In the current political climate, staying well informed seems more important than ever. Yet, millions of people in the country use less than reliable sources to get their news. Using biased and unreliable sources to stay informed can lead to radical and closed-minded political beliefs, and a distrust of legitimate facts and arguments.
Reading or watching biased news is like getting your news from a very opinionated friend: while central facts may be conveyed, the perspective is usually distorted to confirm your biases rather than challenging your beliefs. Publications like Occupy Democrats and Infowars thrive off of creating outrage in order to lure the reader in, and then giving information from a biased, one-sided perspective. It may be comforting to constantly read things that agree with your current worldview, but if you never challenge your opinions, you will not end up well informed. For this reason, I compiled a ranking of major news sources based on objectivity and reliability. The ranking compiles studies of source accuracy and opinions of the accuracy of sources from across the political spectrum
Best Sources of News: These organizations are dedicated to journalistic integrity and reliability. They restrain partisan bias to a healthy degree and provide their audiences with a fair and accurate representation of world events.
- Reuters
- NPR
- The Economist
Great Sources of News: This group consists mainly of well known mainstream print publications. They emphasize journalistic integrity, objectivity, and reliability. These organizations show some partisan bias, but generally keep their audiences well informed on world events.
- BBC
- The Wall Street Journal
- The New York Times
- The Washington Post
- The Guardian
Network News: Good Sources of News: This group contains US network news programs. They show some partisan bias and a degree of sensationalism caused by their television format. Their audiences are informed on world events, but do not hold a deep understanding of them.
- ABC News
- CBS News
- NBC News
Cable News: Mediocre Sources of News: These two channels are popular left-leaning cable news channels which run 24 hour news cycles. They show greater partisan bias than their network counterparts, and a greater degree of sensationalism due to the demands of a 24 hour news cycle. They keep their audiences somewhat informed, but can confirm pre-existing biases and present a moderately distorted picture of reality. Avoid relying on these sources for information.
- CNN
- MSNBC
Biased and/or Unreliable Sources of News: These organizations present a biased picture of events, are sensationalized, and sometimes misrepresent facts in order to match their biases. These sources present somewhat accurate yet shallow versions of events and often work to confirm their political biases. Avoid these sources if possible.
- Fox News
- The Huffington Post
- Al Jazeera America
Very Biased and/or Unreliable: These organizations present extremely biased and sensationalized versions of events which will constantly confirm the biases of their audiences. They often misrepresent facts and show little journalistic integrity. Their audiences are in danger of having warped views of reality. They are almost as bad as not staying informed at all. Avoid these sources.
- Buzzfeed
- Breitbart
Near-Propaganda: Extremely Biased and/or Unreliable: These publications are almost always biased and extremely sensationalized. They create articles that function more as propaganda than news, and rarely ever acknowledge opposing views. They have no journalistic integrity or ethics. Their audiences will almost always have distorted views of the world which are counterproductive to finding political middle-ground with others. Reading these websites is worse than not staying informed. Avoid these sources at all costs.
- Occupy Democrats
- Infowars
