10 Most Reliable News Sources
10.
Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is a well-known name that can often be very controversial.
Like many organizations, it is often accused of bias, but in this case the accusations
of bias are in a right leaning direction.
Many would say that the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal are very conservative.
However, while there is some truth to this, the Wall Street Journal’s news is known
for being quite accurate as far as newspapers go, and is still a trusted source of news
throughout the country.
Some people on the left have a small amount of distrust for it, but overall it is a fairly
trusted publication on both sides of the ideological spectrum.
The Wall Street Journal has also proven itself as a news source that most people trust.
On Election Day, many sites took down their paywall.
However, The Wall Street Journal made the interesting decision to keep theirs up and
see if they could increase their subscriptions.
Their plan worked, and they actually did see quite a large subscription increase in the
days following.
Like others on this list, one should be careful to read between the lines when reading political
reporting or opinion pieces, but when it comes to the basic news itself, they are a reliable
source.
9.
New York Times
The New York Times hardly needs any introduction.
They are perhaps the most well-known newspaper in the entire world, and have been what many
consider a source of journalistic integrity and standards for longer than most people
can remember.
When many people give examples of a reliable source, the New York Times is often the very
first example cited.
However, they would be higher on the list if not for the fact that like any newspaper
in the world, there will always be a certain level of bias.
The New York Times can be relied upon to do their best to fact check and tell the truth,
but if you are reading up on politics in particular, it is undeniable that they lean slightly more
toward the left.
Most of the public still considers them trustworthy, and the bias is slight enough that it is likely
natural bias born from life experience, and not anything particularly intentional, but
all political stories from any newspaper should be read carefully understanding any possible
biases involved in order to better read between the lines.
That said, when the President Elect – now President – of the United States, criticized
the New York Times for their coverage of the election, and accused them of bias, the public
showed their disagreement with President Trump in that regard by voting with their wallets.
Shortly after the election the New York Times had an unprecedented surge in paid subscribers
of over 40,000 people.
This shows that in a time where we have a glut of fake news, people are turning to one
of America’s most trusted new sources to get their information.
8.
BBC
When most people ask you for most trustworthy or reliable news sources, the BBC is one of
the first you hear about.
Known around the world for accurate and reliable reporting, they are even judged well in their
own country – where people tend to be most critical about the reliability and accuracy
of their news.
Of those polled in the UK, 62% believed the BBC to be accurate and reliable as news, and
almost half of those polled found them to be unbiased.
For a news organization that often has to talk about politics, these are actually fairly
good numbers.
The issue is with politics in general, and the truth is that apart from a service where
all they do is literally report what politicians said and nothing else – something essentially
no news network today does – there will always be some amount of bias when talking
about politics.
This means that with many news sources, the news itself being reported may be reliable,
but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take any commentary with a grain of salt, or think
critically about the way the headline or the story is being presented to you.
Remember when watching the news to read between the lines.
If a story is political, there is a good chance there is some amount of innate bias involved.
If you read the story with the particular bias in mind, it will be easier to get to
the heart of the matter.
7.
NPR
NPR stands for National Public Radio, and is a non-profit that makes radio programming
for hundreds of public radio stations around the United States.
Over the years, like everything in radio, they have seen their membership decline.
In many ways they have struggled to keep their older audience, and find a way to also bring
in new, younger listeners.
While people will always drive, and thus there will always be a captive audience for radio,
much of NPR’s programming is often seen as rather outdated, and they are often accused
of having a liberal bias as well.
This accusation of liberal bias is not too surprising, as the public service is often
funded by those with a slightly more liberal leaning, but the station itself has never
been known to greatly exaggerate or mislead people for political reasons.
Like many news services, when they get into opinions in terms of politics, bias is going
to present itself.
In this case the bias is going to lean more in a liberal direction.
However, this does not mean the news you are being told is untrue or even meant to mislead.
Something can be completely true and still be told with an innate bias.
It is always important to be informed and read between the lines.
However, in their defense NPR has award winning journalists, even some who have been killed
in the line of duty bravely reporting on facts in war zones like Iraq.
And in a time when people are looking for more accurate, down to earth reporting, with
as little bias as humanly possible, NPR has been one of the news organizations to see
a recent rise in ratings.
6.
Snopes
It may seem strange to see Snopes on this list.
They are not a news source, exactly, but they are a watchdog who has, over the years, kept
an eye both on news sources and on fake news sources, taking the time to dig into the nitty
gritty and find the truth behind urban legends or rumors of all kinds.
Their work has been tireless and often unnoticed, but they have been going at it since the early
days of the internet.
At first they dispelled hoaxes that would appear on email chains, but now they have
evolved to taking down hoaxes that appear on social media.
Whenever some fake news story is trying to get its legs, Snopes is doing everything they
can to cut it off at the knees.
They find every little detail and ascertain the real truth, if possible, never worrying
about any specific agenda besides truth itself.
This dedication has not gone unnoticed.
Facebook has been under fire for the glut of Fake News during the last election cycle
that appeared in people’s feeds, and the powers that be at Facebook have decided to
do something about it at last.
They are going to start checking suspect stories with fact checking groups, and if the story
doesn’t pass muster, it will be hidden from being seen in people’s feeds.
Snopes, the Associated Press, and a few other trusted fact checkers are working with Facebook
to vet stories to make sure that people are not reading lies when they scroll through
their Facebook feed.
This may sound like a silly issue, but among the millennial generation, an alarming number
got most of their election news from Facebook.
For this reason, it is very important – especially with how people can accidentally turn their
own feed into an echo chamber – that fake news stories are weeded out and removed like
the cancer that they are.
5.
Reuters
Reuters is not a particularly well known news agency when it comes to the public consciousness.
In most polls involving trusted sources of news, it doesn’t even really register.
However, most people are still probably familiar with the name Reuters and their presence online
has increased greatly in recent years.
Many people may even notice that similar to the Associated Press, a lot of news stories
actually credit Reuters.
This is because the two are actually very similar services.
While the Associated Press is more of a non-profit venture, both were originally telegraph wire
news services.
The idea being that a large network of contacts could use the telegraph service to quickly
wire news around the world, so everyone didn’t need a reporter everywhere – as long as
one or two telegraph agencies had most everything covered by a journalist or two.
In recent years, just like the Associated Press and the rest of the news services, Reuters
has struggled with keeping their business performing as needed.
This is why in recent days we have started to see them posting more stories on their
own website, instead of simply selling their stories to other news agencies.
Unfortunately, they would be higher on the list, but using their own website to market
news more directly to the consumer has started to allow opinion to seep more into their news
stories – instead of simply wiring facts on the ground to other agencies in need of
them.
4.
The Economist
The Economist is a publication that has been around for more than 150 years, and despite
having a fairly clear political stance in its editorials, has still always had a general
air of trustworthiness about it.
The Economist is known for having a stance that is quite liberal and calls for a more
global economy, a stance that a fairly large chunk of people are not particularly on board
with.
However, while their editorials do have a clear political tone, they are still known
for being clear with the actual facts, and in terms of reporting news are not known for
being inaccurate.
Part of the fact that they are considered so reliable may be the fact that they have
worked hard to keep their editorial style more anonymous than other newspapers, so it
seems more like the newspaper itself is speaking, instead of different personalities.
In a bizarre way, this almost helps keep the opinion pieces from becoming a spectacle and
overshadowing the basic news reporting, something that has likely helped them remain above the
fray when it comes to public trust.
According to a study by the Pew Research Center, The Economist is actually the most trusted
source in America, if you look at it across both ideological spectrums.
Interestingly, the poll lists the second most trusted news source in America as the BBC
– also a British news agency.
3.
PBS
PBS, which stands for Public Broadcasting Service, is known for being incredibly trustworthy
as news, and also for providing excellent programs that entertain children and help
them learn.
While some may get confused because some programming they see locally on PBS may be made locally
and not by PBS itself, the actual organization has an amazing reputation when it comes to
being unbiased.
For years they have had an independent research poll conducted that finds them at the top
of trustworthiness and reliability in terms of news.
While this should be taken with a grain of salt because the poll is carried out on the
behalf of PBS, you don’t just have to take their word for it.
Other polls commissioned by outside sources have looked at the trustworthiness of news
organizations as well, and PBS comes away with the best net rating in terms of trust
to distrust.
Interestingly, among Republicans, Fox News is the most trusted source, but among Democrats
it is the least trusted source – making it perhaps the most controversial news source
of all.
By contrast, PBS is considered trustworthy by a large amount of respondents from both
sides of the ideological spectrum.
After all, who wouldn’t trust the people who brought us Mr. Rogers?
2.
C-SPAN
For those who aren’t aware, C-SPAN is a public access channel that live streams TV
straight from the floor of the House and Senate of the United States.
C-SPAN stands for Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network and was created long ago by the cable
industry in order to give people a way to keep an eye on the primary source when it
comes to the actions of their government.
While many people think that the federal government is involved in running C-SPAN, this is really
not the case.
In certain situations those in charge of proceedings can ask for the camera’s to be shut off,
but they in no way have any control beyond that over the running of the network or over
what is shown or not.
While it isn’t exactly a news source, C-SPAN is about the most reliable primary source
you can ask for when it comes to unbiased political news.
If you have ever wondered if what you read in a news report was biased, slanted or outright
reported wrong or out of context, you can watch C-Span, or clips from it, and find out
the truth for yourself.
There is no better way to know exactly what a congressperson said than to watch them on
TV and witness with your own eyes and ears exactly what they did and said.
1.
The Associated Press
In many cases, the Associated Press basically is the news.
They are the non-commentary, no nonsense part of the news whose job it is to have tendrils
all over the world, at all times.
It isn’t really convenient for a local paper to have a reporter in Iraq covering the war,
but they still want to be able to report the facts on the ground to the people reading
their paper.
They cannot just copy someone else’s story, and they cannot afford to send someone to
Iraq.
Instead, they buy stories from the Associated Press, which has journalists all over the
globe and sells breaking news to roughly 15,000 news outlets around the world.
They have long been known for reliable and accurate reporting, and are not known for
having any particular agenda.
They are a non-profit agency that works with other non-profit agencies at times, in order
to share news as efficiently as possible.
And in an era where many news organizations seem to have forgotten that fact checking
was a thing it is refreshing that they have a very strong commitment to such, and in a
world where news organizations have increasingly become primarily entertainment, a commitment
to remaining objective.
Nearly every news organization across the spectrum uses stories from the AP, because
they find and report the actual news.