Independent journalism
 

If no one's noticed in the US, journalism has gotten entirely crappy in the US. The fact is, there's not a lot of questioning of the big boys of media: Fox, ABC, NBC, etc. The stories that they choose to run with tend to be the same or similar stories about either frivolous or nonsensical stories that have nothing to do with what's happening, politically, in America. CNN hasn't broken a story in years, merely repeating what's already known. And if you know about Fox, you know it gets its money from controversy like saying videogames cause violence.

So basically, this thread is about the indies that follow stories outside of the influence of the large people.

LinkTV - This has recently become a HUGE resource of information. From 9/11 to the recent lobbying of the Israeli lobbying group AIPAC, this independent media source has shown a lot of various documentaries that completely open up the government. Of all the ones I report, this is the only one that shows news from other countries to give you their take. This is now my main news channel to watch.

Al-Jazeera - Not as good as it used to be but still a great resource in regards to the Middle East.

The Real News Network - Is so focused on Afghanistan, it's ridiculous. Doesn't focus on US issues except to criticize the government. So Occupy Wall Street gave them a field day.

Reason TV - Not a bad network, but I don't have much experience with them. I watch some of their reporting, but it's really not a lot right now save for their coverage of the Kelly Thomas murder.

RT - I understand that RT stands for Russian Television, but their reporting doesn't seem propagandist like Fox does. They're critical of the US government, similar to TRNN, but most of the coverage is pretty critical. By extension, the Alyona Show I mainly watch for the host. :) I still think she can sometimes seem a little too critical of some aspects of the US, but she seems well rounded in her coverage in pointing out the flaws of the government and critical of its positions.

Alternet.org - Is focused on US domestic it seems. I haven't watched it all, but I thought it was interesting to see the trillion dollar underground economy. Otherwise, I don't pay much attention to this site right now, but it's still great to look at what's happening around the US.
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Personally, I haven't watched the Mainstream Media for quite a long time. While I believe there are those that want to consolidate the news through mergers, there should always be places to go to and find your own view on what's important in your life. If people only settle for what's regurgitated to them, we will really have a problem of democracy.

Not a word. You're thinking "frivolous."

But to be honest I get most of my news from The Daily Show. It's entertaining as hell and they aren't as alarmist as the other news people. I prefer to decide on my own what to be scared shitless about, tyvm.

There was a survey a while back that I found amusing.

But, anyway, I find the best thing to do is to read as many things as you can, and try to look for recurring threads. Try to cut through the bullshit. Smaller news outlets are no more inherently unbiased than large ones are.

...failing that, because that takes a lot of time, I just watch the Daily Show.

The Daily Show draws attention to the implications of world events and political discussion too much for me, As in it makes me super depressed.

It's pretty bad when I have to go to the state-run Chinese English news channel (CCTV) to get an "objective" viewpoint on world news, kind of like how Jagos watches the Russian news channel.

PBS Newshour is another good source, plus most of what Jagos mentioned I'd say is pretty objective (I've been critical of Reason for their bias but at least there's not a lot of outright lying going on there). LinkTV is pretty good, FSTV (Free Speech TV) is pretty far left and socialist but since people usually equate telling the truth with being far left and socalist I'd say that's a good pedigree.

I'm not particularly in love with the network news, as Jagos mentioned, with the mere half-hour they have every night they often devote at least a 1/3 of it (their "final segment" every night) to some stupid "human interest" story.

Really PBS I think is the best, between the Newshour, NBR, BBC World News, NHK World, and Deutsche-Welle, you get a lot of the traditional news programming that is still hard hitting. Then you have shows like Democracy Now! and Washington Week which tackle political news, again way harder than any of the major networks. And finally you have great documentary programs like Frontline and POV that deliver good political documentary programming.

While the internet makes it possible, finding true journalism online is about as much of a snipe hunt as finding one on television. For the same reasons. Many of them are still bias pushing one agenda or another.

Or they are after ratings/traffic, because that ties directly into their cash flow.

Ironically the best places to get news tend to be ones that dont focus on it, such as the daily show. Thats because people aren't going there for their news, thus sensationalist stories dont really affect their traffic.

In any case I think the real issue is the public. Most people dont want to think. They want either information in easy to digest chunks, or to hear someone parrot their own values to make them feel better about themselves.

Even though our discussions here often devolve into us slinging feces at one another, atleast there is actual discussion. I'll take that over "fair and balanced" news shows any day.

... Uhm... No?

LinkTV has a drive every year to have enough money to stay on cable. Right now, they raised $350,000 in two weeks to keep their objective channel. They don't get money from advertisements so they remain pretty objective.

RT gets money from Russia, but they maintain their independence on stories while staying critical of US policies.

TRNN also does donations and refuses any donations from businesses. I would assume they have heavy donations from individuals, but that's anyone's guess.

Be aware that The Daily Show is beating Fox News. Cable cutting is becoming larger and larger. You have more people going online for news and entertainment than watching Jersey Shore. It's taking time but I would like to think that more people are going to make news online than watch precanned speeches on TV. It's just about that time for the net to disrupt the old ways of doing business.

The fact that it subsists almost entirely on donations is probably why PBS is pretty good, although yeah they are still sometimes sponsored by like...Pepsi? And I mean NOVA has been apparently funded for the next 100 years by a donation from David Koch (like it was seriously a massive donation, befitting a zillionaire). But in either of those cases I don't think it is affecting their journalism, since NOVA is a documentary program and Pepsi just sells soft-drinks.

Is PBS soft on childhood obesity being caused by an overconsumption of Pepsi? I dunno.

Actually the PBS Newshour IS sponsored by some giant multinational bank or something or other but when they did a story on said bank they made sure to say "Full disclosure, the Newshour is partially sponsored by [giant multinational bank]" which is something that pretty much every other news organization fails to do (such as the myriad news organizations sponsored by BP Oil and so on making no mention of it despite covering BP oil for many, many months, or that MSNBC is a subsidiary of General Electric, something they don't mention when reporting on GE).

Jagos for the love of, *sighs* many, means, not all of them.

As for daily show, of course its beating Fox News, because its an entertainment program. Just because people watch it doesn't mean they watch it for the news. Most watch it because its funny and what they learn is secondary. Nothing wrong with that, information through entertainment is a good education method. But I seriously doubt most (most means not all of them, I want to stress this) people watch a program on Comedy Central for late breaking news

Counterpoint: Fox News isn't News either, it is Opinion Shows and Entertainment.

And, yes, people watch it for the News parts more often then just the funny. The funny is a bonus