When people say something about the world, my first question should be but isn’t always, what are your news sources? If it is Fox news, CNN, or even BBC or any combination, I know they are only partially informed.
My first job reporting on building projects throughout the
Do I read each daily, cover to cover??? Of course, not. I do have a life, but during the recent Israel War I was looking at Israeli and Lebanese papers daily to see what they were reporting. Likewise I tap into whatever countries’ newspapers when there is a big story to see the local perspective. Sadly, I have to rely mostly on English or French language papers, although from time-to-time I will run another language through an automatic translator, which is less than perfect.
Nor do I take any of them as Gospel, because international papers have bias just as American ones do. And although I try to look at both conservative and liberal to keep myself hones, I do lean to the liberal. One of the more amusing things is to hear my Arab friends swear that Aljazeera is really run by the CIA. And by asking friends from these countries what they think of these papers, I can get a more in-depth feeling of what is going on.
What does this do for me, other than threaten metacarpal syndrome from too much time on the computer? I feel it gives me a more balanced picture of what is going on and somehow a bit of truth may emerge between the spin and lies.
US
www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
www.canada.com/vancouversun/index.html
Czech
www.lemonde.fr (liberal)
www.lefigaro.fr (conservative)
service.spiegel.de/cache/international/
www.iran-daily.com/1385/2640/html/
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/
http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml
http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml
http://syriatimes.tishreen.info/
Misc.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/index.html
http://www.wsws.org/ (Socialist News)
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
Paper when possible
The Economist
Financial Times
Posts
2 comments:
some years ago I gave up newspapers when the sunday papers reached the size of an epic novel. I decided that the papers intention is to divert and occupy ones time so that no action is possible if indeed one could decided what action to take.
I haven't had a TV either for a number of years. I am interested in world affairs but have decided that unless I can help alleviate pverty and or war then I see no point in reading about it. I will get involved in local campaigns but only when I understand what is actually hapening. This is my problem with international plolitics, unless we are there how can we know what is truly happening. Even people on the spot are hoodwinked. And then when we know what can we do?
Greenham Peace Camp used to be a good place to get an honest account of world news but of course that too was infiltrated.
Am I paranoid or just politically exhausted.
I two favor The Economist and Finanical Times. What a small world. I would like to direct you to http://www.crisscross.com/jp/ for news from Japan. I think most Gaijin I know read it. Poor, really vague stories but an excellent excellent discussion section. All sorts of points of view. They are now transitioning into a social network which will probably really suck. I too am a news junkie and wouldn't have it any other way. Globalsecurity.com is great, but do you think it is bias because it is free?
http://www.crisscross.com/jp/
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