this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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Asklemmy

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I'm enjoying Lemmy so far, for the most part.

Everything here is pretty good save for the fact that all the news and politics I can find is dominated by the same few accounts.

Half or more of the accounts have a very clear agenda. They modify headlines. Lie. Spread disinformation. And generally are just extremely toxic groups.

It doesn't seem to be a secret here either. And moderators appear to have no interest in putting a stop to it.

So, where are you subbed to for reliable news and US/Global politics?

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[–] [email protected] 134 points 1 year ago (5 children)

More to the point: where does anybody go for any reliable news? It seems like most news is now using hyperbole to make it entertainment. We have old man Rupert to thank for basically destroying a respected profession. That's my 0.02 anyhow.

[–] [email protected] 108 points 1 year ago (4 children)

While not perfect AP and Reuters are ok. The news they report is honest but their shortcoming is what they don't report.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is how I do it as well. In general, understanding the overall bias of each news organization is more important to keeping yourself informed. You can combat the echo chamber effect by knowing what the biases of each source is and using differing sourcing to try to get as complete a picture as you can.

I would add to your list to check BBC, Al Jazeera, and NPR if you're US focused.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I am curious war the bias of Reuters is?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

As the original comment implied, AP News and Reuters are reasonably unbiased in reliable in terms of their coverage. They do have a US focus so a lot of the pieces need to be read through that specific lens. Sometimes the omission of information is just as important and what is included.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

I haven't found any issues with Reuters but AP did this which is suspect on many levels:

Migrant Boat NFT

On January 10, 2022, AP announced it would start selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of their photographs in partnership with a company named Xooa, with the proceeds being used to fund their operations.[103] One of the NFTs they promoted on Twitter on 24 February was an aerial shot depicting an overcrowded migrant boat in the Mediterranean Sea. The tweet received negative backlash from users and other journalists, with AP being accused of profiting off of human suffering and the picture choice being "dystopian" and "in extremely poor taste". The tweet was subsequently deleted and the NFT, which was to be sold the next day, was pulled from market. Global director of media relations Lauren Easton apologized, saying "This was a poor choice of imagery for an NFT. It has not and will not be put up for auction [...] AP's NFT marketplace is a very early pilot program, and we are immediately reviewing our efforts".[104][105]

They aren't great when you see a lot of their stories go by at one time, it's not consistent.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Those are pretty good examples. They are still not great places to go but they certainly suck a whole lot less than the others. Hell, even the weather is now being reported as entertainment.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wish for AP to have RSS feeds, but they don't. I think they and Reuters are aome of the better outlets out there and I've been (re)discovering RSS lately, but AP is one of the few news outlets that don't seem to support it :(

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

RSSbridge may have you covered there! They’ve got a bunch of instances running you can check!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Quite right, AP do have rss news feeds (rsshub is one - amongst others) - there are posts on lemmy related to this topic.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Interesting! I'm going to look into it, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I find these two to be good for finding sources with different perspectives:

https://www.allsides.com/

https://ground.news/

After some time, you might see that there are a few specific sites that you like, and you can just start going to them directly.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

+1 to Ground News. I browsed them with a free account for a short time before subscribing to the middle tier. Their tools are really terrific at getting me to look at multiple sides of the same stories, and the blind spot feature is fantastic. I've been very satisfied with it and go to it multiple times a day.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I also enjoy ground news.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is awesome, I'm going to check it out, thank you.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Flipside is also excellent at providing balanced views and counterpoints. It’s a newsletter rather than a site though. (Full disclosure: that’s a referral link. I figured why not).

I’m also partial to The Week which also presents a wide array of views - though it admittedly leans left.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

I've been getting flipside emails for a while now. I really like them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I just took a look at both of them and found that I really like https://ground.news

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

AP and Reuters run the stories and everyone adds their opinions on top of that, or they rehash some Twitter thread. NPR tends to take those news stories and at least bring in competent analysts in to speak about them. I'd stick with those 3, for the most "fair" view of the happenings in the world.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

NPR and PBS, publicly funded does not mean government controlled.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

I subscribe to WSJ, NYT, WAPO, and my local newspaper. You need to read all sides of a story in order to get a reliable take.

Also recommend: Memeorandum to see multiple sources to same story.