Trying to maintain news balance
Thursday, April 10, 2025 at 09:14AM
It's a well-known fact that reality has a liberal bias.
Stephen Colbert
Given the looney tune nature of politics lately, I am finding it increasingly difficult to maintain my “radical centrist” stance. In order to have rational thinking rather than factual cherry picking and overblown example-making by “influencers,” I do my best to read, watch, and listen to journalists and news sources that attempt to remain objective.
I am not sure how well I am actually doing.
It’s pretty easy to locate organizations which “rate” the bias of different news sources. I listen to NPR. I watch CBS and NBC national evening news. I read two newspapers: the Minnesota Star Tribune and the Mankato Free Press, and several columnists from the New York Times. I read selected articles from The Atlantic. Most of these sources are rated slightly left. <https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/> I appreciate the counter editorials published in the newspapers I read.
Three sources of commentary I am not particularly proud to engage with are Heather Cox Richardson’s "Letters from an American" newsletter and Jon Stewart and crew’s The Daily Show. I get a chuckle out of the postings of "Living Blue in a Red State" on Facebook. I guess I would categorize them as guilty pleasures, hopefully by recognizing their extreme biases, I counteract their influence.
I often wonder if having such a plethora of “news” sources increases or decreases the national average ability to make informed decisions. Are we in some sense returning to our tribal past, identifying only with those who live, act, and believe as we ourselves do? Will my grandsons at my age have any chance for political balance in their lives?
Blue Skunk readers (yes, both of you), what news sources do you rely on for objective reporting?
Reader Comments (7)
One of the main results of the relentless propaganda to which U.S.-based viewers are subject is the skewing of what is called the 'Overton window', that is, the understanding of what counts as 'left' and 'right' discourse.
This skew is reflected in 'The Media Bias Chart'.
The idea that Forbes, ABC, CNN, the Washington Post, etc. are 'neutral' or even 'left' is laughable. From a perspective outside the U.S. media bubble all of these would be regarded as 'right', and some of them (especially Forbes) as 'hard right'. Even though MSNBC relentlessly supports the Democrat party, it too is, from a global perspective, a right wing news outlet.
I think the division in the chart above stems from an almost complete recasting of what it means to be 'left' or 'right' in U.S. discourse. Most often, I see the difference characterized on social and cultural grounds, for example, on issues such as abortion, the death penalty, the role of religion in the state, gun control, DEI, etc. Generally, though, these are non-issues in the rest of the world's democracies.
The division between left and right actually reflects a division between socialism (left) and capitalism (right). No news source in the U.S. recognizes capitalism as anything other than normal and inevitable. The U.S. has little to no socialist media, and little to no media advocating for government provision of essential services such as health care and education, much less national control over banking and financial services. A socialist media will typically represent the perspective of labour and worker's rights, but virtually no media in the U.S. does.
The absence of world news sources from the chart here is a good indication of its bias. Where are the Guardian, Le Monde, Welt, El Pais, or even Canada's Globe and Mail or Toronto Star? On this chart, they would all be 'strong left' though the rest of the world regards them as mainstream or even somewhat right.
I can't speak for your other reader ;) but I am in the same place you are. I have started getting news from foreign news sources through YouTube. It's interesting to get a global perspective about all that's going on and to listen to different specialists than the ones I've gotten to know through national media. The news outlets thanks have been showing up on my feed are BBC, CBC (Canada), DW (Germany), France 24, and Al Jazeera.
Hi Stephen,
Fascinating perspective - much of which I had never considered, especially the world view of US news. I do think many US publications promote social programs and governmental regulation of private companies, but rarely extremely socialist views.
I often ask my Canadian (and Australian) friends why they are so interested in US politics. I know Americans are famously non-international in our news interests, but I am always surprised when non-US citizens seem to have a better understanding of the US than we do!
Hope you are not upset at all of us for the idiocy at the federal level.
I very much appreciate your comment.
Doug
Hi Nanci,
Yours and Stephen's comments make me realize I need to expand my information sources. I listen to the BBC World News on NPR, but that's about it. Thanks for your comment.
Dou
I like reading 1440: https://join1440.com/?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&user_id=66c4c7545d78644b3abc197c
Thanks, Pat. I've seen links for 1440 so maybe I will give it a try!
Doug
I hate to admit that we still subscribe to the analog version of the Washington Post. Although the quality of the writing in the paper has been declining for at least a decade (and took a big nose dive in the past year), my wife still likes to read a physical paper over breakfast. I only read a few articles, mostly local news. I also like their travel section.
My other news sources include ProPublica (of which I am a paid supporter), Wired Magazine, Rolling Stone (surprisingly good political coverage), The Atlantic, The Guardian, and NPR (in podcast form, also a paid supporter). I gave up on television news, especially cable, many years ago since there's almost no news left in their "news".
In addition to actually getting much better information from these sources, cutting back on the number of channels also helps maintain my sanity.
Hi Tim,
You sound pretty balanced. My friend Heidi is a big fan of the WP's book reviews. I don't know why I still watch the evening news on either CBS or NBC - just an old habit that's hard to break. I may start watching the PBS News hour.
Hope all is well with you and yours considering the political and economic chaos!
Doug