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For on-line news, what sites do you avoid and which ones do you seek out as being trustworthy?
Thanks to my position as an editor on SoylentNews, I've had the privilege of viewing story submissions which have referenced a veritable plethora of different sources. It has been a privilege to serve you these past few years. My goal has been to provide stories that cover a diversity of areas but always with an attempt to provide level-headed background. I strive to avoid shrill in-your-face!!!!elevnty! diatribes. To invoke a common mis-quotation "Just the facts, ma'am." Full confession: I'm not above posting an occasional funny or feel-good story, either.
Over time, I've come to learn that some sources are more reputable than others. News outlets are comprised of people who have their own biases; some try to remain objective whereas others use their position to push an agenda.
For example, I've learned here that RT is a mouthpiece for the Russian government (A modern-day Pravda, if you will).
The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), on the other hand, is funded primarily through a television license costing £147 per year per household. But, it has received a funding boost from government to expand its global reach.
Fox News has had complaints about its content and has had its share of controversies. But even some commonly-held beliefs about Fox News have proved exaggerated and not fully supported by the facts.
ScienceDaily, phys.org, CNET, Quora, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), ESA (European Space Agency), Spaceflight Now, weather.gov, and Hurricane Prediction Center are just some of the sites that I have found especially helpful.
So, I turn to the SoylentNews community:
- What biases have you found with MSM (main-stream media)?
- what 'news' sites do YOU avoid? Why?
- where do YOU find trustworthy, unbiased, fact-supported news?
Bonus question: What would you think of a news story on SoylentNews whose only supporting link is CNN? Fox News? Breitbart?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by edIII on Friday December 28 2018, @09:33PM (8 children)
Wouldn't take it seriously. CNN has had some problems with facts, Fox News isn't a news source but a hate & fear machine pushing white nationalist propaganda, and Breitbart is thinly veiled white supremacy like a cleaned up version of the Daily Stormer. The latter two were created and funded to manipulate the people with fear and anger, and to divide the nation. You need look no further than their owners/founders, Rupert Murdoch and Steve Bannon. Those are NOT news sources, but instead the propaganda that rich right leaning fuckwads want to put out. They're political tools wholly divested from journalism, where you can safely put all of their articles under the category of "opinions based on feel-facts". If that's the news source, there's zero reason to read the articles.
Also not included in that list is HuffPo. I skim it occasionally for headlines to talk to relatives, but beyond that, it's just a mouthpiece for liberal snowflakes. Ohh, and everybody except the far-right white nationalist owned "news" sources hate on Trump, not because of politics, but because Trump is a true piece of shit. So that isn't a reason in of itself to discount it, especially when a percentage of Fox News itself goes against Fearless Leader on a regular basis. Everybody hates Trump, even the right, but they do so quietly because of tribalism and they can't admit he was a disaster.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @11:19PM (5 children)
Steve Bannon was in on HuffPo too.
but because Trump is a true piece of shit
why? Please state your reasoning.
I keep hearing this from 'everyone' but his actions speak differently. The only 'disaster' I see is the news being called out on their shit (which I have been yelling about for years). Yet they keep telling me how bad he is. But not really. They keep mixing up things to stick bad things to him (easy to see if you look for it). I know what it is like to be gaslighted. This feels exactly the same. We in the tech industry watch how they get zillions of things wrong every day with our stuff. Yet somehow magically they get it right on politics? I am, lets just say, incredulous.
I challenge you to watch 5 of his speeches. Heck how about 2 or even just 1. Why do you let others tell you what he is thinking. Why not watch it for yourself. You are doing the equivalent of reading book A that is talking about a book B that is reviewing another book C. Then saying you know everything about book C. Go read book C and cut out the middlemen. The other two want to change what C says in some way to make themselves look good. Always remember that. It is like people who talk about the charlie browns the great pumpkin as some sort of deep metaphor about christmas (many paragraphs have been written about it). Where if you ask Charles Shultz he said he thought it was funny a kid mixed up Christmas and Halloween. People always like to puff themselves up on their intelligence by pontificating about others.
I skim it occasionally for headlines
Good god you do not even bother to read the material? No wonder you hate the man. You can not even be bothered to read an article. I hate to say but you are being manipulated, and quite easily. Now now do not get mad. It is hard to hear that you have been mislead especially when everyone around you tells you how smart you are. Misleading people is easy. Con artists have done it for years. I can even give you a blow by blow how the media does it if you like and how Trump is using them to put his agenda in place.
Not even close. You say that to make your brain not explode. That is your bias trying to reason with you that others think differently (but not really right?). The dude is filling stadiums. There are many out there who think he is amazing. You are literally deluding yourself. Once you realize your brain will trick you, you are one step closer to realizing the truth. There is no truth, only bias. Yours (if I may) is at some point you decided you do not like Trump. Your brain at that point needed to justify that.
Here are some interesting vids on how your brain tricks you. It is literally your brain making up a movie that fits the facts as you have seen them and does not upset yourself much. Then explaining away (or ignoring) anything that does not fit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfYbgdo8e-8 [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx53Zj7EKQE [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9u6cQYcOHw [youtube.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by edIII on Saturday December 29 2018, @12:52AM (4 children)
Blah, blah, blah, fucking blah. If you can't figure out why Trump is an absolute piece of shit, there's no reason to have a discussion. You're Tribal. Period. Before you accuse me of the same, I have a great dislike for Obama and the Clintons as well.
Trump is a corrupt narcissistic piece of shit that is a complete embarrassment to all Americans. From how he treats women, minorities, immigrants, and anybody that he perceives has offered the slightest of criticisms. He has zero respect for the office, tearing up documents and refusing to abide by the Presidential Records Act, ignores the recommendations of the US intelligence community for his own "intelligence", and flouts the corruption of him and his evil spawn. Our taxes paid to take his children-of-the-corn to the Middle East to negotiate properties, and also pay for his business trips to his resort. Where you can pay money to influence the President of the United States. A fucking travesty is what it is.
Dear Lord, I don't have enough time to go through it all. From his utter disrespect to the military, his cowardice in escaping the draft, his politicizing of presidential duties and visits that should be dignified, solemn, and bipartisan. He whines like a complete fucking toddler that "poor me is all alone in the White House for Christmas", where his narcissism and complete disconnect from reality makes him fucking oblivious to all the pain he caused with the shutdown. He further compounds that with lying about whether or not federal workers support him, a completely fictional raise for the military, and then gloats saying most of the people losing a paycheck are Democrats and therefore is okay.
The emoluments clause alone should have him impeached. Whether there was Russian collusion or not, he's never released his taxes and divested himself of his wealth. Jimmy Carter had to give up a peanut farm that wasn't making him rich. Orange Anus cannot even be bothered to disclose his taxes, or to not abuse his position to further his own wealth.
Instead of doing his fucking job, he golfs and rages on Twitter, while blaming everyone else for his failures. The great negotiator? Gimme a break, that assclown and a fully Republican Congress and Senate couldn't get shit done. Making Mexico pay for the wall was his whole shtick, and now because that was patently absurd, he's terrorizing American politics until he gets what he wants. That's not a negotiating, but strong arm tactics to force other people to do what you want. Which doesn't work outside of his little empire of abused and unpaid contractors/employees.
He is not only the worst president the US could ever have, but a truly disgusting human being, and a pox on humanity.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Informative) by stretch611 on Saturday December 29 2018, @04:31AM
I'm saddened by the fact that by the time I got to read this that you were at max mod points and I could not mod you up any higher.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @05:29AM
He treats women, minorities, immigrants with the same cruel ridicule that he dishes out to everybody else.
You want him to treat them nicer? Heh. That would be sexist and racist. It seems you feel that such people are less able to cope with cruel ridicule than other people, such as white males. You assume that white males have a superior ability to tolerate cruel ridicule. Shame on you for being so sexist and racist.
(Score: 2, Troll) by VLM on Saturday December 29 2018, @03:24PM (1 child)
The whole rant seems to be a projection of what the Clintons objectively historically did, rather than anything "Orange Man Bad" ever did. No, the Clintons were not Trump wearing a mask the whole time.
Do you have anything thats no thinly veiled "Bill and Hillary" ? They are somewhat different in a few ways, Trump isn't merely one of Hillary's kids.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday December 29 2018, @10:08PM
Fuck you, and your whataboutism. This isn't about the Clintons or Obama, and I made that statement to make it CLEAR that I'm not Tribal and hate Trump simply because I'm "Left" or Democrat.
This is about Donald Trump, and the behavior of Donald Trump. Period.
Provide retorts to the specific claims, or shut the fuck up. I already know that you can't, because I didn't state opinions. I stated facts. Most of documented on social media, or in sparingly few press conferences at the White House.
I'm not the only one saying it. GOP members say these things often in public, and more often off the record. "Toddler Logic" perfectly describes Trump, and some of the most scathing critiques come from conservatives. The only people that refuse to admit he is a fucking dumpster fire, are the people like you that have all the hate and fear boxes checked off by the man's repugnant behavior and statements.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @01:24AM
"CNN has had some problems with facts...."
Could you give us a few examples? Please be specific. I'm genuinely interested.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Saturday December 29 2018, @05:03PM
breitbart is right wing, but not about white supremacy. breitbart was jewish and so are many of the people who run that site. it doesn't compute that they would push white supremacy. in fact the comment section often has laments about people being tarred with the anti-Semitic brush by the site.
Washington DC delenda est.