The Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/

A very good news organization with a lot of good feature articles and editorials. As of this posting, the United States is in the midst of a healthcare reform debacle that needs some outside perspective. The Independent has an article with simple statistics outlining pros and cons of the U.S. private health care system against the United Kingdom's public heath care system. Their feature articles often take very interesting angles as well. For instance, a recent article talks about recent college graduates being more in debt than any other generation, but many finding more friends and lasting relationships. Another was a feature about the public interest in pornography and how that has influenced new technology. A unique news organization if ever there was one!

Fact Check

http://www.factcheck.org/

This website gained a considerable amount of notoriety during the 2008 presidential election for being very quick to correct the candidates when they got their facts wrong, exaggerated, or told out-right lies. The reports go after Democrats and Republicans alike, and more recently have focused more on Obama than anyone else. The published reports are very thorough, and the writers site all of their sources. This is still true of today, but the website has, unfortunately, cut way back in their reporting. The website averages about one report per week, but they could just as easily being doing one per day. Watch this website during the next election and you'll have a new-found appreciation for the information you'll get.

Columbia Journalism Review

http://www.cjr.org/

It's about time we had another news posting, I say. Keep this in mind: if you're reading something that is classified as a peer-reviewed journal, there's a good chance that it's a reliable source on the topic. It appears they want to make it very clear that you are reading exactly that. I bumped into this publication's site by accident one day and was quite impressed with the quality of the reporting and the writing. From what I've found across the net, the publication seems to be universally respected by journalists. Besides being an excellent news source, they have other features that I've started checking out more and more often. The one that introduced me to the site was the "Who Owns What" resource, that lists major corporations and all of the companies that they own, and it's quite fascinating. Besides that, they've got several sections of the website dedicated to various topics from the economy, to information overload, to transparency, and so much more.

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Consistently one of the best, most informative, non-biased, and reliable news sources in the whole world. I'm happy to begin the network with a news source that is respected the world over, but has yet to truly break through here in America as a news source to pay attention to. Maybe it's because they've remained a non-profit company all of these years, and that would never fly with the corporations that own all of the news outlets in this country if The Guardian ever tried to get American circulation.

This phenomenal news source deserves your attention and support.