If only the political insanity were going to end after Election Day. Unfortunately, we’ll just be heading into the next phase. In the tradition of the modern era, I’m sure the losing party will claim that the election was stolen. But I digress. I was thinking about what I can do to make some positive difference in today’s increasingly heated climate where tensions are increasing and objective rational thinking seems to be on a hastening downward spiral. Here’s a snapshot of what you’ll find in the news folder of my inbox on a given day.
Do I read all of these sources every day? Not even close. But I try to skim them and mix things up. Keeping up with the news in 2024 feels like a game of whack-a-mole at 10x speed, but we’ve got to make some kind of effort.
Objective Sources
Aggregator that curates the top stories of the day and displays articles & headlines from left leaning and right leaning sources with a 5-step bias rating scale for each. They also have a self assessment quiz that will score your personal bias.
Editor-in-Chief Isaac Saul covers one story per day with sound bites from the left and the right, adding his own opinions at the end. I don’t agree with everything he says, but he seems to make a genuine effort to consider a 360-degree viewpoint on the topics he covers. Tangle also includes “quick hits” on the top 5 stories of the day and is published in a podcast format as well. Paid subscribers get a weekly in-depth piece.
Sound bites from the left and the right on one story per day. Paid subscribers get a weekly in-depth email on Sundays and access to a private discussion forum.
Jordan covers current topics in depth with a fact-based approach. Her podcast, Unbiased, covers recent Supreme Court rulings. She does an excellent job explaining complex legal concepts in layman’s terms.
This publication focuses on news topics largely ignored by the left or the right, scoring each article by the amount of coverage received from one side vs. the other.
I just recently learned about this publication. They seem to do a decent job being reasonably fact-based and neutral.
Mainstream Sources
I’m generally less trusting and more skeptical of all of the sources below. I read them with the implicit assumption that they are pushing an agenda and I further assume that they are probably twisting the story or omitting key facts, or at least putting a spin on the story to support a one-sided narrative. Nonetheless, I still find value in following mainstream sources because they give me a pulse on the bizarre and irrational behavior I see from the people around me. I like to stay aware of what’s influencing people’s thinking.
Good way to get a quick rundown of the names of who’s who in the political arena, regardless of whether you agree with their positions or not.
Fox News First (right leaning)
Caveat: don’t click the links in Fox’s newsletter. The articles are full of annoying spam, pop-up videos, and clickbait. They are the worst I’ve seen on this score.
Satire
I’ll read both of these for some cheap laughs when I am taking a break from work.
The Onion (left-leaning satire)
The Babylon Bee (EXTREMELY right-leaning satire)
Non-Political Sources
News about recent developments in the artificial intelligence (AI) sphere.
Decent overview of the business world and the markets. They do start to wax political at times and when they do, it’s pretty heavily left-leaning. I read it more for the business content.
I enjoy the in-depth pieces they write on the economics of various industries, written with a fun tongue-in-cheek style. Or sometimes they’ll write stories of people like the guy who made a fortune selling counterfeit wine.
That’s my inbox in a nutshell. Hopefully you found something that you found useful enough to subscribe to.
