World News

A guide to reliable and groundbreaking news sources

Sometime in the late 1980's, people held hands on prime time television and sang, "We are the world". This was meant to combat the drought in Ethiopia, or another similar problem that had the misfortune of occuring outside the United States. The idea was that people would actually start caring about places like Ethiopia though they knew nearly nothing about them. These days there's more good coverage of world news than you know what to do with, assuming you know where to look. These are some helpful places too look, along with varied and stimulating views on current news.

Sources

The Economist
A weekly magazine. They write with a sense of timely wisdom and seem to have been this doing for hundreds of years. Published out of London, the Economist has a political slant that not surprisingly lies halfway between the U.S. and Europe. Their style is like this:
• Articles are concise
• There is one and one picture only per page
• The topics are broad
• They are not afraid to talk about the "view of The Economist"
• They balance each issue with articles from across the continents

The World from PRI
Each episode is a meal. It balances the filling with the refreshing and the mild with the hot. Produced by both the BBC and Public Radio International, it has a mid-Atlantic feel and focus. Mmmmmm, mid-atlantic!

The Christian Science Monitor
A daily newspaper. The scope is wide. Published out of Boston Massachusetts , the magazine does cater to it's US base but also has good unique coverage of the rest of the world. This paper is respected. It's name does scare some people off, but this is no Christian propaganda leaflet.

The News Hour
It's changed much since it's heyday as the McNeil Lehrer News Hour, but with Ray Suarez on board, it looks set to continue for years to come. It's thoughtful and one of the few television shows that port to the radio without any difficulty.

The world of Tom Friedman
I don't always agree with this man, but he is thoughtful. You've got to see his picture. The mustache, it's too much. It's part of the reason I trust him, because the man doesn't look like what he writes.

BBC World Service
Maybe it's lost it's edge of late, but the BBC still gives the feel of the old empire. The feel of London looking out at the world on it's doorstep. They dable here and get bogged down there, but their awkward pacing is sometime refreshing to the clockwork momentum of NPR.