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For the last twelve years or so I have had my internet homepage on my computer set to the BBC News website. Over this time I feel the quality has declined measurably. Some examples:
- Use of abbreviated English when entirely unnecessary.
- The site is awash with video news stories with what can only be described as YouTube type 'clickbait' titles.
- Many news stories contain a short summary at the top and are then padded out with lines of 'tweets' from people whose opinion I either don't really care for or whom I feel are not really qualified to provide worthwhile comment.
- Top stories often seem to be about someone somewhere being 'offended' by something. Whilst I am sure these offended people must be having a terrible time of it I am sure that there are other somewhat more important news stories around. Jamie Oliver's recent 'jerk' chicken blunder and constant articles on cultural appropriation are not really 'news' to me.
I have been recommended the Guardian.... however is that not super-lefty? Not that I am averse to super-leftyism, I'd just like to read unbiased content.
NB It has to be a news website not pron or STW.
Ustart.org
Replaced the old igoogle page for me, you can add the top stories from whoever you want, I have BBC, NYT, ABC Aus, BBC Sport, weather and world clocks, heaps more from RSS feeds available.
I have been recommended the Guardian…. however is that not super-lefty? Not that I am averse to super-leftyism, I’d just like to read unbiased content.
Depends on your point of view, have a read of some of the articles not the opinions and make your own mind up, I fend them fairly insightful and up front.
Virtually every story being a "video snippet with adverts built in" put me off some time ago.
I want to read the words, not watch a clip - and I certainly don't want to watch an advert before every story.
Reuters UK. I still use the BBC and local paper website for local news tho
I generally get new from the News app on iPhone.
It pulls in stories from multiple different sources (BBC, Sky, Reuters, Washington Post, New York Times, Time, Singletrack!)
You can 'like' certain topics or stories and it adjusts the feed to give you more of those.
Bit of an information bubble but I like it.
(Sorry I realise this doesn't answer your question).
about:blank
Guardian is not superlefty. Its centrist and hates Corbyn. I think you would be fine with it.
Having been on the front page of the BBC news web page earlier this week I have to say the content is sometimes particular fine, especially when the content is welsh farmers and sheep in the same article 🙂
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45588253
However, I agree with you wholeheartedly about the general downwards slide of the BBC website. I have tried to leave a few times but generally find that when the BBC leads, others follow. Most recently I got really peed off when they went all "touch screen tablet" format, with big square story blocks and 30 second videos. I wrote to them with a moan about it and switched to the Guardian website. Within weeks they had changed their format in the same way! So currently back with the BeeB.
OMFG... I just did a search of the BBC site for the above article and found this... aaargh
I wrote to them with a moan about it and switched to the Guardian website. Within weeks they had changed their format in the same way! So currently back with the BeeB.
I tweeted them when their newspaper headlines summary managed to misrepresent the actual words used, it did change but I think the tweet was blocked/removed in the end so at least the saturday team read something
+1 for about:blank
If you want super lefty what about this --> https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/
I use the Guardian as I feel the journalism is of a better quality. It may have a slight left wing outlook but it is less left wing than I am so seems fine.
Ustart.org
Replaced the old igoogle page for me
Similarly ighome.com for me. Although some feeds, like STW, don't work since the (ahem) upgrade.
Maybe I am remembering this wrong (or maybe it's a bit "pub fact") but I thought the BBC had of late slashed the budget for their online output.
The news site is certainly not what it used to be.
Agree BBC news website has gone downhill.
FT is good but needs a subscription, BBC is obviously chasing mail online, Telegraph, I check the headlines to see what the nutters are thinking (I know someone who worked there for years & she admits that editorial pressure now changes entire stories) Guardian can be a bit super lefty, but their long reads, selected opinion pieces & especially live blogs are the best around
I have multiple "home" pages, but my news aggregator of choice is Google News. You can block sources you don't like (e.g. The Express, I'm not that bothered about what Princess Di conspiracy is popular these days)
I spend more time on the Guardian than anywhere else. It does have an agenda but also a range of views and lots of interesting longer articles.
I'd be genuinely interested in understanding who is responsible for the general simplifying and dumbing down of the news across all formats. Is it that there are just not enough people prepared to put the effort in to read actual words or is it just driven by the media/outlets need to put out cheap material that is nice and clickbaity and captures lots of views as that is what they are now performance managed by? What do people* actually want from their news outlets now if given the chance? The slide of the Beeb is particularly disappointing. The film clip style stuff like Welshfarmer dug up - because presumably the original article was too complex...the use of benign tweets as filler instead of interviews with genuine experts on whatever the article is about. My pet hate at the moment on the BBC site are articles given precious homepage status about random people who have died in shootings/accidents where the family are given space to tell the world they were 'our angel', 'the centre of the family', 'the best brother anyone could hope for', 'the most caring person in the world'. Yes, I get their loss is sad but what they are saying is utterly predicable and also utterly unnewsworthy. At the very best it's worth page 92 bottom left hand corner. For balance could we just have an occasional variant where the relative says 'my brother was an absolute ****er and really no loss'.
* I appreciate 'people' is a bit broad encompassing a huge demographic from the intelligent and motivated to the barely literate with no attention span with combinations of the above also possible.
Half of the BBC stories are just cut+paste tweets from Twitter anyway so may as well skip the middleman 😉
I set up rules in ublock origin to make the blimmin annoying videos not appear within the stories (or maybe it automatically blocks them anyway).
www.hasbrexithappenedyet.com
I'm liking the morning star. They seem angry and they have stories about mammoths.
I like mammoths.
https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/russians-make-new-bid-clone-woolly-mammoth
Another that’s gone downhill is The Independent with their 2nd referendum campaign and the awful click bait ads thinly disguised as articles.
+1 for the guardian.
Ive signed up for a months trial of the times which at a fiver a month doesn’t seem too bad and the long reads are good. Good app too.
Guardian is not superlefty. Its centrist and hates Corbyn. I think you would be fine with it.
That basically sums it up quite well. As a centrist who's not the biggest fan of Corbyn (don't hate though and there are worse out there) it works for me.
The Grauniad sport coverage is very good too
The Grauniad sport coverage is very good too
Unless you follow scottish rugby which gets virtually no mention and when it does its always condescending 😉
Convert - the loss of circulation of the papers has lead to less journalists. That and the 24 hr rolling news coverage has led to this
Dear Welsh Farmer.
That sounds like an uplifting story but i want to know what you and your friends were doing on a mountain side dressed in rubber clothing and searching for sheep. I think it's quite clear that you are just predatory sheep fiddlers using this as a cover story.
See you in court.
Yours;
Elon
singletrackworld.com
Experts on everything.
Ok chaps. The Guardian it is then. I feel a bit superior now.
I also feel a bit sad at leaving the BBC. I also wonder who is responsible for the dumbing down, or if that is just a reaction to the the new societal demands created by mass media/ celeb culture/ soshul media and advertising. Is it the people at the top who want people to remain uninformed so they can continue to rip them off I wonder.
I am slightly concerned that I sat and looked at misternicehands.com for 3 minutes before working out what was going on though.
Guardian is not superlefty. Its centrist and hates Corbyn. I think you would be fine with it.
It's centrist in the way that Lenin thought Trotsky was a bit centrist 😉
Good stealth edit there IHN
I am slightly concerned that I sat and looked at <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">misternicehands.com</span> for 3 minutes before working out what was going on though.
I'm slightly concerned that I sat there clicking for 5 minutes chuckling to myself...
Good stealth edit there IHN
What? *innocent face*
I don't get why the Guardian has this negative lefty image. I read it because it appears one of the closest to the actual facts, without any great left or right wing agenda. It's mostly good, solid reporting.
Some of the opinion pieces might be a bit lefty, but other than that it's spot on.
I want to like the BBC and what it stands for...but I just can't. I haven't read it for years. Radio 4 is great though.
I don’t get why the Guardian has this negative lefty image. I read it because it appears one of the closest to the actual facts, without any great left or right wing agenda. It’s mostly good, solid reporting.
Because the majority of UK print media has a heavy right wing bias that has moved the impression of where the centre is
Ii changed from the BBC to The Guardian a couple of years ago. The news is generally pretty even-handed but the opinion pieces have some ridiculous middle class hand-wringing in it and quite a bit of men hating too.
The Beeb was hand cuffed as it was seen as having a monopoly on online news. Unfortunately they had to lose staff and content and the competition didn't really step up.
I miss the old BBC online content, I've been on the Guardian for years now but that is starting to suffer with click bait articles and advertorial nonsense as well.
I need a more substantial centrist news outlet, what are the NYtimes or Washington Post like?
what are the NYtimes or Washington Post like?
The NYT seems good and reasoned for the most part, though you do really need to subscribe. It's not brilliant for UK issues though but does handle the world stuff well
Al Jazeera?
Yeah. I've been annoyed with the news website for a while. It just seems to be full of fluff and promoting their own stuff. (Body Guard, Doctor ****ing Who) It's mainly the Guardian site for me now
+1 Reuters
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/current-news/
Shows it to be pretty centre, slightly left if you squint...
sky sports news is what i have, much more interesting than normal news. its bad enough having to hear the news every hour all day on the radio without having it coming up when you go on the internet.
I just use Flipboard, it brings in news from a wide variety of sources on a wide variety of subjects, although some of the American news sites only allow a certain number of free views per month. I believe the iOS News app is doing a similar thing, but I’ve been using Flipboard from the beginning and I just like the way it works. The Guardian features quite strongly, as it happens, as does Al Jazeera, The New York Times, Washington Post...