Beyond the conservative bubble

I’ve written for the past couple of days about the Media Research Center’s annual spotting of examples of liberal bias (see “Silver anniversary of bias watching” and “Getting it wrong”)—but enough negativity. Several readers, post-election, are making New Year’s resolutions to get out of the conservative bubble, and they’ve asked me what journalistic products I read regularly.

Here goes, starting with everyday reading: ESVBible.org, WORLDmag.com, The New York Times (for a liberal view), and The Wall Street Journal editorial page (for a conservative view). When I have time I’ll look at RealClearPolitics and RealClearReligion for a variety of views online, and The New Republic and The Weekly Standard for liberal and conservative magazine perspectives, respectively. When I watch television news it’s usually Fox News, but I sometimes look at MSNBC and read liberal perspectives using Flipboard and Zite on my iPad.

Plus, my wife, Susan, sends me links to lots of articles, which I always read, and other folks send me more, which I often read. Websites I look at for personal interest include SI.com, ESPN, Facebook, and The Jerusalem Post. GetReligion and New Geography provide thoughtful reads, Instapundit.com is a good headline service, and Drudge Report is an amusing throwback to the old-time religion of sensationalism.

I occasionally read online newspapers such as The Boston Globe and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. Others read The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times:The important thing is not to read in the belief that you’re obtaining the news, but to understand realistically that you are only coming to understand a particular perspective.