Breaking news

March 4, 2007 9:49 AM

Wow! Did that news ticker really just say that? Is is true? What effect is it going to have? What website can I go to for the real info as it happens, including discovering what the courts have just banned from being published locally?

Where do I go to get confirmation on breaking news? Which news outlets on the web are the first to publish? Can I really get useful info out of Technorati or other blogosphere resources?

And related to this weekend's big UK political story, which out-of-jurisdiction websites are useful for picking up details which have just been gagged at home?

I am interested in a wide range of news, and a wide range of jurisdictions. (Just not Hollywood or Bollywood stories.)

posted by Idcoytco to computers & internet (23 comments total)

I usually hit google news with keywords, unless it's something really big, then you can go straight to .
posted by furtive at 9:52 AM on March 4, 2007

Drudge Report
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:53 AM on March 4, 2007

Google News, and Memigo
posted by NucleophilicAttack at 9:54 AM on March 4, 2007

Google news is great, but I'd suggest you try Google News, UK.

The "cash for honours" scandal is reported there.
posted by Mutant at 9:57 AM on March 4, 2007

@ furtive

Thanks for posting that link to Mefi's response to 9/11. It was fascinating to read how news and information was uncovered and publicised through MeFi and it's users.
posted by bigcheesegump at 11:10 AM on March 4, 2007

Oddly enough, I find that fark tends to link to big breaking news stories very quickly, and that comments in the threads often point to other resources. I now check there for news before CNN.
posted by procrastination at 11:37 AM on March 4, 2007

ABC News has a breaking news alert system that has been very timely in my experience. They will often beat CNN to the punch on items.
posted by smackfu at 11:56 AM on March 4, 2007

Google Finance has a pretty neat feature that coorelates news items with market trends (that link goes to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, but I believe any of the globally traded markets are represented).
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 12:00 PM on March 4, 2007

...including discovering what the courts have just banned from being published locally? ... related to this weekend's big UK political story, which out-of-jurisdiction websites are useful for picking up details which have just been gagged at home?

For those of us outside the UK, what exactly are you alluding to?
posted by musicinmybrain at 12:43 PM on March 4, 2007

Probably referring to the BBC being banned from reporting on the cash-for-honors investigation. That link is from People's Daily, that bastion of the free press.
posted by grouse at 2:29 PM on March 4, 2007

For those of us outside the UK, what exactly are you alluding to?

Two days ago, the Attorney General took out a court injunction that bans the BBC from reporting a story relating to the "Cash for Honours" scandal.
posted by afx237vi at 2:32 PM on March 4, 2007

What grouse said.
posted by afx237vi at 2:32 PM on March 4, 2007

Yes, furtive's link to breaking news on MeFi is awesome. And I have also chosen the fark suggestion as a best answer, as something I hadn't thought of. Of course I need an exciting story to check the other ideas! (Though to be fair, Google News did just pick up an accident to a local schoolkid).

And we may get some major news as a follow up to the story of the UK gagging order I alluded to. Briefly, the UK governing party is being investigated by the police over allegations that they have sold honours -- awards for national merit being given out where the "merit" was party donations or contributions to the party's pet projects. This investigation has been going on for months, with suspicions of a cover-up -- documents lost in a convenient fire in an office, allegations of a secret email system not disclosed to the police etc. On Friday evening a BBC television program about the case was blocked by a court injunction, apparently over their intention to make public the contents of an email. Naturally people wanted to know which of all those who claimed to be totally innocent had actually been caught out.

Please keep ideas coming.
posted by Idcoytco at 2:58 PM on March 4, 2007

Please keep ideas coming.

If you want ideas to keep coming, you shouldn't mark a best answer.
posted by grouse at 3:14 PM on March 4, 2007

If you want ideas to keep coming, you shouldn't mark a best answer.

That's a bit of etiquette I hadn't picked up. Why not? I made a special point to do it when I was otherwise busy, as I thought it encouraged participation. This doesn't seem to be a question where someone can provide a single absolute answer. (Hmm, there might be a secret url for Reuters insiders, or the CIA, or ...) I suppose you may mean that people won't come here if they think the question is answered, but won't news lovers come here anyway in the hopes of learning something useful? And don't a significant number of MeFites yearn to top a best answer with an even better one?

Some of these posts have already led me to new resources or led me to re-evaluate old ones. I would like to learn more.
posted by Idcoytco at 4:19 PM on March 4, 2007

Simply for the reason that many people (myself included) avoid opening threads for the sole purpose of contributing if they are marked answered. If it's already answered, why bother? I can tell you I wouldn't be here if it wasn't on my My Comments list.

It's a good idea to do when the thread has run off the front page, to encourage future participation in your questions and good will.

And don't a significant number of MeFites yearn to top a best answer with an even better one?

First I've heard of it.
posted by grouse at 4:30 PM on March 4, 2007

I use Drudge for breaking national/political news, because he tends to pick stuff up very fast.
For a more balanced view, I have the "Top News" RSS feeds from AP, Reuters, BBC, Google/U.S., and Google/UK set up in my feed reader to get a quick glimpse of the top stories.
posted by gemmy at 4:50 PM on March 4, 2007

Wow! Did that news ticker really just say that?
You read it, not me.

Is is true?
You don't mean is it true, you mean is it corroborated. Truth takes a long time to out, but the accepted wisdom will be all over the place in a matter of hours

What effect is it going to have?
When you find the website, tell me if it has the lottery numbers for next week.

What website can I go to for the real info as it happens
The BBC news ticker is pretty hot shit -- and it drops the big stories minutes either side of the news wires getting them. You want a news service as up-to-the-minute as the ones the real journalists use? Watch that. They have little desktop versions and everything.

including discovering what the courts have just banned from being published locally?
I think this is your actual question, and I'm buggered if I know. It was sealed injunction for the BBC, and they didn't injuct the rest of us, so even if I wanted to I couldn't say exactly what they barred. What's more, since it's a BBC story, the chances of it leaking to a US site and thence on to the net are quite slim -- this isn't Spycatcher.
posted by bonaldi at 5:19 PM on March 4, 2007

I suppose you may mean that people won't come here if they think the question is answered

That's precisely what he means. "Best Answer" == "Already Answered", which means "No Additional Help Required, Please Move Along."

but won't news lovers come here anyway in the hopes of learning something useful?

No, they'll go to Fark (see: best answer).

And don't a significant number of MeFites yearn to top a best answer with an even better one?

Ha. No. The only reason anyone's responding at this point is because they've already responded and their comment is now in their "recent comments" list, thus they're going back and seeing what's been added since they left. Basically, what grouse said.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:05 PM on March 4, 2007

Fark is a really good answer for instant hit stuff. Yahoo news is good for a slightly slower but broader "what's happening" check. On yahoo some things linger for days, but the new hotness will pop up quickly.

For an instant survey, I'll go with Yahoo over Google any day. For targetted searching of news, Google is all that matters.
posted by NortonDC at 8:07 PM on March 4, 2007

So erm... what *is* this piece of news that UK MeFi's aren't allowed to hear on mainstream media?
posted by badlydubbedboy at 2:37 AM on March 5, 2007

Thank you all for some useful well-explained answers.

badlydubbedboy, the mystery was explained in some of the answers higher up -- some people close to Tony Blair look to have been caught out trying to "pervert the course of justice", but the details are not being published in the UK because of a court injunction asked for by the police.
posted by Idcoytco at 3:14 PM on March 5, 2007

CNN Wire, per a question I asked a year ago that is phrased differently but essentially asked the same thing.
posted by WCityMike at 9:05 PM on March 5, 2007