You know what really grinds my gears! Feb 26th 2010

[Kailantra]

Trying to find real news on politics in the US.

When I wander around trying to find news everything has a democratic or republican slant. As I'm moving to the US soon, within a few weeks really, I've been trying to figure out where I stand in my views and which way I should lean and such. I know in Canada we have more than two parties so our news is slightly more all encompassing than what I've found down there. The biggest news sites, CNN, MSNBC and FOX are all full of partisan views and you can't really draw any conclusions from it. I check smaller newspaper sites and such and still they seem to be slanted. Probably from being owned by bigger news chains that the head guy says, "Say all those other guys suck because we like these ones."

I find myself more and more turning to John Stewarts views where it seems he just wants everything to bloody work and the government to do their jobs properly and take care of the US citizens.

Am I wrong? Are there any good websites around that I can read for political news and debate that are actually non partisan?

I sure as hell can't find any.

[Bronyaur]

there is no reason to back a party just because your views align in some things. I'm not a member of either party because frankly they are stupid. Maybe they were a good idea once, but now the us vs them thing is just dragging us all down.

So what I'm trying to say is why bother knowing where your views align? You can vote in the general elections without being a member of any party.

[daayou]

First off, welcome to America. The land of . . . well, that is up for interpretation.

I find it interesting that you feel everything has a slant and there is nothing that does not. How you think that Canadian sites and press are somehow not biased is kinda confusing. The press there have agendas as well :)

If you want something here that is really close to non-biased . . . Cspan just broadcasts and does not offer opinion. NPR is very close to non-biased. PBS is also very close to non-biased.

However, you have FOX on the far right. You have Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O as personalities on the right side. They may change when it is best for them, to either be republicans or conservative. For instance, if a repub person is caught dead in bed with an underage black prostitute, they are conservatives (I am not sure anyone got the birdcage movie reference there!) instead of a repub. However, at the end of the day, their agenda is to stir shit up to get viewership up to sell advertising to line their pockets.

On the far left you have MSNBC. Keith Olberman, Bill Maher (somewhat), Al Franken (formerly) are the spokes people on that side of the fence. They tend to float whether or not they are democrats or progressives, much like the repubs and cons :)

As far as sites go . . .

huffingtonpost.com
drudgereport.com
firedoglake.com
commondreams.com
biggovernment.com
politico.com

And there are probably more that I can remember off the top of my head.

But like Greta stated . . . there is no need to choose a party, well sort of. You can register independent and vote for the candidate you feel is best. The only benefit you get for registering dem or repub is voting in primaries when they are trying to get the 'one' on the ticket.

At the end of the day, though, our political system is really diet coke versus diet pepsi. They both promote that they are better for you than regular soda, but at the end of the day, they are just toxic chemicals in water that is not good for you.

[Grah]

FYI coming to the Rar boards for political advise is about as logical as taking a television personalties political views to heart. Personally I wouldn't be so quick to try and align yourself with any party. Mid term elections are soon and you will get a heaping helping of bullshit from all angles.

Pelosi for 2046!

[kittyciara]

Also, I don't know how you don't recognize this but John Stewart dick hangs pretty far left.

[Kailantra]

Oh I know he's going left for his views. I'm just talking about him wanting the government to work. Instead of bullshit stalling everything when it's not the government types that suffer it's everyone else.

It's not to find a party to align to exactly, just trying to see where I would look to find the ideas that I prefer.

The Canadian press does have it's leanings as well. But our news networks and such (newspapers aside really, we have one of each pretty much here) report typically on everyone not just one side. Although with multiple parties that are about the same except for where their speaking points are. Conservatives have finance, etc etc. It may just be easier for us.

Really wish there was a way to get a good relevant 3rd party into politics in the US. I remember Ross Perot (ahahahaahahahahahaha) And that's about it for any 3rd party news I've heard ever.

Thx for the links Daayou.

Oh and for the record, figured it was a good place to come because of the diversity of people we have in Rar and some are fairly well spoke and have good insight to this kind of stuff. And you've all lived with it your entire lives mostly. Where myself, never really having experienced it all before.

Think my biggest point is just being a responsible news person and not slanting it towards one side or the other, or have an agenda behind whatever it is you are reporting on.

[Balthor]

My views run pretty much right down the middle, so I kind of know how you feel. Last time I took a political spectrum quiz it said I was a conservative democrat whatever that means lol. Anyway, just register as an independent, and watch the BBC if you want unbiased news.

[Bronyaur]

vote for candidates, not for parties

to summarize, republicans are conservative dbags and democrats are liberal dbags

[Zenax]

poloticks r dubm

[Bonzo]

In my opinion anyone who watches political pundits all day is hopeless. They won't do anything but contribute to the problem because they are constantly being indoctrinated by bullshit. No one forms their opinions anymore, they just want some schmuck to sensationalize and feed it to them.

To me, Ron Paul is the man. Technically, he is in the republican party, but he is in no way the same as the rest of the jackasses that comprise his party. This causes me to shun both parties and not affiliate with either (Even though I'm a registered republican from years ago)

And Grah, while we may have our share of troglodytes here I think there's a lot of really smart people who post on these boards and we often have some good intellectual convo going.

[lornfang]

Shit Sandwich versus Douchebag.

[Pilar]

if you're looking for Advocacy Journalism then u have to choose for yourself that which echoes your personal inclinations. there are several outlets for that, ranging from partially biased to downright rabid.

if you're looking for political reporting then newspapers are still your best bet. i know they're a dying breed but still...

to that end, u can't go wrong with either NYTimes or WSJ. insofar as reporting is concerned they're pretty much indistinguishable - where difference lies is in the Opinion pages where WSJ is almost always center-right and NYTimes is almost always center-left.

skip the opinions altogether and you'll still be a more well informed person for just having read these papers instead of the lightweights. and this also is a key point - Opinions pages in these papers are labeled "Opinion" - which often isn't the case with stuff u find on the internet.

i could go more into the intricacies of what stands out in the reporting of either newspaper but i'll refrain. suffice it to say, subscribe to a newspaper of your choice and at the end of the day you'll be more well-versed than the average citizen. of course, this also has the unintended side-effect of relegating u to a minority.

[amisme]

I have a forum I go to that holds the members to very strict standards of debate. That is probably the closest thing I have ever found to serious journalism. Other than that I tend to look things up on wikipedia and then follow the sources, or something similar.

[daayou]

Amisme

What forum is it? Is it open to the public?

[amisme]

I can pm a link to anyone who is interested, I don't really want to link it publicly and cause a stream of people to go there and think that they run things like a typical forum.

I can assure you that the posts I make here would never survive there because when I post here I am basically dicking around and rarely actually get serious about anything. I am most definitely not an example of what you will find there.

[kittyciara]

I fear serious sam