Is he more fake than say the BBC or CNN? I would actually like to find a source for neutral, factual news. I want to stay away from rabid wingnuts. Some say that the WSJ is the best but that is behind a paywall. I recently stumbled on the South China Morning Post which was a pleasant surprise and an interesting source for Asian news.
Note that the South China Morning Post was acquired by Alibaba Group in 2016, Since then, its not clear whether it has maintained its independence from the mainland Chinese government. As an alternative, you might have a look at the English editions of Japan’s big two: Yomiuri (right-leaning) and Asahi (left-leaning).
Among US newspapers, I’d recommend reading any two of the following: NY Times, Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, LA Times. The first two lean left, the second two lean right. The WSJ has a good reputation, but they’re owned by Murdoch now so I refuse to give them money on general principle. Probably The Economist is the best business-oriented alternative.
And yes, Bannon is much more fake than CNN or the BBC. He’s a propagandist, not a journalist.
Katherine
I am an independent scholar, My interests are in the following topics in no particular order: India, and its Vedic culture and religion especially Vaisnavism. All things Vedic including ayurveda (medicine), political science, astrology, Sanskrit, astronomy, vastu (architecture), palmistry, vedanta, mimamsa (Vedic hermeneutics), nyaya (dialectics), sankhya, yoga, pancaratra, dharma sastras, puranas, ancient Indian history and all other ancient histories as well because that leads into the study of ancient cultural exchanges between India and Africa, Mesopotamia, Europe, China and the rest of Asia. This is especially in relation to history of astrology/astronomy between India, Mesopotamia and Greece. History and practice of divination in all different cultures. So I had all kinds of books from Herodotus to the Mahabharata to the I Ching (8-9 editions of that) plus hundreds of journals (and thousands from JSTOR), the whole Loeb series - both Greek and Latin. Collections of translations of Sanskrit Hellenistic, Persian, and Arab astrological texts. And a lot more. All non-fiction (I stopped reading fiction at age 19)
It became harder and harder to move as the collection grew. I started out in the 1970s as a monk being able to carry all my possessions in one hand to having a large library that just made moving a real chore. That became especially obvious when I wanted to move from one continent to another. Now that is a snap. I currently only have a few books in traditional form. I try to refrain from buying new books, and limit myself to what makes me salivate. I then scan that in by myself as there are only a few. Any new journals I get are also scanned in by me. I no longer have someone doing it for me as it is only a few books to do. The main thing is that I have all my library on DropBox taking up about 100 GB and with multiple backups just in case. And as I said it fits into a flash drive instead of taking up most of my domicile.
I gave the books to a gurukula (traditional Vedic school) in India. They named a section of the library in my honor. “The Orpheus collection” (-: I think my donation of books is about 25-50% of their whole library. It was a large collection gathered over the course of 40 years.
Yes I knew abut the Alibab connection, I always try to find out as much about who is behind a publication as is possible. But it seems the SCMP still toes a Western liberal slant, which some commentators on it complain about, and is not a “Pravda”…yet.
When did the LA Times start leaning right?
I started out reading the NYT then switched to BBC now avoid them. Though I will occasionally look at NYT to see what the left wingnuts are saying in the comments - they are from another planet (-:
To see what the right wingnuts are saying I visit Breitbart. They, as Bill Maher admitted cover a lot of stories the MSM ignore, but one does tire of it after a while.
The comments on both sides indicate a very divided country with no healing in sight. Rather just a further polarization can be expected.
As Glubb pointed out that on average an Empire lasts 250 years, and on 2026 is the USA’s 250th anniversary and the strains are apparent. Of course that doesn’t mean they will be closing shop in that year (-:
I also go to Reuters and AFP.
And for even more selection there is thepaperboy.com/index.cfm
Regarding Bannon I don’t recall reading anything by him. People of a certain persuasion detest him but I have no experience reading his stuff so have no informed opinion.
I heard a joke that went like this “The people who run the country read the WJS. The people who think they run the country read the NYT. And the people who wished they ran the country read the LA Times.” (-:
Interesting that you say that the LA times is right leaning. In India the papers that are claimed to be right leaning seem pretty left leaning.
I just saw now how Canada has stripped Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary citizenship because of the Rohingya problem. The following article from The New India Express gives a different light on the matter than you will read in the Western press.
What a blessing for those kids!
Thanks for these. According to Reuters.
media.digitalnewsreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/digital-news-report-2018.pdf?x89475
“Asahi” is the least trusted news source in Japan. But there is another left leaning one called “The Mainichi” mainichi.jp/english which is more trusted. I will explore both the left and right leaning ones…
I’ll take a look at the Houston Chronicle.
The thing about the NYT is that they are left leaning but pretend to be neutral, whereas Breitbart is upfront about where it stands. At least with the later you know right away what they are up to not so with the former.
Apaprently there are ways to get past WSJ’s paywall and read it for free. I used to do that. But then WSJ wised up and changed some code. So it is a cat and mouse game. You have to search for methods to get behind the paywall for free.
I think I’ll stick to the theguardian.com/
Orphy, thanks for a very comprehensive reply to my nosey question.
I shall devote some of my time to the Vedic Culture +++ 
Take care
Vic
Well, the other important difference is that the NYT actually cares whether its articles are true.
And while the New York Times leans left, Breitbart is way way out on the far right fringe with the fascists, and proudly so.
Katherine
Except for the NYT Editorials section. They’re…very concerning, as of late.
Agreed. The NYTimes’ commitment to ‘balanced’ viewpoints has led their editorial page seriously astray. And IMO their political coverage is entirely too reliant on anonymous sources with personal axes to grind.
Katherine
Well, isn’t this typical for this user forum? What began with a joke in a comic strip led to a discussion about … a lot of other stuff that has nothing to do with the comic strip.
I love it! 
Steve Bannon loves cats … well, I think it’s cats. It definitely ends in …ats 
Hats? Is he a mad hatter? 
When y’get t’ my age, memory and fantasy can swap roles … amongst other things 
Anyway, floating out there in the ether, is a vivid TV Image of professor Brian Cox welcoming the viewers to the inaugural switch on, of the Cern Large Haddon Collider. After his detailed and inspirational introduction, and just prior to taking us inside, he pointed out that a certain knowledgeable individual had proffered the thesis that there was a possibility that the envisioned collisions could in fact create a massive Black Hole! Proff Cox looked the camera dead on, and informed his audience that, “Anybody telling you that … is a **at!”
For the life of me, I can’t recall exactly what he said, but he was most emphatic. There could have been a t or a w, or whatever. Memory does it’s own thing, at my age
Ahh well … c’est la vie … eh?
tsk tsk, definite name calling. (-: I listen in on both sides and Breitbart users call NYT readers Maoists and NYT readers hurl names that you did. So should I believe that leftist media is Maoist?
I saw this thread on Quora recently quora.com/How-does-Breitbar … ews-source
the answer of Fredrik Josefsson a Swede was different. He starts out:
And again my complaint about NY Times is not that they lean to the left, but that they pretend not to lean at all - that is definitely not telling the truth in my book. Whereas Breitbart wears its right of center with a pride and this is their selling point, that they are on the right. You know what you get when go to Breitbart. Not so at the NYTs. Telling your reader what your bias is at the beginning is being transparent. There may have been a time when the NYT was neutral and unbiased but we are now in a different epoch.
I have no dog in the fight as I am not an American have no party allegiance and have not voted since the early 1970s. And I should also say that until recently I very rarely visit the NYTs, now I look there sometimes to see what new unconfirmed rumor is being promoted as news regarding trashing the SC nominee.
What really is obvious is how much Americans hate each now. But, what is surprising is that considering how many guns there are in the USA that it hasn’t erupted into political violence…yet. Will it devolve into Wiemar Republic style political street fights and body counts? Any opinion from someone in the US of A?
Mohammad definitely loved cats. He often kept a kitten with him stashed in his robes, up his sleeves and pockets. Loved to play with the little fur-balls. I can just imagine what his you tube channel would have consisted of. Right there beside Jihad for Dummies, and how to make IEDs, would be a a lot of cute kitten channels.
Steve Bannon himself proudly declared Breitbart a “platform for the alt-right.” Both he and the site – which fired him – are now running away from the label, but it’s not “name-calling” to call attention to someone’s self-characterization.
Katherine
I think that if you think “Americans” as a group hate each other, you are probably spending too much time reading Breitbart and comment threads generally.
Certainly there are lots of people on both sides with very strong opinions, and the extremes of both parties would happily kick each others’ heads in given the chance. However, those extremes, precisely because they are extreme, attract news coverage wildly out of proportion to their actual numbers. There’s a lot of money to be made by feeding people’s anger, and a lot of people in and outside the US who see divisions as personally advantageous. Some of those people have temporarily achieved a fair amount of power in the US government.
But Weimar street violence? A second civil war? Nah. We’re going through a rough patch, but we’ll be fine.
Katherine
Did he call himself a “fascist?” You did. That is what I was referring to. Sorry for not making that clear.
As for the “Alt-right” label I think, and I may be wrong, the reason the are distancing themselves, if that is true, is because the “alt-right” is too all encompassing and some rather unsavory characters were lumped in.