• CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Well I think you’ve actually accurately communicated the need for such a bot. A lot of the sources here are sometimes far left sources that even I don’t trust or they can be just a Wordpress blog. Sometimes that’s fine but I really appreciate the bot being there to highlight it.

    And I tend to know the sources pretty well. I know how the Washington post works for example, I know what NPRs articles are bent towards. But I know a lot of people don’t know that and that’s why I’m confused about the hate for the bot because in my eyes it’s only helpful and the sites it links to are decent sources of analysis on them.

    I’m with you though, I have yet to see someone post as bad of a source as the NYpost or something but still, the bot is at worst useless and not harmful imo

    • anon6789@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Perhaps it makes people uncomfortable when their own biases are questioned. Most of us here will gladly go on all day about right wing bias while denying any from the left. I would rather be told if my viewpoint seems off as long as it’s in a constructive way. There’s a lot I don’t know or understand, and having others correct us is how we learn, and that should be done with good intent.

      NPR is always a fun one to see how people react to it. The hard left and right both seem to hate on it and swear it leans the opposite of them. If anything, I feel they’re too soft on extremism, mainly to the right, but it’s curious to see how people can see opposite extremes in whatever they want.

      If there’s something that I’m really interested in, I’ll try to read things for 2 or 3 relatively neutral sources to try to see if I’m getting an accurate view on it. It really doesn’t need to be too complex to vet info. NPR, AP, and BBC are my top go tos.

      • CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Totally agree but I’d add Reuters into your mix. From everything I’ve read, they’re highly factual and so bias almost doesn’t even apply to them. Most people mark them as dead center.

        • anon6789@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I do like Reuters as well. I used to use them and AP first, since they’re the source for most news anyway, so I try to go to the source. The content though seemed so similar to AP though, and I prefer the more linear vertical style of the AP Top News page to either the AP home page or the Reuters page with their stacked left to right style. I just looked and mobile seems to fix this, but I do most of my news reading on my work laptop so I get the standard website. Perhaps I’m due to swap in some Reuters again.

        • Optional@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          From everything I’ve read, they’re highly factual and so bias almost doesn’t even apply to them.

          While I mostly agree, it should be noted that “bias” can be communicated in a number of ways that a bot can’t detect. “What doesn’t get reported”, for example. Also, “center” is both subjective and relative - I find Reuters does little to highlight moneyed corruption, for example, but they seem fully competent to report on an earthquake or something like that.

          I would give them a lot of weight in general, but still pretty far from “accurately representing a complete picture” for the above reasons. They’re just a lot more reasonable about the bias they do communicate.