Best Political News Websites: For Unbiased News, You've Got to Surf Around Quite a Bit

P.C. Greenwood
P.C. Greenwood, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Oct 27, 2008 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
Reporting on politics without bias is possible, but rarely entertaining enough to catch the modern day attention span. The merit of news stories is first based on its potential for rubbernecking, then its correlation to potential ratings, and somewhere far down the line of editorial choices is historical relevance, if that factors in at all.

Since news reporting is filtered through the lens of entertainment first, political biases are inherent to this form of journalism. After all, conservatives are more likely to be drawn to negative stories about liberals than positive stories about the politicians they may already support. The same goes for liberal viewers' affinity for scandals stemming from the other side of the aisle.

What about the rest of us? Perhaps you are a fiscally conservative leaning person or an environmentally conscious liberal, but these traits don't have to be mutually exclusive. Maybe you're like me and you just want all the news, unfiltered. Fortunately, you have two options: You can either go to every biased news source and do the filtering yourself or you can check out a select few unbiased sites that require a little more intellectual curiosity. For a third choice, you can just go to the following sites:

5) CNN / Fox News

Both CNN.com and FoxNews.com have slightly larger editorial parameters than their cable news counterparts. Both sites cover a wide variety of breaking, entertainment, and political news. Their likely bias can be perceived in their lead story choices. Fox News tends to give their lead stories to pro-Republican stories and CNN usually has a cover story that is pro-Democrat. The solution? Just go to both sites.

I should note that I think FoxNews.com takes a more opinionated editorial tone and offers less screen time (either on the computer or TV screen) for liberal points of view. Though CNN certainly has some obviously liberal undercurrents, they do have pieces written by openly conservative or independent journalists. Now that I've found my top three more unbiased political websites, I rarely visit these two anymore.

4) The Huffington Post / Drudge Report

The Drudge Report became hugely successful for breaking political stories and juicy gossip in the 90s with the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The editorial point of view for the site is that of only one person: Matt Drudge. Though Drudge's conservative biases are obvious he maintains relevancy by influencing the cable news cycle. His stories always provoke liberal detractors and rally conservatives to the point that political campaigns keep a keen eye on his site and integrate Drudge's news headlines into their strategies. Put simply, this is the site liberals love to hate and conservatives adore.

The Huffington Post is Arianna Huffington's answer to Matt Drudge. His trick of showing certain more interesting angles to traditional news stories and provoking both sides of the debate was too obvious for someone to not steal it eventually. The Huffington Post started out as a liberal blog and celebrity guest writing spot and has morphed into an up to the minute news site with unapologetic liberal bias.

These two sites combined represent the only reputable fringe political websites. There are many conservative and liberal blog/news sites like Red State and Daily Kos that I feel inject too much emotional political bias to hold much relevance in the national forum.

3) The Economist

As my friend Richard told me, sometimes you have to go overseas to get the best domestic news coverage. The Economist is based in the UK, but the writing prowess, journalistic integrity, and rejection of bias give the relevance of their news reporting a boost. The downside to this site is that they do not report many U.S. new stories throughout the day and there is not a diverse range of subjects covered. This is the best site to visit when the same lead story is being spun and beaten into the ground by the American news media and you need a fresh, smart, more honest analysis of the topic at hand.

2) Real Clear Politics / Pollster

These two sites put you in the driver's seat of news analysis. They both give daily updates about polls from numerous sources and regular analysis by somewhat bipartisan pollsters about the merits of the different polls coming in.

Real Clear Politics features relevant headlines from other news sources and pundits so that you can branch out into the jungle of online news if you wish. Editorially, this site does not seem to by afraid to post a news piece that is damaging to either Democrats or Republicans. For that fact, I would consider this site somewhat unbiased.

Pollster features the clearest depiction of daily polls, trends, and election predictions available on the web. The pollsters who update the site are very scientific and dedicated to their craft. For example, on many occasions anonymous people leaving comments have suggested an error or better way to analyze certain data and the writers of this site have taken note and updated when they have been proven wrong.

Both these sites keep a cold eye on politics that enables them to gain a certain amount of credibility. If online news were like going to political high school, these sites would be your math and science courses.

1) Politico

Politico.com is the current gold standard for online political news that is as unbiased as possible, culturally relevant, diverse, and regularly updated throughout the day. With a clear, visually appealing design, this site has informative lead stories from all points of view, credible journalists updating blogs of the day's events, daily poll coverage, and honest analysis. The journalists that provide content for this page are willing to address criticisms directly and not only attempt contact with the people involved in all main stories, but have enough clout in the world of politics to get in touch with the points of view necessary to honest reporting.

Politico.com sets a great example of how honest, credible, and diligent reporting can be just as entertaining as the biased journalism that currently holds sway over the mainstream media. Hopefully, this site represents the future of popular online news, but until then it offers the best alternative to our current biased news predicament.

Published by P.C. Greenwood

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  • Mary Elizabeth 12/17/2010

    I recommend CBC news. It will not give you as much US news as you are used to but will cover the major stories. They have world news on their web page and "The National" has interesting current affairs stories that relate to North Americans not just Americans. Yes, Canadian news is probably left wing based on US standards but focuses on compassionate pragmatism. Give it a look.

  • Molly 12/16/2010

    I'm the VP of my college's political science club, and I thought your article was very helpful. I still like BBC quite a bit, but Politico is great.
    Thank you!!!

  • Sarah 11/15/2010

    (comment cut off) Politifact.com has a "truth-o-meter" rating the truth of political claims and is remarkably unbiased.

  • Sarah 11/15/2010

    The problem isn't just left/right bias but stupidity. Economist is good because they don't talk down to you and have news from all over the world, not just the "popular" countries--my only beef with them is their heavy "free trade" bias. CNN isn't that left--I'd say they lean to the "moderate" "Blue Dog" center-right--but their news coverage tends to be utterly trivial with the exception of Fareed Zakaria's GPS which is in the same mode as the Economist, intelligent but heavily pro-"free trade" elitist bias. HuffPo and DrudgeReport are some of the least credible sources out there, unbelievably biased and often very stupid. I can't speak for the right-wing blogosphere as a liberal, but on the left I recommend FireDogLake, Balloon Juice, Paul Krugman and Matt Taibbi for good policy and cultural analysis. (Plus Taibbi's hilarious.) For unbiased news deconstruction try Politifact.com, they have a "Trut

  • RobbieK 7/23/2010

    I like the UK Telegraph, believe it or not. I'm surprised how well they are on top of the U.S. news. Plus, you get to read mostly unbiased news that happens in some other countries. Alot of people like the Drudge Report, but I personally can't stand it because it is a collage of links to stories from other new sources and it looks too simplistic and boring. I can do that myself.

  • Beverly 3/16/2010

    I have come to dislike almost any and all news. I've watched as they, the news media hatchet up anyone they don't like. This makes many people afraid to speak out, how can anyone compete with the news media? It reminds me of what it had to be like under "Hoover', he had dirt on everyone he didn't like and used it at will. The media has become a tire necklace around anyone's neck that opposes them. How unfortunate for the public.

  • Norris Hall 12/27/2009

    The Drudge Report been referred to in the media as "a conservative news aggregator".
    Matt Drudge has said that he is a conservative.
    He does right some of his own articles and chooses which articles will get headline placement.
    Try the BBC for US national news

  • Norris Hall 12/27/2009

    I really like the News Hour on PBS. They usually cover both sides of controversial issues and interview people from both sides so you get to hear what the "other side thinks".
    Probably the best unbiased source for US news is a foreign source like BBC or Reuters. They are as passionate about US hot button issues as Americans are about what goes on in Britian...which is zero. So you are more likely to just get the news without the commentary.

    I can't imagine a US news reporter who doesn't have a view about, Say , health care. And while some try to be balanced, their views do eventually find their way into their own articles just by the words they choose to use.

  • AVB 12/12/2009

    There is no such thing as pure, clean, unbiased news...anywhere in the world. I wonder if there ever was? It is all contrived. I have studied journalism/marketing/advertising, and live over seas. I am able to get several different news channels from many different countries in English on TV, and they all have there own slant. My suggestion is to listen to everything you can from as many different sources as possible - the right & the left. Then read between the lines and make up your own mind. Those being in control and power don't want us to think for our selves anymore. They want us to become the heard. The stampeding heard they can navigate down this path or that path. Manipulation is their objective. I never used to think this way...but there is just to much evidence pointing me and many others in this direction. And the internet is no different. Except for the fact they have even more tools at their disposal to force feed us the lies.

  • Jose 12/11/2009

    Comparing Huffington Post and Drudge Report is just silly. Matt Drudge only writes the headlines. Everything else is linked to different news sites and often the stories he links to are from left leaning sources. Huffington Post is an extreme, far-left blog/news site complete with radical left-wing commentary. There is no way that the Drudge Report has anywhere near the bias as Huffington Post.

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