News Sources

No, not news about me or my research; this page describes how I learn about the world. For better or worse, I, like my parents, have a love of newspapers. Unlike them, I get little of my information from broadcast TV, and much from the Internet (most of that from mainstream media sources, rather than blogs or other "new" journalism).

A few of these are tagged as "conservative" or "liberal", but it's worth pointing out that such labels are relevant only in a particular context, i.e. that of an American. What qualifies as liberal or conservative very much depends on where you are, and what your background is.

Top-Tier Sources

These five sources have surprisingly little overlap. Before re-subscribing to the Daily Yomiuri, the primary shortcoming of this set was that there was not enough material about Asia.

• Daily Yomiuri. I am now once again subscribed to the print edition; it's my preferred English-language paper in Japan, and now my main source of news. It's such an idiosyncratic paper that I created a section on it alone, below.
• The New York Times online. My second main source. 'Nuff said.
• Science Magazine. I read the print version. Its weekly news is invaluable.
• Interesting People. Prof. Dave Farber's moderated mailing list of news and views sent to him by his readers. Heavy focus on information technology issues, civil liberties, and liberal American politics. High volume.
• Common Dreams. An aggregator of news and opinion (mostly the latter) for the "progressive" political community.

Daily Yomiuri

Features weekly sections from the L.A. Times, The Times (U.K.), the Chicago Tribune, and the Washington Post. (All relatively liberal, it's true.)

Also has a weekly feature called "Through Asian Eyes", which features a huge variety of material from Asian English-language papers, sometimes agreeing with YS or general Japanese opinion, sometimes not. Whoever edits this page has an interesting job. Material comes from Straits Times (Singapore), Manila Times (Phillipines), the Nation (Thailand), and numerous others from Korea, China, Hong Kong, India, and more.

From Europe, besides the Times, DY also gets material from Financial Times and other sources.

DY cribs occasionally from Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report.

On the conservative side, editorials and other materials come from Henry Kissinger, the Ayn Rand Institute, the Heritage Foundation, Brookings Institute, and more.

DY, of course, gets lots of material from its parent, the Yomiuri Shinbun. Yomiuri is not just into reporting the news, it's into making it, and shaping policy, too. The Yomiuri Research Institute (which appears not to have a separate web presence) organizes fora with local and international superstar speakers, as well as supporting policy researchers on various topics.

Many articles bylined "the Yomiuri Shinbun" appear to be press releases from trade groups/PR people here -- "look at the cool new vacuum cleaners!" "popular shoes this fall manufactured from organically grown toadstools!" and the like.

DY also has a weekly science page, including, among other things, Earthweek. Thursdays also sees the publication of the regular column on go, as well as Japanese and English language tips.

All in all, through accident or design, the Daily Yomiuri is my favorite English-language news source, and I read a much higher percentage of it than of any newspaper I've ever subscribed to.

Second-Tier Sources

• Yomiuri Shinbun. In Japanese. I read the print edition; their online presence is cluttered and changes throughout the day, making it difficult to depend on. The print edition would be one of my top sources if I could read Japanese quickly enough. Politically very conservative.
• Japan Times online.
• L.A. Times online.
• CNN online. Last time I tried to subscribe to their Real-based online broadcast, the Linux version of the Real player wouldn't handle the encryption.
• Christian Science Monitor online. Conservative.
• RealClimate.org, an antidote to the two links below.

Minor Sources

• Williamson Daily News online. My hometown newspaper.
• Charleston Gazette online.
• International Herald-Tribune. I read the print edition occasionally.
• Financial Times. I read the print edition when I'm in Europe.
• LA Weekly.
• Science News. I used to subscribe to the print edition, and love this, but found I didn't have time to read both this and Science.
• San Jose Mercury News. I subscribed to the print edition for most of the five years we lived in the Bay Area, but it's a very provincial newspaper. Deserves its nickname "Silicon Valley's Hometown Newspaper", you'd think the whole world revolved around the Valley. Also deserves its other nickname, "Murky News".
• San Francisco Chronicle. Nicknamed the "Comical". I subscribed to it for a while, as a relief from the Murky News, but never felt much attachment to it one way or the other.

Know Thine Enemy

• Junk Science, by Steve Milloy. Some of his material is good, especially when he is talking about anti-science hysteria, but much of his material I disagree with strongly. A Cato Institute adjunct scholar and Fox News commentator, he has never met an environmental regulation he liked.
• CO2 Science. Anti-global-warming bunch almost certainly funded by the Western Fossil Fuels Association.