I always seem to default to Google News, but I would prefer to have a reliable web source for alternative international news. Something that is not mainstream like CNBC, CNN etc. but not quite as conspiratory or extreme as Alex Jones. Any suggestions?
RT, Rabble, google news, youtube, aljazeera
http://www.courrierinternational.com/
Courier International is good if you can read French. It translates article and editorials from various languages into a weekly digest in French. It's not necesasrily "radical" news but you get regional news and opinions from their own perspectives that you wouldn't normally get unless you could read Russian, Arabic, Romanian, Malay, or whatever.
All of them.
Speaking generally though, I think it is good to not ignore right-wing sources of news, and trade publications which are supposedly non-political. They can often be a gold mine.
For that matter, what is in the business section is often far more important than what you see in the front pages.
Sometimes they are less likely to lie, or to twist or withhold information if they think the only ones paying attention are like-minded people, and not the general public.
I don't rely on the web. Love my Guardian Weekly. They have a web site too.
Let me get this straight. You are telling me right wing sources are likely to give us real news without lying, twisting or withholding information. Yeah right.
Let me get this straight. You are telling me right wing sources are likely to give us real news without lying, twisting or withholding information. Yeah right.
It's not completely crazy. Look at The Economist. Or things which are not social but only economic "news" but are in the business section of the paper, say the closing of a factory or the introduction of new technology or whatever. If you only read The Guardian and Al Jazeera you'll just get a small slice of what goes on in the world.
... you will often find that they let undoctored information slip - particularly in the business pages, or in a trade publication - that you would never see in the front section of a daily.
This bears repeating.
Also, what right-wing sources don't say tells you plenty
@ Sarann
I didn't say that.
What I said was that you will often find that they let undoctored information slip - particularly in the business pages, or in a trade publication - that you would never see in the front section of a daily.
And they do it because they are essentially talking to a friendly audience. And also, because it is work picking through it.
I don't think you'll find this information in the Globe and Mail:
http://www.rigzone.com/news/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=o...
http://www.oilfielddailynews.com/
(edit)
@ Lachine Scot
And yes, I was thinking of The Economist. Once you look beyond their obvious slant there is a fair bit of good information there. As well, how they think and see things is itself very important.
(edit)
I googled "Sirte oilfield" and there are only two news outlets that already have published the fact that they restarted production - rigzone and Fox Business news.
Guess I should have been more specific in my original post, because I am primarily interested in economic/financial news at the moment, so glad the discussion moved this way.
It seems like there is also mainstream/alternative econ/financial views as well. Lately i've been watching a lot of Max Keiser. He comes off as a bit of a whacko but interesting nonetheless.
Anyone have opinions on Max Keiser or Gerald Celente? Any other biz site recommendations?
Keiser is, I think, a wunderkid from Wall Street who's pretty brilliant and contrasts with the usual bootlicker of the rich for business reporters. Why dont' you try the Left Business Observer? Doug Henwood is a genuis. The whole crowd around Monthly Review is good too, although since that magazine comes out only monthly you might have to look at MR Zine and elsewhere for more timely stuff.
Thanks for the recommendations ikosmos. I'll check them out.
i think the only way to get a clear picture of what's going on is to read a variety of sources from every end of the ideological spectrum, using your common sense to put it all together.
the key is not always getting your info from the same place. spread it around and the ful picture comes out.
also, don't just rely on news companies to get your info, try reading trade journals, activist reports, etc. as they have huge amounts of really great information that is often not part of the story in the press!
How about Wikileaks?
Wiki-War on Israel 'Weasels Out' - by Gordon Duff
http://veteranstoday.com/2011/01/19/gordon-duff-wikiweasel-iii-israel-ce...
"...Wikileaks 'sensitivity' to Israel was really 'working for Israel'. In fact, pretty much everything Wikileaks was about is, as Jeff Gates calls it, 'game theory warfare.'.."
So, what are you trying to say by posting this link? That we shouldn't trust wikileaks?
Just type wikileaks into google news and you get tons of stuff you would never find anywhere else
people can draw their own conclusions obviously. I bring additional information for consideration on the topic. I have and will continue to look at their materials but the case can still be made of significant hiatus's and curious omissions
Off the top of my head -- sources many Babblers know, quite probably -- and forgive any repetition of what has already been cited.
Monthly Review has good analysis with a long view, contrasting with the pragmatic Economist and its relatively short-sighted capitalism.
For actual news and some analysis, I've discovered Asia Times online and IPS (Inter Press Service) quite good, for the far east and the middle east respectively. commondreams.org tends to focus mainly on the US, while counterpunch.org has better analysis and seems to cover more of the world.
democracynow.org remains good over all, but the 24-hr online news cycle from progressive sources seems to be tiring them out. It has been slipping, I think, for instance by taking many of its daily headlines from the likes of the NY Times. Amy Goodman seems to have been led by the nose on Libya in particular, with a clear pro-rebel bias and NO analysis to speak of.
If you read Spanish at all, www.rebelion.org has featured excellent reports from the front in Tunisia, the Saharaui conflict, Palestine, and has been quite consistent and reliable, unlike telesurtv.net which has lost its initial verve.
,
IMHO Le Monde Diplomatique is the best of the field in the liberal-to-socialist MSM, if you read French and have the time to read the extensive articles. Although I've spotted some sketchy types writing for it on Colombia, for example. Over all the analysis is pretty reliable.
RT isn't bad for news, especially the yanqui-bashing variety.
My two cents.
I think http://rabble.ca and http://rabble.ca/babble is a pretty good "RSS" news feed of sorts. We have a lot of people contributing news stories and feeding threads with interesting news bits from around the world. If I want to know what's happening in Canada and around the world, it's a good bet that it's there on either rabble.ca pages or babble discussion threads.
I've always looked for news without bias. Generally I seek- OH SHIT EARTHQUAKE
lol. that wasn't the booze.
You should seek a bias towards justice, towards working people, towards internationalism and solidarity, and become more comfortable with the idea that one can be partisan AND objective.
You should seek a bias towards justice, towards working people, towards internationalism and solidarity, and become more comfortable with the idea that one can be partisan AND objective.
I agree with you, though I would substitute the word "fair" for objective. None of us is objective.
Objectivity is a word that many in the media like to use when they want us to believe that they are giving us the absolute truth. It is like saying we are all equal.
To strive for objectivity is not only impossible; I don't actually want it, because it means not thinking or applying analysis to something. I can deal with that in a straight news piece, but not in anything that looks at the broader picture.
The best we can strive for is coverage that is fair rather than deceptive, and frankly, that is something that exists across the spectrum, though obviously there is far more deception and omission in the mainstream media which occupies the centre-right.
That said, I disagree with the hard rule that right is lies and left is truth. There are some centre and right wing sources which I may disagree with, but which I trust to give me fair information, and I have read some left-wing sources which are nonsense.
There was an earthquake and I became distracted. Anyways, the news I prefer is becoming quite the oddity.
Occasionally, there are world BBC articles that present no bias. They merely tell you what happened, and the numbers behind it. That's the kind of news I enjoy. Unfortunatly the lines between opinion and fact no longer matter to the media. There is no longer any talk about the net benefits of an action or the pros and cons of something. All I hear now is people clamoring about whether their opinions are right or wrong.
Speaking of which, another good one, for European news in particular. Unfortunately they have no English language edition:
thanks for all the great recommendations!
i start with http://www.commondreams.org/ and http://www.antiwar.com/
great daily+ compilations of news from around the world as well as self-generated pieces.
even a reading of all the headlines on these sites gives you a gist of what's happening.
next comes http://english.aljazeera.net/ , http://www.spiegel.de/international/ , babble, http://www.ianwelsh.net/, and http://www.agonist.org/ .
which all adds up to _way more news than any one person can chew thru in a day!
and of course, one has to wade thru the spin and read between the lines. that's a given, eh
Spiegel is a very good (mainstream but critical) news source. I also read rebelion - good, but can get a bit demagogic in that populist vein often seen in the Latin American left. (Not always, just at times).
www.europe-solidaire.org A good lefty digest from Europe (but covering all the planet), in French and English.
I love Le Monde diplomatique but don't always have the time to read it thoroughly.
Thanks for taz.de , Smith. Will peruse it.
@ lagatta
Der Spiegel is also very good, in that it is thorough. If you aren't familiar with der Tageszeitung it is worth it to check out their history.
Portal:Current events (wikipedia.org)
Disinformation: Everything You Know Is Wrong (disinfo.com)
Reality Sandwich (realitysandwich.com)
Hacker News (news.ycombinator.com)
Information Clearing House (informationclearinghouse.info)
Mostly Water (mostlywater.org)
and already mentioned, but worth repeating:
Al Jazeera English (english.aljazeera.net)
World news | The Guardian (guardian.co.uk)
For news out of India, I've always liked Tehelka.
I should be reading it more these days about the anti-corruption movement, but, well.... I get distracted easily.
Haaretz is one of the more "liberal" mainstream newspapers out of Israel...sort of like the Toronto Star.
There are sometimes some quite good op-ed pieces there, often much more critical of Israeli policies than anything we read in the mainstream media about Israel/Palestine in Canada.
I also pay attention to the business sections of mainstream newspapers in Canada. It's where often the ruling class is talking amongst themselves and they're often more honest chatting amongst each other than when they're talking to us.
Also, some quite interesting stuff gets burried there. Internet law expert Michael Geist's excellent column gets burried in the business section of the Toronto Star for instance...where he gets many fewer readers than he'd have if it was put in the "news" or "op-ed" section. As one interested in the politics of tech in Canada, reading him is essential.
Social networking is also useful...particularly if you follow folks who are politically interested and/or active. They'll constantly feed you articles from a variety of news sources and you'll be constantly learning about new ones.
Reading stuff from right-wing news sources is also important. If you're on the left, it's useful to know what the right-wing is saying...if for no other reason than to combat their B.S.
Whatever media your reading, watching, listening to you can put through your own personal BS-o-meter and figure out in your own mind what's going on in the world.
I'll page through news sources from anything that isn't completely ridiculous, like Fox News or Quebecor's Sun newspapers.
For International and Buisness news?
I'm not sure it's possible for me to rave enough about Al-Jazeera English. The best coverage of the Arab Spring on the planet, by a country mile. In my opinion also the best news organization on the planet for presenting viewpoints counter to the neo-liberal consensus held by most governments and news organizations today.
I also like the Economist. They avoid sensationalistic crap and talk about the news they actually think is relevent.
The Globe and Mail, CNN, Huffington Post and the New York Times are also sites I check fairly frequently.
Maybe by region for international news -
South America
> http://upsidedownworld.org/main/
That one will surely have something interesting you have not heard before... Canadian mining company abuses, etc.
And Narco news is not only about illegal drugs - some S.A. nations legalised some drugs!! But ya, it has other stories too.
Al Persia > http://english.aljazeera.net/
World news as seen by India > http://www.dnaindia.com/
Africa > http://indepthafrica.com/
Russia too!! http://english.ruvr.ru/world/ {in many languages, for you!!
OH YA!!! Here we go - News you find on Russian websites - LANDING PEOPLE ON AN ASTEROID
> http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/09/20/56419947.html
Ok, who can first find an article "asteroids landing on PEOPLE"?
Wow. Great recommendations babblers! Since everyone is giving such great recommendations, shouldn't we keep these recommendations as a refference somewhere?
Good idea!
News Now is an amazing UK-based aggregator that pulls stories from everywhere and is organized by an incredible array of topics:
Wow. Great recommendations babblers! Since everyone is giving such great recommendations, shouldn't we keep these recommendations as a refference somewhere?
Stickified!
I must plug wsws.org, where I read two or three pieces daily. The details are good, search is very useful, and I am frequently inspired by their dedication.
I am surprised to read praise of Al Jazeera English, which I have found appalling recently. I share another poster's disdain for Dem Now's Libya coverage. Might as well listen to the CBC. Derek Stoffel, in particular, simply shouldn't be in Libya, which I suppose is why he is.
I am gradually returning to counterpunch (after the dedication of the newsletter to disproving various theories about the buildings/911, pages and pages, issues in a row, eesh) and feel rueful it took me so long to forgive them. Much great stuff now.
ICH gets a big thumbs up. What an array, I could spend all day and sometimes do.
RT and Asia Times are great. I really value wiki as a starting point on any issue, names, links, look up blue words etc.
I used to be a host, producer on Vancouver CoOp radio, for 8 years, yikes 15 years ago; I listened to many programs all the time, and have missed it terribly since moving to a boggy hollow on Vancouver Island where even yards of copper around my livingroom brought in nothing better than wasps behind a curtain. Radio online I just don't seem to get around to, think there were gap problems. I'm sure it's still great. 102.7 FM. Pick and choose, everyone's radio, favourites, and shrugs. Behind the scenes fights were phenomenal, and often a useful part of the learning media literacy process.
And there is found art ---and sometimes very useful details--- in otherwise ho hum business articles. I occasionally blunder into them, random googles, and grin at what the military and politicians deny. I fully agree with other posters who occasionally enjoy this process.
NATO currently has a brag site, with daily listings of flights and bombs dropped, all on military targets of course, re Libya. Wading through the obscene code, I get an idea of what it's like to live in Sirte. Day after day. F'rinstance.
start at http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-A03A4948-5DBA32A6/natolive/71679.htm
The totals could provide a Halon 1301 footprint for NATO in Libya, given that every fighter jet fills its fuel tanks with long-banned but still around Halon 1301, as the fuel is used up, 1301 to be emitted upon landing. It's got an ODP of 10 to 16, depending on your source. (And it's still being used in racing cars, for sale online.) I'm positive NATO mechanics don't vac it up and re-compress it for the next time.
And I guess I have to praise, for all its problems and cumbersome preferences, google.
For well researched alternative news, try Sign Of The Times (SOTT.net)
I haven't found anything to replace News of the World, any suggestions?
Double post
Depends on what country or region you're wanting to read about, I guess, and the type of international news you're interested in (business? cultural? current events? politics? local? the entertainment scene?). Sources within the region you're thinking about are helpful, but of course it depends on whether they're right-wing, left-wing, run by the colonizers if the country is colonized, etc.
GlobalPost, The New York Times, The Independent, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Economist, mostly in that order.
Just heard on the radio this morning that the English language service of Radio Netherlands is going off the air after 75 years. It was part of Jian Ghomeshi's opening editorial on Q, on the cancelling of CBC Dispatches.
This is a favourite of mine. It's American, but still good for world news as well, including Canada.
Google News — nothing else.
The Economist. They're a bit squishy these days, though.
