How do you get your news?

[Skia_42]

I am constantly trying to keep myself informed in world events/politics/issues and in order to do that you must have an effective and reliable source of information. I was wondering in what form (emails, tv, internet, newspapers) people in this forum get they're news and what channel/website/newspaper they get it from. I am aware that in the U.S. the mainstream media is very filtered and does not cover the same stories in the same way as international news sources and am therefore looking for a more broader view of the world. Thank you to all!
~Skia_42

[jclmusic]

i try to read as many different websites as possible to get as balanced a vieew as possible. TV is just propaganda and stupid celebrities no-one cares about.

[Spr0k3t]

TV is just propaganda and stupid celebrities no-one cares about.

Werd!

Email & Internet for me. I avoid TV & Internet TV like the plague.

[hardyn]

Current events: CBC radio 1

Techstuff: various online, slashdot, register, ubuntuforums.org etc.

[lukew]

You missed websites.... surely bbc.co.uk is hot up the list being the most hit news website!!!

[Spr0k3t]

You missed websites.... surely bbc.co.uk is hot up the list being the most hit news website!!!

^^^ yeah, the missing link: Internet News

The "Online TV" is just as bad as TV. Newspapers are old-hat day late bits. News bits from places like bbc.co.uk and the .com equivalents are the best sources for news. If you want a better wordly view, go to a page with news covering that part of the world. What better place to get the news than from the source of origin.

[PartisanEntity]

I visit several mainstream news sites, non-mainsrteam, news aggregation sites and blogs on a daily basis:

bbc.co.uk
independent.co.uk
guardian.co.uk
english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
derstandard.at
whatreallyhappened.com
informationclearinghouse.info
islamonline.com
cryptome.org
antiwar.com
counterpunch.org
wakeupfromyourslumber.com
ifamericansknew.org

From the blogs and news aggregation sites I follow up many leads and visit many other sites. I spend at least 2 hours a day on news and current events, sometimes more.

[eXisor]

This a an important topic for discussion and is, I think, the most critical challenge to the spirit of democracy today. If we do not really know what is going on, on what do we base our decisions when we vote?

You left, IMO, the only viable solutions off the list, namely, all of the above, and none. Perhaps a poll was not the way to go?

As you suggest, spin is a reality and whichever source one uses it is likely to be geopolitically scewed by editorial political affiliation, media ownership and their major advertising revenue streams.

These influences, and the frankly disgraceful journalistic trend to report uncritically and without verification what politicians say, makes it difficult for any but the really dedicated to know what is going on. Western journalists are still doing democracy and democratic processes a major disservice, and that despite their apologies for their lack of questioning after 9/11. There is currently no such thing as independent news media, and I would suggest there never really was.

My policy is to believe noone, even after I get excessive independent verification. Ultimately one needs a historical perspective on all current events to see the whole picture. Excessive independent verification? Basically this means checking the same story on pro-Western sources, and then getting the other side from anti-Western sources. The latter are few and mostly inaccessible due to language difficulties, but they are becoming more viable and available via the internet. I have yet to find a truly middle-ground of media sources.

I use the mediawatch.org sites to provide a counterbalance/repudiation to the US news services, and medialens.org for UK sources. Regular reading of these repudiations enable one to anticipate what news slant you are going to get on a story from a particular media group before you read it. Fortunately the slants and spin become so self evident that there are clear indications of when to take a pinch of salt. What is not reported in a particular media source is often as important as what is.

Read, weep, and wait for history to catch up.

[beercz]

Websites should have been included.

The best news site is http://news.bbc.co.uk by the best broadcaster, the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk)