Looking to compile a list of good leftist news sites and sources. Thank you.
News sources should not have orientations. They should be neutral. If they have a political orientation they are not my favourite source at all
I’ll leave this here. Good resource for evaluating news sources as you come across them also.
The Young Tur… wait what was the question?
A “leftist news source” is not a news source, it is an opinion source, and thus not better than a “rightwing news source”. How about finding something neutral that actually has the goal to inform?
I see the question differently.
Tl;Dr:
I think OP is hoping to read the 21st century equivalent to Muck Rakers.
Long version:
A whole lot of improvement in American quality of life came about as a result of publications and journalists called Muck Rakers in the 19th and 20th centuries.
They didn’t cover false stories. They simply covered stories that newspapers owned by capitalists tried to cover up. Things like, “physical abuse inside of Factory A” or, “employees at factory B reject union contract.”
It’s similar with r/antiwork. Most of America never realized why PopTarts were shipped with serious defects for a few months in late 2021. To most people, the quality declined out of nowhere, with no explanation.
And I don’t think most people realized the real reason California’s ports got congested. (It was a bill designed to protect gig workers – it required shipping companies to pay truck drivers for the time they spent waiting for their trucks to be loaded (instead of just the time they spent driving)).
People didn’t know because, even if current events directly impact everyone’s lives, all it takes is a few corporations deciding, “you don’t need to know about that” and access to the information through mainstream channels is shut off.
Everyone using r/antiwork knew though. They knew why there was a shipping crisis, and they knew why the glue that was supposed to seal the outside of the box of Cheez-its was now instead gluing the individual Cheez-its together.
News that wasn’t considered, “newsworthy” outside of r/antiwork got intense coverage on that subreddit.
And yeah, the subreddit was certainly biased against those corporations. But biased or not, its users were more up-to-date on those events than anyone outside of the sub.
I don’t think OP is asking for a leftist perspective on the same current events everyone else is covering. I think OP is asking for true, well-investigated stories that capitalists simply won’t air on the major networks.
You know: Muck raking.
Neutrality in this case is a news source that doesn’t have a editorial position that explicitly favors a certain political party, it is not splitting the two opinions down the middle and sticking to that as it is so often misrepresented.
A good news source will follow the following guidelines when reporting news.
1: Due impartiality , this is not the same as full impartiality where abhorrent points of view are given the same importance as valid points of view , DUE impartiality differs in that the news source will consider multiple VALID points of view to give the audience a closer representation of the truth.
2: Broad perspective , the news source will attempt to contact as many valid perspectives as they can from as broad of a cross section of society as is possible to represent the opinion of society as fairly as possible.
3: Editorial freedom , the news source can and will produce content for any subject as long as it is within the public interest to do so, this will involve scrutinizing arguments and questioning consensus to hold those in power over others in some way accountable for their actions.
4: Avoiding endorsements , the news source will take care not to endorse politicians or products , nor allow their content to be used in such a way without challenge.
5: Democratic values , the news source itself is not value free , but instead incorporates the core values of democracy and civil society into its editorial policy in place of partisan political values.
6: It will reflect the diversity of its audience , it will make an effort to continually be aware of the demographics that view it and produce a wide range of content to ensure that no group is either underrepresented not over represented.
7: Transparency, when reporting opinions of others that some people may find distasteful it will be made clear that these opinions belong to the person being interviewed or reported on and not to the news source that is only committed to reporting the truth.
Such a news source would be neutral , in that their only loyalty is to accurately reporting the news as it happens without spinning it to make anyone look any better or worse than they already are.
Okay so let’s rephrase the question:
Those if you who consider yourself leftists, what news sources do you follow?
Those if you who consider yourself leftists, what news sources do you follow?
I’m afraid that the real meaning was “Those if you who consider yourself leftists, what
news sourcesbubbles do you follow?”
Reminder that neutrality and compromise isn’t always a good thing.
I’m not saying it can’t be done, but getting a compromise from a debate is not a primary goal. For competitions, the goal is usually to demonstrate and practice debate skills and the topic and positions matter less. For more serious debates, it is meant to be a way to expose people to the strengths of your position’s arguments and expose the weaknesses of your opponent’s. It’s valuable as an opportunity to persuade an audience of people who haven’t been firmly entrenched in either position, or who may have only been exposed to one side’s arguments in earnest.
The framework does presume both viewpoints are valid, since both sides are expected to believe in their position, be rational, and be reasonably well-informed. An invalid perspective would not be argued by someone meeting these criteria. It does not presume equality as that would be preemptively judging the quality of the argument. Either the debate platform or the other debater would presumably not agree to a debate with someone who cannot be expected to meet these criteria.
I never said anything like compromise. I prefer neutrality (as far as one can get it, but it is way easier in Europe). Why do you all think that anything that is not explicitly left biased is already compromised?
There are f-ups on both sides of the spectrum. This does not say both sides are equal - on the contrary, there is a shitload more f-up on the right side. But general whitewashing the left is also not OK.
And you, asking for neutrality:
Thats why I ask for true neutrality. Any source that reports in a biased way is not news, it is opinion. And given the current situation in the US, a neutral news source would have to call out a lot of shit and lies coming from the political right. But that does not make it leftist.
This is correct. The news is so reliably stupid that everybody assumes you saying the correct thing is (incorrectly) you being on Team Don’t Point Out The Truth Because It Makes Republicans Look As Bad As They Are.
The team is not known for its naming finesse.
False neutrality is propaganda, but so is being so is being activly biased. So a good left news source has to be wiling to show the fscts, when they speak against the left.
False neutrality
All neutrality is false.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
-Desmond Tutu
E: Also, if you knew anything about leftists, you’d know that we’re our own biggest critics. I also bet that you don’t demand anywhere near as high a standard when you consume your main stream centre-right media, which almost exclusively speak against the left, so it’s not like your short of sources for the criticism you want so desperately to confirm the (centre-right) bias you like to pretend you don’t have.
All neutrality is false.
This is media literacy 101. Once you can get past this, you find that outlets that wear their bias on their sleeves are refreshing over those who feign neutrality. They begin to come.of as aloof and condescending, because that’s exactly what they are. It’s not journalism, it’s theatre. Same thing goes with regurgitating exactly what government spokespersons say: that’s not journalism. Journalism includes investigation and critique. It’s not possible to give an unbiased critique.
Looking at you NYT, you fucking dumpster fire. I only keep you around because a dumpster fire can provide warmth.
I read from multiple sources to cross-reference what narratives are being pushed, and I find news outlets who are often labelled “biased” are the ones most likely to just lay everything on the table. They aren’t deliberately trying to direct you into how to think because they assume you agree with them. “This happened and we think it’s bullshit!”
You’re also more likely to hear about stories that are left out or considered unimportant or are intentionally censored by the mainstream outlets. It’s more often the case that they will censor themselves than the government will directly get involved and this is far less from smaller news groups who don’t worry about being labelled as biased.
I am not saying media is not bias, but that some media just spins the truth, whereas others do not have a problem with fslse reporting. After all tankies are called tsnkies, because they ignored that the Soviets used tanks to violently get rid of the Prague Spring. This happens on the left as well.
And yes that is why I like reading economics news websites like the economist. They report on subjects left leaning news tend to not care about, but which can be incredibly important. Also with rich people using their reporting as a bases for invedtments, makes it hugely important that they do not outright lie. Commentary on them is horrible though, unless they go somewhat agsinst the neoliberal norm, which is rarer, but usually some of the best stuff.
I like The Majority Report, The Serf Times, Egberto Willies is good, Status Coup.
Here’s some fave websites I like:
The Intercept,
Jacobin,
World Socialist Website,
Socialist Alternative,
Its Going Down,
Common Dreams,
Lib Com,
Democracy Now,
Vox ,
Huff Post,
Counterpunch,
In These Times,
Dissent Magazine,
Labor Notes,
and the newest one I like is The Lever.
Jacobin is great. In the NL we have it too, but I wish we had a fully domestic news like that. Maybe I should start my own…
All very good sources. The Lever is a great new addition. David Sirota is a great fighter.
So I’ve not visited some of these for a while, and I know some have issues (like swinging in to either liberal or tankie territory), so I’m not guaranteeing they’re all perfect, but these are the news sites I have saved to my bookmarks:
Great list! Thank you!
Np. Thank you for the time and effort you invest in posting!
I try but most of my posts turn out to be a little controversial hah!
What’s the saying, hit dogs holler? Take it as a sign you’re hitting a nerve lol
Honestly I don’t know how you deal with all that crap 😂
I was on Twitter during the 2016 presidential election cycle. Reddit/Lemmy is tame compared to the crap I dealt with on there. 🤣
Oh yeah, that’s hardcore 😂
I had 65k followers and got doxxed multiple times. Was crazy stuff. All they do on here is just call me Russian bot.
I enjoy them, very much.
Seconding the thank you. I’d forgotten about many of those as well, and some I don’t recall having ever known.
Reality, for one.
The Majority Report. It’s awesome. https://m.youtube.com/@TheMajorityReport
These are some with RSS feeds. Some are news, most are deeper analyses.
http://www.democracynow.org https://mintpressnews.com https://consortiumnews.com https://diem25.org https://gabrielrockhill.com https://michael-hudson.com https://scheerpost.com https://thegrayzone.com https://therealnews.com https://thetricontinental.org https://tomdispatch.com https://wallstreetonparade.com https://www.counterpunch.org https://www.jeffsachs.org https://www.liberationnews.org https://www.nakedcapitalism.com https://www.normanfinkelstein.com https://www.propublica.org https://www.qiaocollective.com https://www.socialistalternative.org https://www.telesurenglish.net https://www.yanisvaroufakis.euThanks so much!
More than just a former Valve employee.
True story 🤣 PC Gamer, 2015: Valve’s economist is Greece’s new finance minister
How have I known about Varoufakis for years as a serious political economist and speaker-on-the-topic, and never heard he was a Valve employee with a catalogue of ‘gaming-economics’ blogs in the early 2010s? LMFAO what a world
Thank you
the majority report
I too like to listen to the political opinions of Fenton Mulley from Home Movies.
(To be clear, this isn’t a dig at Sam Seder. I loved him in Home Movies and on The Majority Report)
Democracy Now. Really ought to watch more often.
I really like BreakThrough News. Also Novara Media that people have mentioned.
Novara has publicly disgraced itself on multiple occasions. You can find plenty of dunkings of their credentials.
Ash friends with Zionists, Bastini heavily involved in the Corbyn character assassination.
I cant read twitter threads I have no account.
But come on, they were a bit shit on Corbyn when the AS bs first started but they’ve been defending him fiercely ever since, up to this day.
And then being friends with Zionists idk, that would be surprising.
And also, George Galloway can f off…. There’s PLENTY to criticise about him.
George Galloway is a prick.
Calls himself a socialist, but has shared a platform with Nigel Farage and UKIP in the past. Not to mention his reactionary social views and “patriotism”.
Similar to the likes of Owen Jones. They focus on the easy issues which they do a really good job with. But as soon as something comes along that threatens to disrupt the status quo then, by their deeds shall you know them.
The Wire India, Caravan, Swaddle, Newslaundry, etc are some of the few legitimate news media in India. The rest of them shill for either capitalist kool-aid (usually, liberal media like ThePrint or ScoopWhoop) or Modi (proto-fascist brainlets like Republic TV, Essel Media-related subsidiaries, like Zee).
The Hindu is sort-of centre-left
In Malayalam(main language of Kerala), there’s:
https://www.deshabhimani.com/
http://www.janayugomonline.com/They were founded by leftist parties, so there might be not enough critcism of the left. But exposure to regular media will balance that more than enough.
I think there are similar ones in other languages such as Theekkathir(Tamil Nadu), People’s democracy etc.
Some More News
Means TV, but it’s a subscription version of YouTube for leftist content and it’s a cooperative. The Means Morning News channel is 80s/90s cheesey and a decent news summary that ends with the Rich Dick award
