good news

[cjsmith]

Advice solicited. What are your news sources?

One of the things World Without Mind successfully convinced me is that if individual consumers want good, reliable, thoughtful, accurate written content, we're going to have to be willing to pony up.

I want journalism that is not recycled clickbait with outrage-inducing tweaks to the headlines. I want news articles with some investigation and fact checking behind them. I want editorials with depth and with critical thinking. I cannot expect to get the news content I want via the gateways of Google or Facebook. The market forces actively, strongly, and diametrically oppose it.

(I also want nonfiction books that are well-researched and professionally edited. I need to consider whether I can get those via the gateway of Amazon. So far, I can, if I'm choosy.)

So. I'm looking for good news sources, web OK but they need to be places I can go directly - and I'm willing to pay to subscribe.

How do you evaluate your news sources? Do you research where their money comes from? Do you base it on what you've read by them? Do you base it on what you’ve read about them? Do you do something else I haven't thought of? What are your favorites, and why?

(This is a public entry. Access-limited entry here for folks who don't want to comment on public entries.)

Comments

[cjsmith]

I shall check out CBC, thanks! I used to follow Al-Jazeera for precisely this reason. How did you decide which sources you trust?

Yeah, friends and online acquaintances are... well, individuals can be helpful, but if they're sourcing from google and facebook, that's not the feed I need to be drinking from. And among my own friends and online acquaintances, so far I don't know of anyone who's drinking from any other fountain.

[redbird]

I don't know if my online acquaintances are sourcing from google or facebook (always, or ever).

Sometimes there are enough steps between the original news source and me that it would be difficult to find out: I see something like [?google or facebook] -> member of my girlfriend's synagogue -> synagogue mailing list -> girlfriend -> me. adrian_turtle might say who posted it there, if it's a name I'd know, but usually doesn't.

[cjsmith]

Makes sense. I guess I too won't be able to figure out where people got stuff if I'm seeing it forwarded. I suppose it doesn't matter, as I don't see very much that's forwarded. :)

[lauradi7dw]

I still follow Al Jazeera. In addition to covering places that are sometimes ignored by other outlets, they offer short video background pieces from time to time. So does NPR. I can't get used to the expression "explainers" for the videos, but I guess it's a pretty clear coinage.