Sean Remington said: You guys keep taking this into places I don't really want to get into, that's fine I guess.
I think the more varied news and information sources we read and look for, the better informed we become.
One-sided or agenda-driven sources cause us to be poorly-informed and risk us making poorly informed decisions, or worse, assumptions. See the Republicans during the presidential race. Blinders.
I was reading about bias in the media (trying to understand why conservatives are having such a hard time and seem to blame everything but their own policies and prejudices) and how it affects public opinion -- found an interesting post on debate.org. It sheds more light on my point:
[quote">"Bias" is such a biased term.
If I can offer a new perspective, I often feel as if the media is not pursuing any particular political agenda. This goes for Fox NEWS and MSNBC, as well. (I said that on purpose.)
I've worked with radio, television and film media, as well as print journalism – and I have come away with an even more depressing view of our information media: they are lazy.
News and information media has become a for-profit enterprise, and has incorporated very large doses of corporate advertising and entertainment that it presents as "news." Most journalists copy and paste all their articles, virtually word for word, and nobody resists the will of advertisers or editors.
The result: it starts to look as if the politics of advertisers has trumped all else. My take: Reporters are not doing their jobs as journalists; they are working for advertisers.
Therefore, the "best" unbiased news and information sources are the ones that are barely funded, such as NPR, and PBS. I often trust Reuters, as well. Remember, blogs and podcasts answer to donors – and will inevitably treat these contributors in the same way that big outlets treat advertisers.
Personally, I'd add Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal (because "money has no master") to the list of trustable sources. Say what you want about NPR and PBS, they never run programs or hosts that have agendas. If you can find evidence of it, let me know. They just report what happened and leave the political innuendo out of it.