Where should I get my news online?

December 1, 2013 11:27 AM

I'm tired of partisan news and I'm tired of headlines designed to get clicks, not to inform readers. Is there anywhere left to just get the news? I'm in the U.S. but want to get both U.S. and World news and prefer articles to videos.
posted by mola to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

Have you tried looking directly at the newswires like Reuters and The AP? They tend to be a bit more factual and non-linkbaity but have been accused of bias in the past.
posted by peteyjlawson at 12:01 PM on December 1, 2013

The BBC is nonpartisan by definition. It's not perfect and probably doesn't have as much depth on US news but it's pretty good in general.
posted by corvine at 12:14 PM on December 1, 2013 [3 favorites]

There's never been anywhere to just get the news.

Read multiple sources reporting on a story - NYT, WaPo, Al Jazeera, BBC, the wires, etc. It's more work because it's not one-stop shopping, but it's more interesting, too.
posted by rtha at 12:19 PM on December 1, 2013 [8 favorites]

I usually find The Guardian to be low on clickbait and high on interesting articles - they're counted as a liberal newspaper here in the UK, but they would at least give you an outsider's perspective on US news.
posted by harujion at 12:20 PM on December 1, 2013 [3 favorites]

Longform pieces, too, I forgot to add, from The New York Review of Books, The London Review of Books, Foreign Policy, The Economist, Texas Monthly, etc.

This thread is inspiring me to be better at reading multiple sources and formats, as I've gotten lazy with that. Thanks!
posted by rtha at 12:41 PM on December 1, 2013

I find the Bing aggregator to be pretty good. There's still click-bait, but it's obvious and I can ignore those.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:46 PM on December 1, 2013

By the way, anyone who thinks the BBC isn't biased hasn't been paying attention.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:47 PM on December 1, 2013 [2 favorites]

Seconding Al Jazeera.
posted by pick_the_flowers at 1:23 PM on December 1, 2013

Google News - Headlines from all of the above sources
posted by nogero at 1:29 PM on December 1, 2013 [3 favorites]

The Christian Science Monitor is pretty balanced, and doesn't have those awful ads at the bottom disguised as news with headlines you don't even want to know exist. Despite its name the Monitor is not at all religious, though I think they have a single daily religious column.
posted by gubenuj at 1:46 PM on December 1, 2013 [3 favorites]

nthing Al jazeera.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:46 PM on December 1, 2013

Everyone's got a bi-ass, there is no one pure truth from one source, so read widely, as rtha says.

Al Jazeera is actually pretty straightforward, considering how much they were hated a few years ago.

Foreign Affairs is Not unbiased depending on who is writing the article, but it is always worth the look and learn.
posted by ovvl at 5:14 PM on December 1, 2013

npr.org
posted by Comet Bug at 7:43 PM on December 1, 2013

Drudge Report is about the farthest thing from non-partisan news you'll find on the internet, but I wish there was a Drudge-style news aggregator that wasn't all sensationalist bullshit. In my opinion their layout is better than any other news site.

I used to check their headlines several times a day but had to force myself to stop because it was giving me a depressed, pissed-off, helpless feeling.


[To actually answer your question, Feedly is a good RSS news app for mobile devices that allows you to pick and choose your sources, save articles, read through the app (rather than linking out), etc. It's got a clean layout and navigates well.

Also- a well curated Twitter folder is great for getting news throughout the day. Sounds kinda hokey but I think @BreakingNews in particular does a great job.]
posted by Dr. Zachary Smith at 10:04 AM on December 2, 2013