Now this would make for some interesting neuro-psych research. Create a series of newscasts mirroring current events with controlled sets of facts and mistatements. Put them in radio, print and tv. have subjects who have been sequestered for 30 days listen/read/watch alongside actual news events. See how far you can push the truth before "belief" dissapates as measured by transmitter levels. Compare levels between subjects having a strong religious background, areligious, science, etc. and of course by age.

Many variables and too much subjective data, but you could probably create a truly objective experiment given what you would learn in process and the results from this study.

I don't really think it's possible to be free of bias in news reporting. I try to balance it by reading a range of material from broadsheets to tabloid/shock papers - but find myself more drawn to middle left than anything else. Of course I feel middle left is more accurate but that's probably due to my own bias...... impossible really isn't it.

just gotta build a shot at Canadians into every thread now don't we?

If you are talking about unbiased news in the USA prior to the war in Iraq - there was none. All the main stream media news outlets were pro-war. During that time I frequented the Toronto Star's online news website for a dose of reality.

wwwthestar.com

Thank God there is a Canada.

I don't watch the news,,,drive's my wife nuts. But I explain to her, there's no need for me to watch the news,,,I have the OT. Right?

I'm with IROC. I seriously read Pelican OT to get both sides of stories. There's also a lot of random stuff -- like the 737 crash -- where there is at least one serious expert who can comment on the topic intelligently. Being able to read intelligent discourse on both sides of major news is really helpful.

But then, Pelican OT doesn't cover _all_ the news. My alternate source has started to be news.google.com. They have major news conveniently laid out with links to several different sources on each story. That way I can get the news on a particular item from multiple sources without going through a lot of hassle. It doesn't give the discussion, but it's more complete than the OT.

Now if we could just get rid of the name-calling and "Your news is biased! Eat flaming death, you liberal/conservative scum!" ;)

After accidentally reading a few of their articles, I did some research, and it seems the Christian Science Monitor actually has a good reputation for "fair" and "unbiased" news reporting, especially in the international area.