Mainstream News Sources vs. Independent or Alternative Ones


We are all familiar with the popular, mainstream sources of news & opinion (sometimes referred to as "the corporate media" or "the elite media”).These are the regular news sources (whether seen on TV or on Internet Web Sites) such as CBS News, CNN, ABC News, Fox News, MSNBC, national print newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, as well as local newspapers like The Home News Tribune, The Newark Star-Ledger, etc..(You can use Google to find websites for all of them and more.)



The Alternative Press or Independent News media represent more progressive political views and offer an alternative to mainstream or corporate-sponsored news.It is typically critical of "official" views and, as Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!says, seeks to "speak truth to power" & to "go where the silence is."Sometimes to correct for the centrist and right-leaning views of mainstream media, independent media will lean so far to the left that it becomes too angry, one-sided, or unrealistic.But it can often be a good source of information and informed views that are excluded from mainstream media.

What are some good alternative news sources?

I'd recommend a look at ZNet & ZMagazine, now combined in a new ZCom.

Robert McChesney says "I spend a good deal of my time nowadays struggling for a media system that does not so readily dispense corporate and militarist propaganda and masquerade it as news. ZNet is one of the main alternatives to the status quo that points to a caliber of media that we so desperately need. I read it nearly every day and find it of tremendous value."

Noam Chomsky says: "I travel and speak constantly, in the U.S. and abroad, and spend many hours a day just responding to inquiries and comments. I constantly discover that the people and organizations I come in contact with are relying very substantially on Z projects for information, discussion, and opportunities for interaction and organizing, to an extent that is quite remarkable. Z is also an invaluable resource for me personally."



I'd also recommend In These Times, Common Dreams, as well as independent journalists and scholars sometimes published in such respected magazines of news and opinion as TheNation, The New Yorker, Harpers, Vanity Fair, and Mother Jones as well as on Salon.com.

For brief descriptions of these and a few other independent, socially-committed news sources, see Jeremy T. Mumford's "Students for Social Justice" page at Merced College, a Community College in California.

Finally, here is FAIR’s List of Alternative News Sources

  • AlterNet. Syndicated writings from the alternative press. 
  • The American Prospect. Liberal political magazine; has a good blog. 
  • Common Dreams. Breaking news and links to highlights from the day's progressive press. 
  • CounterPunch. A bi-weekly muckraking newsletter edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair. 
  • Democracy Now!. The web version of the daily radio show. 
  • Free Speech TV. Towards more democratic television; site features downloadable independent video. 
  • Eschaton. Popular blog is perhaps the best round-up of the progressive blogosphere, with much media criticism. 
  • In These Times. A nonprofit political magazine featuring news and analysis that challenge the corporate media. 
  • Indymedia.org: Independent media organizations and journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. 
  • Jay's Leftist and ''Progressive'' Internet Resources Directory. A very, very large progressive links collection. 
  • Left Business Observer. Monthly newsletter on economics and politics edited by Doug Henwood. 
  • The Nation. America's oldest weekly news magazine, featuring political news and commentary. 
  • OneWorld Online. Global news with a focus on the developing world. 
  • The Progressive. Political magazine with commentary and news advocating for peace and social justice. 
  • Sam Smith's Progressive Review. "Washington's Most Unofficial Source." 
  • WorkingForChange. Left-oriented phone company Working Assets has a remarkably good roster of columnists. 
  • World Socialist Web Site. News from a Marxist perspective; frequent media criticism. 
  • ZNet. Z Magazine's site for progressive news and organizing.


[From http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=134]