Tag Archives: mainstream news user guide

On Line Mainstream News Brief User Guide

Let’s start with the worst.  MSNBC apparently thinks you are illiterate and hence is only providing videos for you to watch.  I suppose it’s all in an effort to get you connected with Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow and tilted to the left.

Postmedia (Calgary Herald and Vancouver Sun among others) have finally figured out that you are deleting your cookies in an effort to circumvent their effort to get you to subscribe.  Now they just throw up a subscription box overlay preventing you from viewing an article.  The Globe and Mail is now doing the same thing. For some reason, Postmedia’s National Post still seems reasonably accessible.  This is their right and it is also your right to determine if you pay enough already through your monthly internet access and viewership of their advertisements.  Although their subscription rates are palatable, where does the nickel and diming stop? Does the whole internet universe deserve access to your email address? Should you decide to treat yourself to one subscription, would you then be denying yourself access to alternate editorials with differing opinions….thereby narrowing your lens of seeing the world?

The Washington Post and NY Times also eventually want your subscription dollar as does the LA Times and Boston Globe.  The Calgary Sun will get you a $0.99 rate but “conditions will apply”.  You may be as unenthused as I about researching the qualifiers and exclusions.

As for CNN, if you are looking for links on topics such as the top ten photos famous people don’t want you to see, this is the news site for you.

In lieu of the above, in Canada I find ctvnews.ca and your taxpayer subsidized cbc.ca the places which best cut through the crap without even the occasional spam box thrust upon your inquisitive eyes.  Reuters remains user friendly but surprisingly their content is leaner than what we would expect from such a large news organization.

Subject to edit based on future experience with aforesaid  and / or other on line news outlets.