Election season is in full swing and nothing irritates me more than thinking about all of the voters who go to the polls armed only with the claims of their favorite candidate. I believe that we should be anxious to research all sides of every issue and never let one candidate’s claims dictate how we feel about the other candidates or themselves.
While I tend to lean ever so slightly right in my political views, I still read news and information from both sides of the aisle. Here are a few websites that will help. Some are essentially neutral while others are very slanted. No matter where you stand, I would encourage everyone who votes to vote informed and armed with the truth no matter who is telling it.
Mostly neutral sites –
FactCheck.org – this is a great site for looking up the facts and figures used by candidates to show both their own strengths and their opponents weaknesses.
FactCheckEd.org – Sister site of the above but designed more for teachers.
Politifact.com – a similar fact checking site, but Politifact has a cool feature called the Truth-o-meter that measures candidates claims on a scale from True to False.
Politico.com – does a reasonable job at trying to stay balanced although its left-slanting writers and polls are more often cited.
Left slanted news (mainstream news agencies have been omitted for space) –
DailyKos.com – A site that doesn’t even pretend to be balanced or unbiased. Their site description in Google is “Daily weblog with political analysis on US current events from a liberal perspective.”
TalkLeft.com – Describes itself as “The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news”
ThinkProgress.org – Pictures of the president and supporters always taken mid-blink while liberals are shown pointing fingers or in publicity shots.
Thedemocraticdaily.com – Perhaps the only liberal news site you need to know as it is a feed of all of the other liberal news sites and blogs.
MediaMatters.org – Organization that monitors right wing news and blogs.
Right slanted news (talk radio sites omitted for obvious reasons) –
Humanevents.com – website of the official conservative newspaper – Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich and Phyllis Schlafly all contribute.
WorldNetDaily.com – poorly designed site, but one of the more cited sources for conservatives.
NewsBusters.org – Comparable to WorldNet in content, but much better design and more multimedia content.
Hotair.com – my personal favorite, lots of great stuff and a fun read with a good sense of humor.
NewsMax.com – written like a mainstream news site, but uses obvious right slant.
Piled on some of the flat surfaces of my desk, I have a Marie Osmond fashion doll, a Ronald Reagan mask, a visible man model, a box of vintage bow ties, some Ken Struck toys from the 50s, a Canon Rebel xti, an Asus Eee PC, and a cool Homer Simpson Rubic’s cube.