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Where can I get unbiased news?

thegatesnotes.com

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Re: Where can I get unbiased news?

#32

There is no such thing as unbiased news. What you want instead is the Hunter S. Thompson model where the journalist makes their opinion clear and upfront. Then, you can judge the rest of their reporting yourself. A lot of journalism majors I know try to pretend their unbiased, but that isn't how humans work. Say it upfront like programmers do ("First of all I have to admit I use Lisp/Python/Whatever but here is what…

Spot on. A story can present totally objective facts, but it will still be biased because the reporter decided which facts to include and which to omit. Likewise, reporters choose which experts they want to quote in their stories.

Re: Where can I get unbiased news?

#33
post #6

In my opinion: The Daily Show and/or Colbert Report. I guess you could say their only bias is toward comedic pessimism. Is it sad to say that a comedy network has become what I believe to be the least biased news? Or is it just our modern evolution of what has always been the place of good satire: to criticize, under the guise of comedy, that which "serious" outlets dare not discuss?

I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there. Aside from not really being news, it's hardly unbiased. Perhaps the real issue is that there is no such thing as unbiased.

Personally I read The Economist and subscribe to a bunch of sections on news.google.com. In the end you have to make up your own mind.

Re: Where can I get unbiased news?

#34

There is no such thing as unbiased news. What you want instead is the Hunter S. Thompson model where the journalist makes their opinion clear and upfront. Then, you can judge the rest of their reporting yourself. A lot of journalism majors I know try to pretend their unbiased, but that isn't how humans work. Say it upfront like programmers do ("First of all I have to admit I use Lisp/Python/Whatever but here is what…

Actually, before Sulzberger took over the NYT, the Times was the gold standard in objective reporting. I loved it back then.

You were reading the NY Times before 1935? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Hays_Sulzberger

Jokes aside, NY Times has never been unbiased. Try reading the Power Broker.

Re: Where can I get unbiased news?

#35

There is no such thing as unbiased news. What you want instead is the Hunter S. Thompson model where the journalist makes their opinion clear and upfront. Then, you can judge the rest of their reporting yourself. A lot of journalism majors I know try to pretend their unbiased, but that isn't how humans work. Say it upfront like programmers do ("First of all I have to admit I use Lisp/Python/Whatever but here is what…

Actually, before Sulzberger took over the NYT, the Times was the gold standard in objective reporting. I loved it back then.

[deleted]

Re: Where can I get unbiased news?

#36

There is no such thing as unbiased news. What you want instead is the Hunter S. Thompson model where the journalist makes their opinion clear and upfront. Then, you can judge the rest of their reporting yourself. A lot of journalism majors I know try to pretend their unbiased, but that isn't how humans work. Say it upfront like programmers do ("First of all I have to admit I use Lisp/Python/Whatever but here is what…

A friend's project: http://fairspin.org/ tries to expose some bias issues. Perhaps interesting in this context?

Re: Where can I get unbiased news?

#37
post #7

Does not exist as a single source. Try news sites with diametrically opposed points of view and draw your own conclusions.

That doesn't work either. One, there's the assumption that you're two opposed news sites are "really" opposed. Are Fox News and MSNBC diametrically opposed? Amy Goodman would disagree. I could also read the Socialist Worker Magazine and the American Enterprise Institute's newsletter, but I don't know what conclusions I would draw.

The issue isn't that all media organizations are biased, it's really that I am biased. I think the world exists in a certain way and the news that doesn't agree with that or fails to convince me to change the way I think, well then that news source is clearly biased.

Re: Where can I get unbiased news?

#39
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you're thinking of the Washington Times.

No, I am sure the OP was talking about the Post. The news coverage the sort of "inside the beltway" stuff you would expect from the local paper to a one-industry town, but the editorial board is pure neo-con.

Yup. In both cases it's the editorial board that drives the publication to the right. There are great articles in both pubs but you can't call either unbiased.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/06/18/froomkin/i...

Re: Where can I get unbiased news?

#40

There is no such thing as unbiased news. What you want instead is the Hunter S. Thompson model where the journalist makes their opinion clear and upfront. Then, you can judge the rest of their reporting yourself. A lot of journalism majors I know try to pretend their unbiased, but that isn't how humans work. Say it upfront like programmers do ("First of all I have to admit I use Lisp/Python/Whatever but here is what…

Objectivity may be an unreachable goal, but it doesn't mean that journalists shouldn't aim for it. The Hunter Thompson model also includes making stuff up - I'd very much prefer a story that tries to be unbiased, even if it fails, to a story that's written completely from the point of the writer's personal affiliations. It can be great literature, but it's not reporting.
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