Getting Accurate Political Information? 272
XMorbius asks: "With the elections coming up in a few months, I (along with other Slashdot readers, I hope) want to get more informed about the candidates. But, where does one turn to get accurate (or as accurate as possible) information about them, while at the same time not having to review long logs and records of various hearings over the last decade or so? This seems like a nice compilation of information, but something tells me that it may not be very accurate. I've seen factcheck.org but I feel like there is more knowledge out there to be acquired. What does the Slashdot community recommend?"
opensecrets.org (Score:5, Informative)
Disinfopedia (Score:5, Informative)
They're pretty good, or as I have heard. They link their stuff to sources so you can check it out yourself. Some people say they have a liberal bias since they released a book called "Banana Republicans" which is not flattering to the party in question.
I have to admit though, it's difficult to find good non-biased political info on the net. Maybe the best thing would be to just read both sides instead and in that way make up your mind. It's tougher than just getting from one source, but I think it's the only good way right now...
ACLU (Score:2, Informative)
Accuracy? (Score:2, Informative)
Check foreign media (Score:5, Informative)
In my recent vacation in the US I was stunned that nobody saw a world-famous picture with US troops guarding the ministry of oil. It was printed in a lot of world press newspapers. A quick search on google couldn't turn up the image, but there is a reference here [ccmep.org]. No idea what this source is (I did a very quick search). Apparantly US media is biased or censured, so make sure you check all possible sources of information... It is hard to convince Europeans that the Iraqi war is not about oil when a picture like that is in the paper...
I loved NYC & New England, and I'm not an anti-American guy...just want the facts straight
Try Project Vote Smart (Score:4, Informative)
They have biographical information, issue positions provided by the candidates (where available), campaign finance information (links over to Open Secrets), interest group ratings, voting records, speeches and statements in an organized format.
Re:Check foreign media (Score:2, Informative)
You don't think that it would be important to protect the power plant that provides 1/3 of Baghdad's power? Or the Ministry of Oil building? Should they just let the insurgents destroy them? That'd really help the situation?
It is hard to convince Europeans that the Iraqi war is not about oil when a picture like that is in the paper...Probably why it's not in the paper here. Really, there are a lot of pictures of the Iraq war. Hopefully, we are above posting pictures of troops protecting important resources to try to convince people the war is wrong.
-BrentRe:Something novel - a Right-Wing site mentioned (Score:3, Informative)
Hell, my wife was banned from freerepublic because she asked why food and energy wasn't including in the inflation report and I have received death threats for saying porn should not be banned. I mean they where chearing on China yesterday because they are going to execute a person who sold/made porn in China.
Just damn.
Anti-Spin (Score:5, Informative)
Spinsanity - another fact checking site (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Something novel - a Right-Wing site mentioned (Score:4, Informative)
Posted on 03/22/2004 6:22:17 PM PST by Jim Robinson
I posted the following statement to our front page in response to the criticism I'm receiving lately as to not being fair and balanced and perceived mistreatment of trolls and assorted malcontents. Got news for all, I'm NOT fair and balanced. I'm biased toward God, country, family, liberty and freedom and against liberalism, socialism, anarchism, wackoism, global balonyism and any other form of tyranny. Hope this helps.
Statement by the founder of Free Republic:
In our continuing fight for freedom, for America and our constitution and against totalitarianism, socialism, tyranny, terrorism, etc., Free Republic stands firmly on the side of right, i.e., the conservative side. Believing that the best defense is a strong offense, we (myself and those whom I'm trying to attract to FR) support the strategy of taking the fight to the enemy as opposed to allowing the enemy the luxury of conducting their attacks on us at home on their terms and on their schedule.
Therefore, we wholeheartedly support the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive strikes on known terrorist states and organizations that are believed to present a clear threat to our freedom or national security. We support our military, our troops and our Commander-in-Chief and we oppose turning control of our government back over to the liberals and socialists who favor appeasement, weakness, and subserviency. We do not believe in surrendering to the terrorists as France, Germany, Russia and Spain have done and as Kerry, Kennedy, Clinton and the Democrats, et al, are proposing.
As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc. We also oppose the United Nations or any other world government body that may attempt to impose its will or rule over our sovereign nation and sovereign people. We believe in defending our borders, our constitution and our national sovereignty.
Free Republic is private property. It is not a government project, nor is it funded by government or taxpayer money. We are not a publicly owned entity nor are we an IRS tax-free non-profit organization. We pay all applicable taxes on our income. We are not connected to or funded by any political party, news agency, or any other entity. We sell no merchandise, product or service, and we offer no subscriptions or paid memberships. We accept no paid advertising or promotions. We are funded solely by donations (non tax deductible gifts) from our readers and participants.
We aggressively defend our God-given and first amendment guaranteed rights to free speech, free press, free religion, and freedom of association, as well as our constitutional right to control the use and content of our own personal private property. Despite the wailing of the liberal trolls and other doom & gloom naysayers, we feel no compelling need to allow them a platform to promote their repugnant and obnoxious propaganda from our forum. Free Republic is not a liberal debating society. We are conservative activists dedicated to defending our rights, defending our constitution, defending our republic and defending our traditional American way of life.
Our God-given liberty and freedoms are not negotiable.
May God bless and protect our men and women in uniform fighting for our freedom and may God continue to bless America.
ALL News Media Is Biased (Score:5, Informative)
My two cents is to look for news sources that are up front about their biases. Then fact check them your self. Personally I like a weekly called "The Economist". Their reporting on science and technology is usually pretty accurate - which is fairly rare in the mainstream media. On political matters they tilt towards the (British) conservatives. Their coverage of world news and of U.S. news is excellent.
Re:opensecrets.org (Score:3, Informative)
Ohio & California (smartvoter.org) (Score:2, Informative)
http://smartvoter.org [smartvoter.org]
It can be a little bland since it takes no stance but it has always been a great starting source for me and shows me what will be on my ballot.
Re:I can't believe it took this long (Score:3, Informative)
As for the left right scale, CNN and PBS are leftist, Fox News are right wing twats and MSNBC I haven't seen enough of to know.
For the record, I get my news from the Guardian [guardian.co.uk] (left wing newspaper), the Independent [independent.co.uk] (nice, politically independent (although VERY slightly leftist) newspaper which employs Robert Fisk), the BBC [bbc.co.uk] and CNN International [cnn.com] (a completely different beast from the American CNN [cnn.com], with more concentration on world affairs). Anybody looking for radio can do no worse than the BBC World Service [bbcworldservice.com]. If you haven't noticed, most of those are British (and even CNNI comes from London). That's because we kick ass
The Note! (Score:3, Informative)
For a good analysis of things, I prefer the Christian Science Monitor [csmonitor.com]. The bias vacillates, simply because of the variety of guest columnists.
Re:WMD's found (Score:2, Informative)