Fair and balanced

[Alleya]

All reported news is going to have some bias. Look up both sides, read, make your own decision. You report, you deside.

This is the right answer.

But if you want stories you won't hear about in the mainstream american media (Ie, the important ones), check out Democracy Now! and BBC, or whatever other foreign/independent news sources you can find.

[Mizango]

Al-Jazeera.....?

http://english.aljazeera.net/English

It's a good source for news

ROFL.

Al-Jazeera? Bipartisan and non biased? I almost fell the fuck out of my chair on that one. And yes, I have watched the purported "non terrorist" embracing Al-Jazeera English so I am speaking from experience with my manic LOLZ in regards to this answer.

I recall a story of 2-3 soldiers being killed by an IED and the semi-feminine butch anchor (It's name escapes me atm) was quoted as saying "Only when the oil driven invasion ends will these types of stories end". Her being right or wrong isn't the issue at all, just the early morning laugh I got from you called them "Fair and balanced".

LOL @ Al-Jazeera, Goddamn that's a good one Firas!

[guartz]

Al-Jazera/BBC

[octopus]

http://digg.com

Edit: but really, learn to use Google reader - set up RSS feeds and you'll have your own one stop shop for news.

http://www.google.com/reader

[sephir]

BBC is one of the most unbiased news sources available. They cover world events not just the happenings in the US like CNN does. I remember BBC reporting on things like North Korea, and Darfur while CNN was going on about Anna Nichol's baby and who was the father for about 2 weeks. Obviously every source of news has some sort of bias but I believe BBC does the best job in trying to just report the facts of the events that are occuring, even though bias does sometimes leak out.

[kyod]

I almost fell over laughing when people were seriously suggesting Daily Show/Colbert as legit news sources. Blah blah blah satire blah blah. You can not call yourself informed if you rely on Daily Show/Colbert as a main news source. Sure it's funny when you've read the stories and watched REAL coverage on the stories, but just watching Daily Show/Colbert and strutting around thinking you know everything about a certain topic because you saw it on there makes you look like a big douche.

But for good news sources; read a major newspaper. Washington Post or NYT are pretty good. Reading off the AP wire is good, but sometimes the AP reporters can make retarded mistakes (ie some french reporter did a story on foreclosures in Cleveland and mistakingly named Cleveland as one of the most affluent suburbs lols).

For radio I suggest NPR, or a 24/7 newsradio station. (I suggest WBBM 780AM if you're in Chicago).

TV news is generally shitty. CNN is pretty decent, but don't watch Anderson/Larry King/Blitzer/etc... Watch during the midday for the strict headline news.

Perhaps the most important part of my post, don't just read/watch/listen to one of these. Listen to all 3. Watch news on TV, listen on the radio, read a paper/internet. That way you will know which parts are most important by seeing which overlap in all 3.

[Xajii]

If you're any good at utilizing the internet it's not at all difficult to find real news; the inherent problem with TV and radio news is that they are choosing what to tell you, whereas with the internet, you choose which articles to read and which not to. I default to cnn.com for the most basic news situations, but if I'm looking for unadeltered reports of intricate things, follow the trail of AP and Reuters.

[GSDragoon]

http://www.drudgereport.com/

The site layout sucks, but it has some good information.

[Elesirdur]

http://www.cbc.com/news - Yay state media!

and globeandmail.com are where I get my news from here in Canada. For international stuff I like the BBC and Reuters sites the best.

[Demosthenes11]

http://www.drudgereport.com/

The site layout sucks, but it has some good information.

isn't that more of a right-wing website?
My dad reads it a lot and used to spout shit at me daily when I lived at home - and he's crazy "Obama is a terrorist" man.

[Correction]

Drudge is a blog with no original writing of its own. Which makes it a very poor blog, and little more than an unorganized collection of links to other news sites.

It's unreliable in its slant to say the least.

[Atlasion]

I know its been mentioned many times (and I had no idea it was so popular outside of the UK), but the BBC news site is really good.

Also has a nice "most emailed" and "most read" section that has interesting/amusing articles.

[kyod]

Drudge is a step above the supermarket tabloids imo. I take everything on there with a truckful of salt.

[Conrad]

Read more than one news source if you're trying to avoid bias.

As for the Stewart/Colbert thing: I make sure to catch their programs every night, as I feel that they're the most HONEST (don't read that as unbiased or most news-intensive) program as far as information is concerned. It's a fair comparison to call them modern-day jesters.

I've also read reports that say those who are regular watchers of Stewart and/or Colbert tend to be more politically aware than those who watch O'Reilly, et. al, or read the newspaper. Food for thought.

[SwampdonkeyPLD]

Drudge isn't even a blog, it's just a bunch of links to other sites. Sometimes "sources" leak stuff to him, but other than that, there's no original content.

While Drudge himself is right-wing, I really wouldn't consider the site right-wing like some other ones out there because there's no opinion given. More stories would appeal to a right wing person than not though, so I guess Drudge is right-wing in that regard.

[Olo401]

Anything not based out of the US will usually give you good news stories. Like someone said earlier, BBC is a great news source. English Al Jazeera is also a great news source. It gets a bad rap but its a great source for news.

I completely agree with this. Personally I use guardian.co.uk and rawstory.com, but Al Jazeera is probably the best place to get actual news from the Middle East and they're surprisingly fair with their reporting.

[namfoodle]

The Guardian/BBC combo has always been good to me. What one is too afraid to talk about, the other usually will cover. Google's news feed will give you the most varied results, however.

I recommend The Onion because, really, who cares about real news.

For people like Swampdonkey, who need someone else to think for them, I recommend http://www.timecube.com/

[Faris]

oh yeah, BBC hands down for anything i want to know about Europe, they deliver.

It's really hard to base your source of news on 1 website because it depends where it comes from, and that determines how juicy/fresh/biased/unbiased their news is.

[Sess]

http://www.economist.com/ for my right wing source

Digg/BBC/Al-jazera/France2 news for my leftish counter balance