Well this can be said in both directions, I don't see many of my liberal friends who populate the Kos and MM and Huffington post spending much time at conservative blogs...these blogs are just lying liars who lie. Very open minded. Generally speaking most people gavitate towards views they already hold, it's disconcerting to spend time challanging ones own views, this is a human trait, not a left or right wing one.
No. There's an excess of political opinion, with roadblocks to finding accurate objective information. How many times do you seek something in a search engine and find the top results are not for data, but for opinion? Blogs may be entertaining, but you can do better when you have facts and can form your own opinions instead of bloggers "yelling" from all sides.
There are plenty of good factual news sources across the spectrum. I subscribe to the Financial Times of London because it has detailed news that I rarely see in any US-based media. I read the Wall Street Journal. FT has an interesting cross-section of writers on the editorial pages, but it's generally quite conservative [small 'c']. WSJ has excellent news reporters, but the editorial page, especially since Alexander Cockburn's column ended, continues to decline into the depths of greed.
I also read/subscribe to The Economist, The Atlantic Monthly, Time, Newsweek, Wired, Conde Nast Traveler, Make, and anything I can get my hands on in the library. My main concern is the media consolidation by large corporations, the near death of local media, and the fractured nature of news on the Internet. I generally gravitate to the more liberal sources because they first provide news with facts, and then opinions. My friend keeps sending me links to articles at TownHall.com and similar sites, and I see a lot of opinion but with a dearth of news/facts/links.
I want news and information. I can decide which is useful to me, and can decide what makes sense for me, only when I can get facts. We need news organizations that we can trust to give accurate news, then we supply the opinions ourselves. However, it helps to read/hear/see many sides. Can't do that with radio most of the time, and television isn't much better. We need a path to all points of view on the Internet, without being hindered by corporate owners, or broadband providers that limit access to information by price or by censorship.
Betty ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
