people who are ambivalent about the bail outs, who thought maybe they were necessary but perhaps they should have had a lot more strings attached, etc.

    Nonetheless, your question wasn't about the bailouts but about bias. I think the biggest danger that bias has is the creation of these narratives. It's really easy for an organization like the NYT or WaPo to say something in an editorial or suggest it in a front page article, and for that something to become conventional wisdom everywhere. Then people who don't necessarily buy the conventional wisdom are lumped in with Dennis Kucinich on one side or Ron Paul on the other, as was the case with the bailouts.

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  4. Yahoo news, which is aggregating LATimes, WaPo, Reuters and AP for me (it used to do NYT, but they lost that ability a couple years ago)

    Do I like their various biases? Not particularly. But the biases are more annoying than obscuring.

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  5. All over the place- CNN, BBC, Reuters for breaking news Times, WSJ, PBS, NPR for some depth and occasionally network news.

    Not particularly concerned with bias, am very concerned with competence. I'm not sure if it's just that I pay more attention now, but have been horrified by the general lack of knowledge or depth on economics, foreign policy, science, business, etc, of the major news sources. It just tends to be a lot of re-reading of press releases and talking points.

    It's very difficult to explain something complex in 2 minutes and keep it compelling enough for a TV camera...

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  6. On most week-days, I'll go through these news sources on-line:

    BBC News
    New York Times
    Washington Post
    Wall Street Journal
    Financial Times
    KSL (it's a local source)

    That's supplemented by what I read on blogs.

    On week-ends, I'm usually not as regular. Maybe the BBC News and New York Times, along with blog entries via my Google Feed.

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  7. NYT is far and away my first choice for hard news. While it certainly has shortcomings, I still think on the whole it's the best general news source.

    I supplement that to varying degrees with WaPo (has declined noticeably in the last several years), NPR, BBC, Guardian, etc.

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  8. I read the Boston Globe every day, listen to NPR when I'm out, and will occasionally watch NewsHour during the week.

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  9. MSNBC.com and Politico

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  10. BBC, the Financial Times, Gawker, the Hotline, and links from various blogs (Lawyers, Guns and Money, Kos, Balloon Juice, Daily Dish, Ezra Klein, Political Wire).

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  11. Broadcast News: NPR, PBS Newshour/Nightly Business Report. Washington Week, Charlie Rose, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.

    Print news: my local weekly and daily newspapers.

    Web-news: NYT on-line, several news aggregators, including Google and Yahoo, The Atlantic, Think Progress, and several blogs, including this one.

    No News: Where I used to get my news but don't anymore: Washington Post, Wall St. Journal, Drudge Report, Daily Kos, MSNBC, Fox, and Huffington Post. (Exceptions made for each if they seem to have compelling analysis based on other sources.)

    Yes, I worry about bias, which is why I seek a wide variety of sources.

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  12. I get my hard news from Agence France Presse (AFP) -- they have the finest Congressional and White House news reporters in the beltway; terrific State, Defense, Justice, and economic correspondents as well, to say nothing of their vast network of international reporters. They have a nifty little blackberry app news wire, and of course are to be found on Yahoo News site. Much, much superior to AP. They actually have standards!

    Number two source is New York Times for the American perspective.

    Number 3 is Talking Points Memo, for a nice liberal take on politics.

    Way down the list is LA Times, for California news.

    Of course, anything that is linked that might be of value...

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  13. NPR first thing in the morning and checking back in throughout the day.

    Daily Show each night to check the zeitgeist, and laugh.

    Throughout the day NYT (subscribe Fri-Sat-Sun, online otherwise); WaPo.com; The New Republic esp. Jonathan Chait but also most "headliner" articles; Andrew Sullivan and the gazillion things he links to; you; 538.com (now NYT but still a unique voice); Peter King every Monday and Tuesday :-) ; and my local rag, The Seattle Times plus a number of local websites and blogs for local news from city and state politics to neighborhood news.

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  14. I used to draw from a few of different sources online - AP, Washington Post, BBC, LA Times, The Guardian, McClatchy DC - but lately, I've been leaning pretty heavily on just the New York Times. Their website has become so damn good. Its been crowding everything else out.

    Random articles brought to my attention from the blogs I read are pretty heavy in my mix.

    NPR in the car.

    The bias I worry about the most is my own. To avoid becoming the walking embodiment of confirmation bias I read Cowen, McCardle, Douthat, etc.

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  15. NPR to and from work. As far as I'm concerned, the best news to be found in the country.

    At work, Times online throughout the day. Various blogs, including TPM, Andrew Sullivan. During political seasons, Politico, but not otherwise.

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  16. I tend to start from Google News and Slashdot. I poke through other links when starting with Google News.

    I also regularly read the Economist.

    I don't rely on blogs for news. Context now ...

    I don't worry that much about bias. That may be naive.

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  17. NPR - in the morning and thro' out the day while driving
    The Lehrer Newshour - in the evening
    The Daily Show- later in the evening
    BBC- on the Web
    CNN - on the Web
    FOX - on the Web
    Economist - for the weekly arouund the world news fix
    The Financial Times - Daily
    The Wall St.Journal - occasionally

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  18. Jonathan-

    I return the question to you. Where do you get your news from? What are your "daily reads?" I'm always fascinated to see where "professionals" get their information.

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