i used to spend my time in twitter countering russian disinformation about ukraine and as it pertains to 🇺🇸 politics.
when an article or post makes my blood boil, i check the owner of the outlet. 9/10 that quick search will show that the most sensationalist articles generally come from publications owned by denizens of the extreme right or billionaires-basically synonymous at this point.
Awesome work engaging with your media ecosystem and educating yourself on ownership of the sources you see. Please check out my other work and consider sharing. Thanks!
I agree with your recommendations. I read and/or follow all of them! Navigating the cesspool that is the internet has become increasingly difficult.
I would recommend Ground News. The free version is even worth it. For every particular news story released, they show you every single outlet that covered the story and you can choose which outlet you want to read. You can also sort the outlets by bias, factuality and a few other criteria. I sort by factuality and hit the slider to have the app only show outlets that are listed as “high factuality.” I choose accordingly from there. From what I understand, Ground News isn’t algorithm based. They only feed you stories on the topics you follow. I feel it works quite well. You do have to put in a little effort. Unfortunately, discerning high quality information from bullshit takes effort these days.
Their bias and factuality ratings come from Media Bias Fact Check, Ad Fontes Media and All Sides. Each of these three credibility sites are very useful on their own as well. I would put them and other sites like them in the essential category moving forward. These people do good work.
News Guard is also essential. They have a newsletter here on Substack as well as an app and a browser extension for checking ratings on various websites. They also keep close tabs on misinformation and disinformation. One of their cofounders, Steven Brill, recently released his new book“The Death of Truth.” This is an essential read or listen.
Re-posting my reply to you in Notes, Tim. Again, thanks for engaging.
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Hey, Tim. Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply. A word about NewsGuard. I just read a piece they did on pink slime sites. They include legitimate, fact-based newsrooms like States Newsroom and Courier News outlets as pink slime, so, that’s disqualifying to me. Similarly, I just did a quick review of how adfontes “rates” AL.com. They put a “left” bias score on a piece that was just a guide to Pride Month events. Newsrooms should serve their communities and LGBTQ people are people and there is no bias in providing an event list to readership about a month long, annual event. I find media bias sites to be highly subjective. They place far too much emphasis on a misguided interpretation of bias when their guiding star should simply be adherence to fact and the level of contextualizing information and transparency that the journalism contains.
From your list, I follow ProPublica, The Guardian, The New Republic and Popular Information. I also subscribe to/follow local outlets in the Portland, Oregon area, such as the Portland Tribune, Portland Mercury and Willamette Week.
Thank You!
Talking Points Memo has been a reliable source for years.
i used to spend my time in twitter countering russian disinformation about ukraine and as it pertains to 🇺🇸 politics.
when an article or post makes my blood boil, i check the owner of the outlet. 9/10 that quick search will show that the most sensationalist articles generally come from publications owned by denizens of the extreme right or billionaires-basically synonymous at this point.
Awesome work engaging with your media ecosystem and educating yourself on ownership of the sources you see. Please check out my other work and consider sharing. Thanks!
I agree with your recommendations. I read and/or follow all of them! Navigating the cesspool that is the internet has become increasingly difficult.
I would recommend Ground News. The free version is even worth it. For every particular news story released, they show you every single outlet that covered the story and you can choose which outlet you want to read. You can also sort the outlets by bias, factuality and a few other criteria. I sort by factuality and hit the slider to have the app only show outlets that are listed as “high factuality.” I choose accordingly from there. From what I understand, Ground News isn’t algorithm based. They only feed you stories on the topics you follow. I feel it works quite well. You do have to put in a little effort. Unfortunately, discerning high quality information from bullshit takes effort these days.
Their bias and factuality ratings come from Media Bias Fact Check, Ad Fontes Media and All Sides. Each of these three credibility sites are very useful on their own as well. I would put them and other sites like them in the essential category moving forward. These people do good work.
News Guard is also essential. They have a newsletter here on Substack as well as an app and a browser extension for checking ratings on various websites. They also keep close tabs on misinformation and disinformation. One of their cofounders, Steven Brill, recently released his new book“The Death of Truth.” This is an essential read or listen.
Re-posting my reply to you in Notes, Tim. Again, thanks for engaging.
—————————
Hey, Tim. Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply. A word about NewsGuard. I just read a piece they did on pink slime sites. They include legitimate, fact-based newsrooms like States Newsroom and Courier News outlets as pink slime, so, that’s disqualifying to me. Similarly, I just did a quick review of how adfontes “rates” AL.com. They put a “left” bias score on a piece that was just a guide to Pride Month events. Newsrooms should serve their communities and LGBTQ people are people and there is no bias in providing an event list to readership about a month long, annual event. I find media bias sites to be highly subjective. They place far too much emphasis on a misguided interpretation of bias when their guiding star should simply be adherence to fact and the level of contextualizing information and transparency that the journalism contains.
Yes.
Hell yes. Let me know if you check out the Local Journalism Directory and subscribe to an outlet. We all wanna hear about it!
From your list, I follow ProPublica, The Guardian, The New Republic and Popular Information. I also subscribe to/follow local outlets in the Portland, Oregon area, such as the Portland Tribune, Portland Mercury and Willamette Week.
Richard,
Thanks a lot for your recommendations. We've added the Portland Tribune and Mercury to our database.
Super cool. Willamette Week is in MAD's directory already. I'll see about the other two. Thanks for the great info!