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

[mrdreamjeans]

My favorite news sources are: NPR, MPR, The New York Times, Washington Post, CBS and ABC. I base my decision on how balanced and well-written the articles are; I worked as a newspaper reporter in the 1980's, covering school board, commissioners court and city council meetings; I wrote feature articles and worked as a theater critic. I tried to write with as little bias as possible. I don't want my news as entertainment. I hate how the lines have blurred.

[cjsmith]

Thank you! And thank you particularly for saying how you base your decisions. I'm learning

I too hate how the lines have blurred. Heck, as I see it, I hate how the lines are nearly gone. Some features are meant to draw me in; some are meant to get my eyeballs on ads; some are meant to make me angry (possibly so I'll share them and get MORE eyeballs on ads); some are meant merely to better characterize me for the ad machine. As long as I consume things via ad-channels (eg clicking through when someone else shares an article on FB), all those lines will be blurry at best.

I've tossed a couple of subscription fees at two places whose names have come up frequently in answer to my question. I may do more. I want well-written, well-researched articles to thrive.