I must confess: I am a junkie

(And by "junkie" I mean news junkie.)
There isn't a day that goes by where I can't help but check the news in some fashion. Even when I was younger I would read through the news paper. Mostly I'd check out headlines, but I'd read full articles that caught my interest. I always wanted to be up-to-date with current events, world news, national events and local happenings. I'm still the same way, but now use the newspaper less and check out news sites constantly. Practically the only reason I still go to Yahoo! is because news headlines are on the front page. Not really the best reason, especially because they post a lot of entertainment news (maybe a guilty little secret of mine...or not) and they post a lot of videos. I really prefer to read my news. Articles often are more in depth and I like being able to jump back and forth at will.

«So you're pretty on top of what's going on then.»

Actually, I'm a bit of a lazy news-junkie. Besides Yahoo! I only regularly check about 3 news sites: CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera. (Permanent links for 2 of them on the side. Guess which one is Al Jazeera.) I used to check the NY Times more regularly, but they keep on making very public screw ups with their reporting and they want me to register with them. (bleh) They do have good interactive graphics and I still will check them from time to time. There are so many sites I should check to get a more well rounded news outlook. I am pretty good for an international perspective, but not nationally or locally. The AP (which provides most of America's news with articles) and CNN aren't really the best places to go for unbiased or balanced reporting. Really everyone is biased in some way so to combat that I should check out sources from all sides. For example, The Huffington Post would be a great place to start. I've been hesitant mostly because it's more a liberal blog, and I don't like ranting. That's nothing against liberals. Just as much as liberal bloggists pontificate about the gay-marriage, the evils of Bush, and how those extremist, red-neck conservatives are ruining this country, the conservative blogs clamor about gun control, abortion, and how those elitist, liberal hippies are ruining this country. Getting into politics would be a whole other post, but basically both sides have their crazies on the soap box and I hate ranting in my news.

«That puts you in a pickle then.»

Not really. There are enough news sources out there that I can get a great variety and filter what I get to avoid the rants. I just need to be more diligent about it. It's something else to think about and work on.
(Actually that xkcd comic I linked to had some good sites that I need to try. ☺)