News Review

I can't pretend that what interests me will interest everyone, but what more do I have to review than that which I spend a lot of time doing? I read a lot of news--more than what can probably be considered healthy (especially around election time). I'm going to conduct a basic review of some of my favorite news sources. Some are common, others maybe not so much.

I'll start with:



(www.realclearpolitics.com)
This website has been particularly fun during the election. I visit the site multiple times daily--mostly for the polls. There are about as many political polls out there as there are white people voting for Romney, but the results are so divergent it can be hard to make heads or tales of them. RCP has a running average of all the presidential polls in the last week and tracks them on their home page. Furthermore, they take running averages in every state and display them on a handy map. You it's been much easier for me to tell who is ahead and who is behind this election by using this tool. On a broader base, the website is somewhat politically neutral with a slight slight lean to the right. Its content tends not to feel more analytical than political. The reading is sometimes more dense as a result, but definitely more rich.

(www.drudgereport.com)
The drudge report is only for those who want a constant feed of unabashedly biased right wing reporting. Matt Drudge put the website together in the mid nineties and it hasn't changed much since then (it looks like the old DOSS operating system we had on our first computer). Drudge reads a ton of news and then posts the articles he likes on his website with charged headlines. I also cruise the sight multiple times a day as it updates constantly. It feeds my inner conservative monster but I find if I spend too much time on it that I get really fed up with how biased it is.






The Chris Matthews Show, The Shean Hanity Show, the O'Reilly Factor, and the Rachel Maddow show are all to be avoided in my opinion  Matthews and Maddow on the extreme left, Hanity and O'Reilly on the extreme right. Being extreme is not what is bothersome about these shows, it is the apparent hatred for the other side that seems to infect all of them. In fairness, O'Reilly isn't quite as bad as the others, but each seems to be so set in their viewpoints that their only goal is to tear down the other side down at all costs. This kind of reporting is not news, it is hate mongering.

(www.news.google.com)
I'm sure everyone knows about this one, so I won't spend a lot of time on it, but Google's entire existence is based on finding and compiling data. Since it is a very mathematical process, it is also pretty unbiased. After I read Drudge, I often go here to find out what the "real world" is reading so I can understand what the average person is consuming. This helps me to develop a picture of how they view the world so I can understand a little better why people in America act stupidly when it comes to politics.



(www.economist.com)
The economist is good for deep coverage of international topics. They will be running stories on things you probably haven't heard of, but they will make sure you understand why they matter. It is not politically motivated, but objective in its approach. As a result, coverage is not emotional or charged and the non-political junky may even call it dry *gasp*. Read at your own risk



(www.npr.org)
I know there are those of you who will say that NPR is an extension of a left-leaning liberal government, but I would doubt anyone spends more time listening than me. I find the reporting relatively unbiased and somewhat more detailed than I get in some of my reading. Certainly there are some boring reports on the mating habits of Alaskan Polar bears, but if you can get through those, I think you'll find valuable perspective on national and international issues.

I'm always looking for new places to cruise though, so in your comments, I'm most interested in what YOU like to read and watch .