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Neutral News

“News sources are biased”, and “everyone lives in a bubble”, we all hear constantly (or perhaps that’s just my bubble). But what would a non-biased news source look like?

Taking a strict middle-ground gives immediately ridiculous conclusions. Perhaps the UK’s food banks suggest some problem, but not much of a problem? This seems less wrong than saying food banks don’t suggest any problem, but still wrong. And should this neutral position exist on a per-country basis - so all the countries can have balanced, and unbiased, but totally different news stories - or planet-wide? ( - I can’t even imagine what madness that would summon)

As the Romanians invaded their own parliament and punched their politicians in the face, I heard for the bazillionth time that Trump did a racism, and wondered why the news covered news which seemed less informative, and less interesting.

I don’t have any good answers to the theory, but in practice - on the rare occasions I seek out ’news’ (what does that word mean anyway?) I find Wikipedia’s current events page seems to tick the boxes that I can’t articulate.

Comparisons

This is today’s ’news’ from a number of platforms:

YewTu.Be

This Youtube proxy does not adjust itself to the viewer. There is some algorithm, but it’s a primitive, open-source thing, probably based on the most watched videos.

  • Mafiyao Ko Mitti Me Mila Denge…" Yogi Adityanath’s Fiery Speech At UP Assembly (from India Today)
  • Trump deposed for second time in New York fraud lawsuit
  • After Pentagon leak arrest, questions linger over how leak possibly went undetected for months

… so there’s some Indian bloke on India Today, who might be interesting, but I don’t speak the language.

Youtube.com

Youtube promises an algorithm which tailors suggestions to your liking, but it doesn’t seem to be working today.

  • After Pentagon leak arrest, questions linger over how leak possibly went undetected for months (CBS News)
  • Trump’s Crimes Keep Adding Up, Giuliani Can’t Actually Prove Election Fraud & Disaster for DeSantis (Jimmy Kimmel Live)
  • (some Youtube ‘shorts’ which I’m not wading through)
  • Analyzing The Trump Indictment & Arrest (LegalEagle - hey, I know this guy!)

So YouTube got one thing I’m familiar with out of the top three.

The Guardian

The UK-spot of the Guardian can at least promise something relevant to my country.

  • Why NHS in England appears destined for month of further strikes
  • Nurses will strike again in England after voting to reject government pay deal
  • Clive Lewis urges Kier Starmer to pledge to reduce size and cost of royal family

The first two might have been bundled into a single article, and I wouldn’t mind the couple of quotes about ‘what must happen’ and ‘what should happen’ being removed - I don’t need the Guardian telling me a random person’s just-so statements.

Wikipedia: Current Events

I haven’t read any of these before writing this article, so I can only hope Wikipedia doesn’t fail me.

  • Yemen civil war (France 24)
  • 2023 Tunisia migrant boat disasters - more bodies found (Reuters)
  • LGBT rights in Tanzania, Capital punishment in Tanzania (The Citizen)

Not a mention of football, not a single whiff of Trump. International news of the highest interest, and without a European (+ex European settlements) bias, brand new wars, deaths, and massacres have opened up.

I still can’t say what the rules are, but this does look like neutral news.

Anyway - I’m away to do some paperwork and stick on the LegalEagle’s Trump video in the background.