Primary Sources for Political Stuff?

[Torin]

I'm interested in hearing what primary sources people here find most useful for learning about world events and politics.

I like the White House's website, personally. They have many, many transcripts of speeches and press conferences.

The White House

President Biden and Vice President Harris promised to move quickly to deliver results for working families. That’s what they’ve done.

www.whitehouse.gov

What else do you find informative?

 

[4tune8chance]

I use various sources, but I have found that using a county other than your own give a different perspective, I'm using, Indian, Taiwanese as an example, there is no way to remove all bias, but you can get a better view with more variety.

 

[mikeT]

Like @4tune8chance, I listen to many.

I do most of my filtering via the type of media: cable or streamed major news networks are the most reliable, whereas online social media is the least. The one exception for me is NPR, whom I listen to via the radio (or its equivalent); I find it to be generally trustworthy.

I also like hearing an international perspective on the news, and search for the BBC and Al Jazeera.

One thing which gets lost in all of these discussions about "the media" is that you can listen to a particular outlet without automatically accepting (as infallibly true) what it says. I do this with all of the outlets I choose to pay attention to; information is accepted provisionally, and confidence in it is built after I hear other outlets echo the same stories/analyses. This is how I'm able to watch Fox and MSNBC (et al) without too much trouble.

ps. I should note that I avoid entertainment journalism like the plague, regardless of which media type it's found on. Tucker Carlson, Don Lemmon, Rachel Maddow, etc

 

[Torin]

@4tune8chance and @mikeT, I do appreciate your responses!

I should have explained this in the OP, but I was talking more about sources that enable you to know directly what is going on in the political world. So for example, CNN and Fox would not be what I'm talking about, whereas the White House website I linked to would, due to its numerous transcripts. What I like about the latter is that I don't have to wonder whether anything was omitted due to some journalistic bias or other.

 

[mikeT]

@4tune8chance and @mikeT, I do appreciate your responses!

I should have explained this in the OP, but I was talking more about sources that enable you to know directly what is going on in the political world. So for example, CNN and Fox would not be what I'm talking about, whereas the White House website I linked to would, due to its numerous transcripts. What I like about the latter is that I don't have to wonder whether anything was omitted due to some journalistic bias or other.

I'm not intending to be a contrarian, but I guess I don't see whitehouse.gov as a source of unbiased news about the political world. Yes, there are certain kinds of information I would trust it to represent accurately, but I wont use it as a primary source.

If I had to pick sources I trust the most, it'd be the Associated Press / Reuters. Not infallible, but trustworthy by default.

 

[CrowCross]

I'm interested in hearing what primary sources people here find most useful for learning about world events and politics.

I like the White House's website, personally. They have many, many transcripts of speeches and press conferences.

The White House

President Biden and Vice President Harris promised to move quickly to deliver results for working families. That’s what they’ve done.

www.whitehouse.gov

What else do you find informative?

I like to go to news sources that actually have interviews with prominent scientist who work in the field under discussion.
Typically those sites are banished by the Government as pointed out and recently proven by Musk.

 

[inertia]

I'm interested in hearing what primary sources people here find most useful for learning about world events and politics.

I like the White House's website, personally. They have many, many transcripts of speeches and press conferences.

The White House

President Biden and Vice President Harris promised to move quickly to deliver results for working families. That’s what they’ve done.

www.whitehouse.gov

What else do you find informative?

I agree with "whitehouse.gov" especially when I suspect a reconstruction of recent history is at play. The subject matter is an initial condition filter that guides in my search for information too.

- For national security issues: Lawfare is a first stop, Defense News, ...
- For cutting-edge Science: Nature, Science, Physics Today, arXiv,.... [ NPR's "science friday" ]
- For international politics : I've recently been reading Foreign Affairs and watching Times Radio Russia war on ukraine, and a few independents
- For domestic politics : Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CBS News, CNBC, MSNBC, Denver Post,...et al.
- Moral issues: The Bible


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[Torin]

I'm not intending to be a contrarian, but I guess I don't see whitehouse.gov as a source of unbiased news about the political world. Yes, there are certain kinds of information I would trust it to represent accurately, but I wont use it as a primary source.

If I had to pick sources I trust the most, it'd be the Associated Press / Reuters. Not infallible, but trustworthy by default.

I think the White House website reports what Biden says fairly accurately, no? I'm not aware of them distorting his speeches or anything. It seems okay as a primary source for that, if nothing else.

 

[Thistle]

I'm interested in hearing what primary sources people here find most useful for learning about world events and politics.

I like the White House's website, personally. They have many, many transcripts of speeches and press conferences.

The White House

President Biden and Vice President Harris promised to move quickly to deliver results for working families. That’s what they’ve done.

www.whitehouse.gov

What else do you find informative?

Personally I just hack into the NSA database. And yes, that is a joke, if you're watching NSA, which obviously you are. Sunday is a slow day over at the NSA. That's when they finally get around to monitoring CARM.

 

[Psalm1]

In my view, the important thing is to obtain news from sources with different viewpoints. Every source has bias, so the only way to minimize that is to go to multiple sources. For example, look at both CNN and Fox News, etc. As someone else has already noted, it is worthwhile looking at some international sources as well.

 

[vbj]

You can also do yourself a big favor and turn it all off. You won't miss much just visiting YouTube, Facebook, or even turning on the phone or computer will get you bombarded with news.

 

[Ficciones]

FT is one of the best "mainstream" sources for what's really going on. If you want the truth, look at news for investors. There is some ideological coloring, of course, but for basic facts they're fairly reliable.

Financial Times

News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

www.ft.com

I often check out RAND for upcoming moves by the American empire. With uncanny frequency, they say what they're gonna do, and then they do it. Mostly. There are factions within the ruling class, and this is the voice of one of the more powerful among them.

RAND Corporation Provides Objective Research Services and Public Policy Analysis

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND focuses on the issues that matter most such as health, education, national security, international affairs, law and business, the environment, and more. With a...

www.rand.org

Geopolitical Economy Report is good, from the opposite (anti-imperial) perspective. The interviews with Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson are indispensable.

Geopolitical Economy Report - News and analysis to understand the world

Geopolitical Economy Report is an independent media outlet that provides news and analysis to understand the changing world.

geopoliticaleconomy.com

 

[Tercon]

Personally I just hack into the NSA database. And yes, that is a joke, if you're watching NSA, which obviously you are. Sunday is a slow day over at the NSA. That's when they finally get around to monitoring CARM.

Actually you need to be more concerned about who China is monitoring than the NSA.

 

[Thistle]

Actually you need to be more concerned about who China is monitoring than the NSA.

The unspoken assumption in your comment presupposes the NSA is less interested in dominating in subjugating American citizens than the CCP is interested in dominating and subjugating American citizens. I don't know that to be a fact and I'm not sure that anybody has a good reason to believe that it is.

 

[Tercon]

The unspoken assumption in your comment presupposes the NSA is less interested in dominating in subjugating American citizens than the CCP is interested in dominating and subjugating American citizens. I don't know that to be a fact and I'm not sure that anybody has a good reason to believe that it is.

My post didn't suggest that at all. You are assuming that I am an American right? I am not. Rather I am looking at this more from a geopolitical level, rather than just US politics.
Now, if you are suggesting that the US intelligence services are less trustworthy under a Democratic Party administration, then I would absolutely agree with you.

 

[Lastdaysbeliever]

Now, if you are suggesting that the US intelligence services are less trustworthy under a Democratic Party administration, then I would absolutely agree with you.

☝️🥸👍

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."
Mark Twain

I find, at this time, a futility in even feigning support for where these United States has gone and I agree with your conclusion. I do not trust, at any level, the current national Democratic Party administration, nor my home state governing Democratic Party administration. That said, I only trust Republicans a little more, but not alot. There is much wrong in America and it goes way beyond politics.

 

[BMS]

This is how the woke left work

from an atheist liberal, and he is right