If you’re an independent voter or Democrat who is getting a bit tired of the Internet powerhouse Drudge Report’s political positioning of news items and/or have been turned off by some of its big news scoops that didn’t quite pan out in terms of the HUGE HEADLINES (the ones that have simply vanished off the site with no explanation) there are alternatives. Or, if you’re a Drudge fan and like that format and are looking for others that you can visit and get a news summary at a quick glance there are some excellent alternatives. Yours truly looks at all of these sites including Drudge (but has stopped linking to Drudge Report exclusives on TMV: instead I wait until I see it covered by the mainstream media in reports that indicate proof of confirmation and will link to the mainstream media report).
If you’re looking for sites akin to Drudge but not written by someone enamored by Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter carrying some political feeler stories clearly sourced by top level GOP operatives, then here are a few others for you to check out. Even if you ARE a huge Drudge fan, you’ll like the format of these — and I encourage you to add them to your bookmark list:
HINESSIGHT: It bills itself as “The Anti-Drudge” and can be truly addicting.
BUZZFLASH REPORT: A longtime, highly popular site on the left that not only is a news aggregator but has a lot of original liberal-oriented posts.
Drudge Retort: The name and format speak for itself. It’s design is identical but it’s coming from a different space politically. Has an excellent list of links to other sites as well.
NEWSER: Summaries of news stories, constantly updated. In its design and content, it’s one that will hook you so you visit several times a day.
If you read all of these and the original Drudge, you get a good, quick feel for the big stories that are breaking.
NOTE: TMV used to do a lot of Take a Peek features. We will be reinstituting them. Sites we urge readers to visit are sites that could be center, left or right. All offer good content and will be sites where the prime focus is on issues and news and their posts may be passionate, versus sites that go after other blogs or blog writers of the left or right who don’t agree with them.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.