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Show HN: A Safari web extension to access alternate news

11 points by lintfail 5y ago

As news sources get more polarized to encourage their bases, it gets difficult to separate fact from fiction. Objective news extension makes it easy to access political leaning of over 400 news sources, unbiased news, and coverage from other side of the aisle. All news gathering happens on-device.

empressplay 5y ago
For a Chrome 'bias checker' similar to this see https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ground-news-bias-checker/agleiimpggapjekcdhdjbmegjbbkleie https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ground-news-bias-c...
SahAssar 5y ago
What makes you think any source is "unbiased"? What criteria do you use to evaluate them?
- schleck8 5y ago
  (Not OP) Cable services like Reuters, AFP and RND are usually unbiased by design because they license to both sides of the political spectrum. Some criteria are use of language, funding and factchecking track record. Simple example: "Biden SLAMMED over xyz after OUTRAGEOUS xyz" is not an unbiased title.
  - wildrhythms 5y ago
    Don't kid yourself. If 'both sides' (decided by who?) say "War with X is justified" then would you consider that 'unbiased'? How would you know? The truth is that there is no such thing as 'unbiased' news, and 'alternate' news has the same problem. I discredit any claims of 'unbiased' at their face. Everything is biased, no matter how careful or objective the article may be worded.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
happybuy 5y ago
There is no such thing as unbiased news; there is only less-biased news. What this product seems to be calling 'unbiased' is based a single bias, which is overt political bias. There are many other biases that can impact news reporting. Overt political bias is probably the least worrying thing in a democracy as it is easy to identify and weigh accordingly. The more worrying biases that exist in news reporting currently are those that are more covert such as financial incentives and self-censoring of topics. A lot of topics simply aren't reported and the mainstream doesn't question why.
- lintfail 5y ago
  Thanks for your comment! Agreed 100% that there are different types of political biases, with in the context of this product "unbiased" translates to "leaning center". Up on thinking further, it might be worth making that clear upfront, we will update this. Would you be interested in a version of this product that resurfaces under reported stories/topics?

11 points by lintfail 5y ago

empressplay 5y ago

For a Chrome 'bias checker' similar to this see https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ground-news-bias-checker/agleiimpggapjekcdhdjbmegjbbkleie https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ground-news-bias-c...

SahAssar 5y ago

What makes you think any source is "unbiased"? What criteria do you use to evaluate them?

schleck8 5y ago
(Not OP) Cable services like Reuters, AFP and RND are usually unbiased by design because they license to both sides of the political spectrum. Some criteria are use of language, funding and factchecking track record. Simple example: "Biden SLAMMED over xyz after OUTRAGEOUS xyz" is not an unbiased title.
- wildrhythms 5y ago
  Don't kid yourself. If 'both sides' (decided by who?) say "War with X is justified" then would you consider that 'unbiased'? How would you know? The truth is that there is no such thing as 'unbiased' news, and 'alternate' news has the same problem. I discredit any claims of 'unbiased' at their face. Everything is biased, no matter how careful or objective the article may be worded.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

happybuy 5y ago

There is no such thing as unbiased news; there is only less-biased news. What this product seems to be calling 'unbiased' is based a single bias, which is overt political bias. There are many other biases that can impact news reporting. Overt political bias is probably the least worrying thing in a democracy as it is easy to identify and weigh accordingly. The more worrying biases that exist in news reporting currently are those that are more covert such as financial incentives and self-censoring of topics. A lot of topics simply aren't reported and the mainstream doesn't question why.

lintfail 5y ago
Thanks for your comment! Agreed 100% that there are different types of political biases, with in the context of this product "unbiased" translates to "leaning center". Up on thinking further, it might be worth making that clear upfront, we will update this. Would you be interested in a version of this product that resurfaces under reported stories/topics?