I want to read the news while avoiding CNN

December 8, 2010 9:02 AM

What are some good sites for reading current events and news reports? The usual suspects are too left / right / trivial for my tastes.

CNN used to be one of my favorite places to go to read up on current world, regional, and local news. Now, not so much. CNN seems to be loaded with nothing but videos (which I can't watch at work) and news deemed worthy by the hordes of Facebook users (which I don't use) like which Hollywood starlet slept with whom or a funny video of someone's dog that prays or toast that looks like Jesus or whatever.

I also don't want to get bogged down by a "liberals are all wrong" or "conservatives are clueless" slant as well. I know that is a tall order.

I'm looking for a good neutral aggregation of news, I guess. Suggestions? These are the places that I check periodically, I'm just looking for something better:

Google News
popurls
Newser

posted by ehamiter to media & arts (11 answers total)

The BBC. Al Jazeera English. The Christian Science Monitor.
posted by proj at 9:16 AM on December 8, 2010

Associated Press
posted by Anephim at 9:32 AM on December 8, 2010

Reuters is a great conventional news source.
posted by Stagger Lee at 9:36 AM on December 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

Have you tried Metafilter?

[sorry]

For a quick glance at current events, nothing beats Google News. Major and minor stories and links to a variety of stories for each one. BBC News is also a great resource.

Here are some less obvious places that I like, and why:

The Morning News sidebar: not major! breaking! news, but a solid grouping of links to smaller stories
New York magazine News & Features: Can be a little NYC centric, but I'm not in NY I don't mind. YMMV, but it's worth a look nonetheless
Give Me Something to Read: A collection of articles popular among users of Instapaper. Not always newsy, but great for fleshing out existing news, you know, the stories that you hear a little about then forget.
Voice of America: The official broadcast service of the Federal Government. Not as bad as it sounds.
posted by troika at 9:40 AM on December 8, 2010

NewsTrust
posted by jaimev at 9:42 AM on December 8, 2010

The Financial Times is always worth a read.
posted by Abiezer at 9:48 AM on December 8, 2010

I would suggest that you reexamine how you consume news in the first place. Finding a site or two that may offer opinion neutral is a tall order in any country.

It appears as though you are based in the USA. If you really want to get the news, I would suggest reading foreign sections from media based outside the USA.

For example, I am always keen to get the US feeling by reading the usual suspects, NYT, WaPo, Redstate (you gotta know), HuffPo, politico (ugh), talkingpointsmemo etc., but find more facts to support those in country sources by looking at Aljez, bbc, guardian, smh.com.au, nzherald, der speigel, aftenposten (use google translator) etc....

Even more so now it pays to turn to Asian news sources given the rise of the east. Google is your friend here. Also, I second the fact the financial papers usually give a more cut and dry assessment of world events. Throw in the economist, Foreign policy magazine, the FT and a couple of other rags and that about covers it.
posted by Funmonkey1 at 10:28 AM on December 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

Reuters? Really? After the faked photos?

CSMonitor is a shadow of its former self, I think.

I'd say Der Spiegel, the FT, and the Economist if you want an international perspective. The British daily papers are also good, if you're aware of their respective slants, as are the WSJ and the NYT.
posted by Ideefixe at 10:41 AM on December 8, 2010

My boyfriend loves Drudge.
posted by chaiwawa at 12:47 PM on December 8, 2010

Memeorandum rocks. It uses some fancy algorithms to figure out the most-discussed stories (along with some human editing) and provides the top story with links to several others discussing the same issue. Memeorandum Colors will let you see, at a glance, which party, or parties, are really discussing the story.
posted by ajr at 3:31 PM on December 8, 2010

I've been trying to read more real books and newspapers, but I had an interesting set of RSS feeds in my Google Reader, mostly international:

Global Voices Online is international news written by a group of volunteers and part-time editors.

Boston Globe's The Big Picture is a series of news photos based around a central event or theme.

I've had some good Chinese news sources and blogs, but a good collector of all news China is the China Digital Times. They have a good mix of sources from both Chinese and Western sources, and deal primarily in English.

As mentioned earlier, The Economist is a very good international digest. I've also liked The Atlantic, mostly for James Fallows, and NPR when I want to listen to something.
posted by Jack Uphill at 7:13 AM on December 9, 2010