So I used to visit CNN periodically just to get an idea of breaking news. I’ve always found their reporting very shallow, and thus they are not worth a subscription. By way of defending this, I’ve been a subscriber to The Economist for over 20 years, and that thing ain’t cheap. So I am willing to pay for quality work. I have about the same opinion of CNN that I do for USA Today. “Look! A cool chart on how much gum Americans chew!”
Anyway, what free sites do folks like for their general overview of what’s going on in the US? My current primary sites are: CNN (has to change), CNBC for business updates, The Economist for international deep dive coverage, and BBC for international breaking news.
Although the closest to CNN I think that is free is AP News (Associated Press) which I check too. Better than CNN IMO.
I also subscribe to The Economist and I love it but I agree it is stupid expensive and I think it has been going downhill the last few years. Still good but I do not like the trend.
I like The Guardian too but I get pushback that it is too overtly liberal.
Ack! I should have mentioned I listen to NPR in the car and in the kitchen, and usually while doing projects around the house.
I have noticed that there seem to be fewer really long articles. I love when they devote 7 pages to something. I think one of the biggest problems with journalism is that everything seems to be 400 words and done.
I agree. It is an expensive magazine and while it was never a very “thick” magazine it has gotten thinner. Also, they used to have excellent editors and the magazine was near pristine. It’s still very good but the editing is slipping. While much better than most when I pay that much for a magazine I want the perfection they used to embody.
I agree with the long-form articles. I miss those. They were what really set them apart.
NPR, BBC, and AP are good. Reuters is also good but going to a subscription model. If you are in California CalMatters is another good one. I read ProPublica occasionally.
I have cut way back on newsfollowing since the election. I am trying to elevate my local news a little more and suppress all else. It has been good so far.
Same here. I cancelled my subscription. I believe the very long term slow decline became really obvious and much faster when
In August 2015, Pearson sold its 50% stake in the newspaper to the Italian Agnelli family’s investment company, Exor, for £469 million (US$531 million)
Reminds me of: I bought the Christmas double issue at my usual newsstand (for 12.99€! for Christ-mas-double-sake!) and I have not opened it yet. Where might it be?
So what to read instead?
English:
The New York Times. Cheap if you don’t forget to threaten to cancel your subscription each year. Quality: meh. Mostly.
The Atlantic: OK. Cheap.
The Guardian. The bias is clear, and they are getting more and more boulevardesque IMO, but they are for free.
Politico: Very well informed in all things pertaining to Brussels and the EU. Recently acquired by Springer, a problematic editor. Let us hope they keep the quality. Still for free.
German:
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Cancelling the subscription. Getting more and more superficial, translating all interesting articles from the NYT two weeks later, they feel like leaning more and more on AI and cheap interns.
Neue Zürcher Zeitung: Re-subscribed yesterday, for lack of a better alternative that I know of. A bit too Swiss for my taste, particularly when they get into German-bashing mode. Neither cheap nor expensive, but would like to charge extra for PRO articles. And a lot more for “Market” articles.
Handelsblatt. Good for economic subjects, less so for political matters. Expensive.
Spanish:
Pure desperation. Can’t think of a readable newspaper, and I would love one.
I agree about the poor quality of CNN. And now that there’s nothing but bad news on the political front out of the US, I’m happy to mostly drop CNN. NPR and wire services (Reuters, AP) are good sources. In Canada the CBC is an excellent news source that also carries a lot of US and international news. Their website is very good and completely free, and CBC Radio One provides commercial-free national coverage with news, discussions, documentaries, and entertainment. I’ve also long enjoyed the New Yorker, but that tends to be more oriented to feature stories and analysis than to breaking news.
Seconding sources that others have noted: BBC, CBC, AP, NPR, and the Atlantic (moreso for long-form journalism than breaking news).
I regularly listen to the BBC World service through my SiriusXM subscription. They often feature longer-form stories, and I feel like I’ve learned a great deal about things in the world that I’d never heard of from them.
So I just had to renew my subscription to The Economist, and it’s up to $650 for a three year subscription (print & digital). That’s double what it was three years ago.
But still, I don’t know a better general new source.
So what about international news: so much of the U.S. media coverage is about hotspots the U.S. is involved in or a big natural disaster: for example when the U.S. was in a war in Iraq or Afghanistan we heard a lot about those countries–now almost nothing.
Though I have issues with their coverage. They are consistently biased against Israel and if you’re going to follow a state owned news source (Qatar in their case), I would rather trust the BBC on non-UK stuff. I don’t buy the BBC as being objective on UK news.
Additionally, Al Jazeera seems to be leaning pro-Russia. To be fair, I suppose a Pro-Russian person can rightfully claim that the BBC is anti-Russian. But of course, I think that is reality and not bias.
Sure, but at least they cover stories that don’t necessarily have a US issue, which is what @PastTense was asking about. Plus, getting other viewpoints is important, to avoid self-selecting one’s news.
For international coverage I feel pretty well informed by:
BBC website
BBC World Service (carried on one of our local NPR stations at 9am on weekdays and 4pm on weekends; can be streamed any time for free)
The Economist, which has a section for each region and also for very large nations like China.
My usual source for breaking news is ABC online, secondarily CBS now that CNN is paywalling a lot of stuff (Reuters earlier did the same; AP and the Guardian have some good coverage but are constantly begging for money, probably a prelude to subscriber-only news). For other national and local news we have online subscriptions to the Boston Globe and our local/regional newspaper.
PubMed, the free searchable scientific literature database is a fine source for published research, without the PR hype that accompanies institutional news releases. Generally you only get abstracts from PubMed, but with extra online searching on the title you can often find the complete paper without paying for it. Sources like Nature, Science, Retraction Watch and Science-Based Medicine are useful to consult, as major media are often lousy at accurate science/medicine coverage.