Introduction
In the era of social media, polarized politics, accusations of bias and "fake news", consumers of news in the US have to filter through the noise to get to the heart of current issues and events. Gone are the days of the likes of Walter Cronkite, when one could simply tune in to mainstream news and hear unbiased and factual commentary. Americans are increasingly looking beyond just the traditional outlets as their news source. But even in the midst of tweetstorms, racial epithets and political correctness, we all have some news sources that we trust more than others. Which would you rank as the best? Which do you judge to be the worst? Rank this list to let us know and comment below to share your opinion. If you think we have missed any of your favorite outlets, please add them as suggestions.
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CNN
#13.5Founded by the dynamic but eccentric entrepreneur Ted Turner, CNN (or Cable News Network) pioneered the concept of 24-hours news programming when it launched in 1980 and was the first cable news network to begin broadcasting in high definition in 2007. CNN came into the spotlight in 1986 during their coverage of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and more prominently in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, because the channel was the only outlet which reported from inside Iraq during the initial hours of the American bombing campaign, with live reports by Bernard Shaw, John Holliman and Peter Arnett. Throughout the 1990s, CNN became very infuential as the only major cable news channel. Today, CNN's television personalities include Wolf Blitzer, Erin Burnett, Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper. The presidency of Donald Trump has led to many prominent controversies involving CNN. The network was accused of bias during its coverage of the 2016 campaign; current CNN president Jeff Zucker defended its extensive coverage of Trump, noting among the Republican candidates, he was the most willing to give on-air interviews. Likewise, there were accusations by both Trump and supporters of Bernie Sanders, that CNN focused too much on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton; during his speech at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump referred to CNN as the "Clinton News Network". CNN’s work surrounding the 2016 elections has also led some critics to assert that Jeff Zucker is transforming political coverage into the sensational format of sports and entertainment programming.
CBS News
#25.5CBS, founded in 1927, first found its footing in news when William S. Paley became President in 1928, marking the beginning of one of the most influential newsman in history. During his tenure, CBS came to be known as the so-called “Tiffany Network", because of its dedication to high-quality programming. CBS News, or CBSN, is the news division of CBS and broadcasts news programs like the CBS Evening News, CBS This Morning, magazine programs like 60 Minutes and political affairs programs like Face the Nation. Over the years CBS News has had iconic anchors like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Bob Schieffer at the helm of their flagship evening television news program, CBS Evening News. In recent times however CBS has been the subject of much controversy especially due to the firing of "CBS This Morning" co-host Charlie Rose and Chairman and CEO Les Moonves following allegations of sexual misconduct.
MSNBC
#36.3MSNBC (Microsoft News Broadcasting Company) is an American news cable and satellite television network that provides news coverage and political commentary from NBC News on current events. Phil Griffin is the president and director of day-to-day operations at MSNBC. Pat Burkey, Janelle Rodriguez, and Jonathan Wald oversee programming and news operations, with Brian Williams serving as the channel's chief anchor of breaking news coverage. As of February 2015, approximately 94,531,000 households in the United States (81.2 percent of those with television) were receiving MSNBC. Commentators have described MSNBC as having a bias towards left-leaning politics and the Democratic Party. In November 2007, a New York Times article stated that MSNBC's prime-time lineup is tilting more to the left. Washington Post media analyst Howard Kurtz has stated that the channel's evening lineup "has clearly gravitated to the left in recent years and often seems to regard itself as the antithesis of Fox News". In 2011, Salon.com noted that "MSNBC’s prime-time lineup is now awash in progressive politics." MSNBC debuted in 1996, as a partnership between NBC News and Microsoft (Microsoft's stake in the channel was gradually bought out by NBC until the latter's parent NBCUniversal bought out the remaining minority stake held by Microsoft in 2011). When the network was launched, its leading hosts included Jodi Applegate, John Gibson, Tim Russert and Brian Williams. For over a decade, the network's ratings were consistently in last place among the cable news channels. After Phil Griffin became president of MSNBC in mid-2008, the channel began shifting towards an increasingly politically liberal ideology in its analysis programming, particularly in its prime-time lineup. MSNBC launched a high definition simulcast feed on June 29, 2009. Notable personalities on the network include Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, daytime anchors Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell, and evening commentators Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow. The network was noted in the mid-2000s for its harsh criticism of then-President George W. Bush, most notably the 'special comment' segment of former anchor Keith Olbermann's show, Countdown. This, combined with accusations of support for then-President Barack Obama, have led to MSNBC being criticized for a liberal bias, a reputation it has increasingly embraced with its "Lean Forward" slogan (which it adopted in 2011) and open promotion of progressive and liberal ideas. The channel had a spin-off called Shift. Established in 2014, it was an online-only channel through its website MSNBC.com. The programming schedule was less focused on politics than the main channel, built to be a divergence from it and is more tailored to a younger audience. The channel ceased operations without notice some time before 2018.
ABC
#46.5ABC is the youngest of the “Big Three” commercial television broadcasting networks. Created from a radio spinoff of NBC in 1945, ABC News sought to compete with CBS and NBC through a balance of entertainment programming and news, including early content from the likes of Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, and The Flintstones. ABC was purchased by the Disney Company in 1995. ABC’s Barbara Walters became the first female anchor of a major network in 1976 and would go on to a career of groundbreaking industry achievements, including an unprecedented primetime interview with Fidel Castro. ABC News is the news division of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), owned by the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ABC World News Tonight; other programs include morning news-talk show Good Morning America, newsmagazine series Nightline, Primetime and 20/20, and Sunday morning political affairs program This Week with George Stephanopolous.
NBC News
#57.7NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States, founded as a radio network by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1926. Famous NBC Nightly News anchors like John Chancellor, David Brinkley, Tom Brokaw, and Brian Williams dominated primetime ratings for decades, although Williams’ tenure came to an end after revelations of embellishment of first-hand accounts from the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina. Lester Holt took over the top spot at the Nightly News in 2015. In a continuation of the troubling trend regarding network news stars, Matt Lauer, the 20-year co-host of the "Today" show, was fired after multiple allegations of sexual harassment. NBC News is a division of the American broadcast television network NBC, formerly known as the National Broadcasting Company when it was founded on radio. The division operates under NBCUniversal News Group, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, in turn a subsidiary of Comcast. The group's various operations report to the president of NBC News, Noah Oppenheim. NBC News aired the first, regularly scheduled news program in American broadcast television history on February 21, 1940. The group's broadcasts are produced and aired from 30 Rockefeller Center, NBC's headquarters in New York City. The division presides over America's number-one-rated newscast, NBC Nightly News, and the longest-running television series in American history, Meet The Press, the Sunday morning program of newsmakers interviews. NBC News also offers 70 years of rare historic footage from the NBCUniversal Archives online. NBC News operates a 24-hour cable news network known as MSNBC, which includes the organization's flagship daytime news operation, MSNBC Live. The cable network shares staff and editorial control with NBC News.
BBC World News
#68.3The British Broadcasting Corporation was created in 1922 under Royal Charter to create programming for the public benefit without the commercial pressures of private news organizations. BBC has grown to be the largest broadcasting organization in the world with over 21,000 employees worldwide across its Public Service Broadcasting and BBC Worldwide divisions. BBC World Service recently announced plans to expand from 28 languages to 40, adding coverage ranging from Punjabi to Nigerian Pidgin, with the goal of reaching an audience of half a billion by 2022. BBC World News is the BBC's international news and current affairs television channel. It has the largest audience of any BBC channel, with an estimated 99 million viewers weekly in 2015/16, part of the estimated 265 million users of the BBC's four main international news services. Launched on 11 March 1991 as BBC World Service Television outside Europe, its name was changed to BBC World on 16 January 1995 and to BBC World News on 21 April 2008. It broadcasts news bulletins, documentaries, lifestyle programmes and interview shows. Unlike the BBC's domestic channels, BBC World News is owned and operated by BBC Global News Ltd., part of the BBC's commercial group of companies, and is funded by subscription and advertising revenues, and not by the United Kingdom television licence. It is not owned by BBC Worldwide.
AJ+
#78.7AJ+ is an online news and current events channel run by Al Jazeera Media Network. The service is available on its mobile app, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, with written content on Medium. AJ+ is an online news and current events channel run by Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN). The service is available on its mobile app (iOS and Android), YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, with written content on Medium. English, Arabic and Spanish languages versions are currently live. Work on the channel started in December 2012, shortly after Al Jazeera established an office in San Francisco. The first YouTube channel was created on December 17, 2013, after a year of preparation in response to increasing popularity of online news content among young people. The channel then had a soft launch on June 13, 2014. A full launch followed on September 15, 2014.
NPR
#89.0Founded a year after the Public Broadcasting Service, National Public Radio serves as a radio counterpart to PBS, syndicating content to over 900 member stations across the country. Similar to PBS, NPR has faced risk of funding losses due to proposed cuts under Trump’s budget plans. National Public Radio (NPR) is an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization based in Washington DC. It serves as a national syndicator to a network of over 1,000 public radio stations in the United States. NPR produces and distributes news and cultural programming. Individual public radio stations are not required to broadcast all NPR programs; most broadcast a mix of NPR programs, content from rival providers American Public Media, Public Radio International, Public Radio Exchange and WNYC Studios, and locally produced programs. The organisation's flagship shows are two drive-time news broadcasts, Morning Edition and the afternoon All Things Considered; both are carried by most NPR member stations, and are among the most popular radio programs in the country.[3][4] As of October 2017, the drive time programs attract an audience of 14.63 million and 14.6 million respectively. NPR manages the Public Radio Satellite System, which distributes NPR programs and other programming from independent producers and networks such as American Public Media and Public Radio International. Its content is also available on-demand online, on mobile networks, and, in many cases, as podcasts. NPR has been accused of displaying both liberal bias, as alleged in work such as a UCLA and University of Missouri study of Morning Edition, and conservative bias, including criticism of alleged reliance on conservative think-tanks. NPR has also been accused of bias related to specific topics, including support of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and coverage of Israel. The NPR ombudsman has described how NPR's coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict has been simultaneously criticized as biased by both sides. UT Austin journalism professor and author Robert Jensen has criticized NPR as taking a pro-war stance during coverage of Iraq war protests.
Huffington Post
#910.3The Huffington Post reinforces the theme of media companies being created in response to other news organizations. The founding team of Arianna Huffington, Andrew Breitbart, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti created HuffPost as a liberal alternative to the Drudge Report, though Breitbart and Peretti would eventually go on to build their own media organizations at Breitbart News Network and BuzzFeed, respectively. Huffington Post employs a combination of in-house editorial and a massive contributor network of over 100,000 unpaid contributors, with the latter receiving a balance of praise for democratizing publishing but criticism as an unpaid editorial model. HuffPost was purchased by AOL in 2013 for $315 million before both were rolled up into Verizon in 2015. HuffPost (formerly The Huffington Post and sometimes abbreviated HuffPo) is a liberal American news and opinion website and blog that has both localized and international editions. It was founded in 2005 by Andrew Breitbart, Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content and covers politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, popular media, lifestyle, culture, comedy, healthy living, women's interests, and local news. The Huffington Post was launched on May 9, 2005, as a liberal commentary outlet, blog and an alternative to news aggregators such as the Drudge Report, and it continues to maintain a politically liberal stance. On February 7, 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for US$315 million, making Arianna Huffington editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. In 2012, The Huffington Post became the first commercially run United States digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer Prize. HuffPost is a politically liberal American news and opinion website that has both localized and international editions founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, Jonah Peretti, and Andrew Breitbart, featuring columnists. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content and covers politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, popular media, lifestyle, culture, comedy, healthy living, women's interests, and local news.
CNBC
#1011.0CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable, internet and satellite business news television channel that is owned by NBCUniversal News Group, a division of NBCUniversal, with both being ultimately owned by Comcast. Headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey,[1] the network primarily carries business day coverage of U.S. and international financial markets; following the end of the business day and on non-trading days, CNBC primarily carries financial and business-themed documentaries and reality shows. Originally established on April 17, 1989 by a joint venture between NBC and Cablevision as the Consumer News and Business Channel, the network later acquired its main competitor, the Financial News Network, in 1991—a move which expanded both its distribution and its workforce, and Cablevision sold its stake to NBC, giving it sole ownership. As of February 2015, CNBC is available to approximately 93,623,000 pay television households (80.4% of households with television) in the United States. In 2007, the network was ranked as the 19th most valuable cable channel in the United States, worth roughly $4 billion. In addition to the domestic U.S. feed, various localized versions of CNBC also operate, serving different regions and countries. NBCUniversal is the owner, or a minority stakeholder, in many of these versions.
Breitbart
#1111.8Breitbart was created in 2007 as a far-right news network and saw increased prominence during the 2016 presidential election. While founder Andrew Breitbart voiced criticism of Trump’s political leanings before passing away in 2012, the site emerged as an early and particularly vocal supporter of Donald Trump. Breitbart’s executive chairman Steve Bannon became integral to the Trump campaign, transforming from advocate to campaign chief executive and eventually “White House Chief Strategist” before being ousted seven months into the new administration. Breitbart News Network (known commonly as Breitbart News, Breitbart or Breitbart.com) is a far-right syndicated American news, opinion and commentary website founded in 2007 by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart. The site has published a number of falsehoods and conspiracy theories, as well as intentionally misleading stories. Its journalists are ideologically driven, and some of its content has been called misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist. Conceived by Breitbart during a visit to Israel in mid-2007 as a website that would be "unapologetically pro-freedom and pro-Israel", Breitbart News later aligned with the alt-right under the management of former executive chairman Steve Bannon. Bannon declared the website "the platform for the alt-right" in 2016, but denied all allegations of racism and later stated that he rejected the "ethno-nationalist" tendencies of the alt-right movement. Political scientist Matthew Goodwin described Breitbart News as being "ultra-conservative" in orientation. In 2016 Breitbart News became a virtual rallying spot for supporters of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Breitbart's management, together with writer Milo Yiannopoulos, solicited ideas for stories from, and worked to advance and market ideas of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups and individuals. After the election, more than 2,000 organizations removed Breitbart News from ad buys following Internet activism campaigns denouncing the site's controversial positions. Breitbart News is headquartered in Los Angeles, with bureaus in Texas, London, and Jerusalem. Co-founder Larry Solov is the co-owner (along with Andrew Breitbart's widow Susie Breitbart and the Mercer family) and CEO, while Alexander Marlow is the editor-in-chief, Wynton Hall is managing editor, and Joel Pollak and Peter Schweizer are senior editors-at-large. Andrew Breitbart launched Breitbart.com as a news aggregator in 2005. The website featured direct links to wire stories at the Associated Press, Reuters, Fox News, the New York Post, TMZ as well as a number of other outlets. The website's initial growth was largely fueled by links from the Drudge Report. In 2007, Breitbart.com launched a video blog, Breitbart.tv. In August 2010, Andrew Breitbart told the Associated Press that he was "committed to the destruction of the old media guard." As part of that commitment, he founded Breitbart.com, a website designed to become "the Huffington Post of the right" according to Breitbart News's former executive chairman, Steve Bannon.
Politico
#1213.3Politico was founded by John Harris, Jim VandeHei, and Robert Allbritton before the 2008 presidential election cycle to create a fast-paced magazine for Washington’s political insiders; designed to “win-the-morning” with its relentless scoops of various sizes. Harris and VandeHei swiftly courted extensive funding and a talented roster of reporters to deliver on their vision of creating the “ESPN of politics” and has since expanded its ambition to placing reporters in every U.S. state capital. In 2016, VandeHei and editorial leader Mike Allen left Politico to start Axios, a visually-compelling, short-form news site self-described as the product of ‘The Economist mated with Twitter.’ Politico, known earlier as The Politico, is an American political journalism company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and internationally. It distributes content through its website, television, physical newspapers, radio, and podcasts. Its coverage in Washington, D.C., includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, media and the presidency. As of 2017, Politico averaged 26 million unique visitors a month to its American website, and more than 1.5 million unique visitors to its European site. The print newspaper has a circulation of approximately 32,000, distributed for free in Washington, D.C. and Manhattan. The newspaper prints up to five issues a week while Congress is in session and sometimes publishes one issue a week when Congress is in recess. It carries advertising, including full-page ads from trade associations and a large help-wanted section listing Washington political jobs. Politico is a partner with several news outlets that co-report and distribute its video, print and audio content. Partners include CBS News, Allbritton Communications's ABC station WJLA and cable channel NewsChannel 8, radio station WTOP-FM, and Yahoo! News election coverage. In a 2007 opinion piece, progressive watchdog group Media Matters for America accused Politico of having a "Republican tilt". In contrast, in 2011 politically conservative The Daily Caller declaimed Politico as having a pronounced liberal bias. Despite these accusations, a 2012 study found that the percentage of Politico readers that identify as Democrats – 29% – is the same as the percentage that identifies as Republicans. As of 2018, the largely crowd-sourced analysis engines AllSides rates Politico as "Left Lean" in terms of bias.
Fox News
#1314.2Fox News is a basic cable and television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. Founded in 1996 by Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch to expand on his Australian and British media holdings, and led initially by controversial founding CEO Roger Ailes, a former Republican Party media consultant and CNBC executive, Fox News has gradually grown from an upstart content syndicator to one of the most watched cable news channels in the US. Over the years, the channel's prime time lineup has included popular programs such as The O'Reilly Factor, hosted by Bill O'Reilly, Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Hannity and Colmes, Fox and Friends and The Kelly File with Megyn Kelly. Recently, high-profile sexual harassment suits against CEO Roger Ailes and commentator Bill O’Reilly have led to the ouster of both network leaders. The situation was further exacerbated when the New York Times revealed O’Reilly had paid a $32 million settlement just weeks before signing a $25 million-per-year contract extension implicating the network itself. Despite the channel's longtime slogans of "Fair and Balanced" and "We Report. You Decide", Fox News has been consistently accused of biased reporting, and promoting the Republican Party and conservative agendas. However, Fox News employees have argued that the news reporting division operates independently of its opinion and commentary programming, and have denied bias as far as news programming is concerned.
The New York Times
#1414.7The New York Times (NYT), founded in 1981, has the distinction of winning more Pulitzer Prizes (122 awards) than any other news organization and has worldwide influence and readership. The paper has the largest circulation of any daily US newspaper and is ranked 18th in the globally in terms of circulation. It is known throughout the industry as the "newspaper of record". Boasting a news team of 1,350, the paper covers a wide range of topics, highlighting their motto of “All the news that's fit to print”, that appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. Sections include regular news, opinions and editorials, business, sports, arts, science, fashion, home and travel and so on. Throughout Trump’s ascent to the White House, The New York Times has competed neck-and-neck with the Washington Post to break exclusive and comprehensive coverage of the administration. The paper is owned by The New York Times Company, which is publicly traded but primarily controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family through a dual-class share structure. It has been owned by the family since 1896; A.G. Sulzberger the paper's publisher and, his father, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. the company's chairman, is the fourth and fifth generation of the family to helm the paper. Since the mid-1970s, The New York Times has greatly expanded its layout and organization, adding special weekly sections on various topics supplementing the regular news, editorials, sports, and features. New York Times public editor (ombudsman) Elizabeth Spayd wrote in 2016 that "Conservatives and even many moderates, see in The Times a blue-state worldview" and accuse it of harboring a liberal bias. Spayd did not analyze the substance of the claim, but did opine that the Times is "part of a fracturing media environment that reflects a fractured country. That in turn leads liberals and conservatives toward separate news sources." Times executive editor Dean Baquet stated that he does not believe coverage has a liberal bias, but that: "We have to be really careful that people feel like they can see themselves in The New York Times. I want us to be perceived as fair and honest to the world, not just a segment of it. It's a really difficult goal. Do we pull it off all the time? No." Times public editor Arthur Brisbane wrote in 2012: "When The Times covers a national presidential campaign, I have found that the lead editors and reporters are disciplined about enforcing fairness and balance, and usually succeed in doing so. Across the paper's many departments, though, so many share a kind of political and cultural progressivism — for lack of a better term — that this worldview virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times." In mid-2004, the newspaper's then-public editor Daniel Okrent, wrote an opinion piece in which he said that The New York Times did have a liberal bias in news coverage of certain social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. He stated that this bias reflected the paper's cosmopolitanism, which arose naturally from its roots as a hometown paper of New York City. He wrote, "if you're examining the paper's coverage of these subjects from a perspective that is neither urban nor Northeastern nor culturally seen-it-all; if you are among the groups The Times treats as strange objects to be examined on a laboratory slide (devout Catholics, gun owners, Orthodox Jews, Texans); if your value system wouldn't wear well on a composite New York Times journalist, then a walk through this paper can make you feel you're traveling in a strange and forbidding world." Okrent wrote that the Time's Arts & Leisure; the Sunday Times Magazine, and Culture coverage trend to the left. In December 2004, a University of California, Los Angeles study by former fellows of a conservative think tank gave The New York Times a score of 73.7 on a 100-point scale, with 0 being most conservative and 100 being most liberal, making it the second-most liberal major newspaper in the study after The Wall Street Journal (85.1). The validity of the study has been questioned, however. The liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America pointed out potential conflicts of interest with the author's funding, and political scientists, such as Brendan Nyhan, cited flaws in the study's methodology. Donald Trump has frequently criticized The New York Times on his Twitter account before and during his presidency; since November 2015, Trump has referred to the Times as "the failing New York Times" in a series of tweets. Despite Trump's criticism, New York Times editor Mark Thompson noted that the paper had enjoyed soaring digital readership, with the fourth quarter of 2016 seeing the highest number of new digital subscribers to the newspaper since 2011. Critic Matt Taibbi accused The New York Times of favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the paper's news coverage of the 2016 Democratic presidential primari
Buzzfeed
#1514.8Building on lessons in content virality learned through his studies at MIT and co-founding Huffington Post, Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti has built a global media powerhouse with a reach of over 9 billion content views each month. BuzzFeed's news division began in December 2011 with the appointment of Ben Smith as editor-in-chief. Notable coverage includes a 2012 partnership with the BBC on match-fixing in professional tennis, and inequities in the U.S. H-2 guest worker program, reporting of which won a National Magazine Award. For analysis about the journalism industry itself, BuzzFeed’s Craig Silverman covers topics ranging from Russian troll farms to rankings of the top fake news stories of 2016. A comparison of news articles by BuzzFeed and The New York Times found that BuzzFeed largely follows established rules of journalism. Both publications predominantly used inverted pyramid news format, and journalists' opinions were absent from the majority of articles of both. Both BuzzFeed and the Times predominately covered government and politics, and predominantly used politicians, government, and law enforcement as sources. In contrast, BuzzFeed devoted more articles to social issues such as protests and LGBT issues, more frequently quoted ordinary people, less frequently covered crime and terrorism, and had fewer articles focusing on negative aspects of an issue. While BuzzFeed’s low trust ratio could be tied to its early history, the company has developed a strong news division for investigative and explanatory reporting under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith. BuzzFeed News challenged journalism convention when it released the controversial ‘Trump Dossier’ ten days before the 2017 inauguration, with Smith avidly defending the decision given the dossier’s circulation in senior government and media circles at the time.
The Blaze
#1615.5Conservative radio host Glenn Beck founded TheBlaze in 2010 to combat perceived biases in mainstream media outlets. Although revenue for Beck’s media group grew to $90 million in 2010, by 2017 TheBlaze cut nearly 30% of its staff amid diminishing revenue, legal suits, and general management woes. TheBlaze is an American conservative news and entertainment network available on television, radio, and the Internet founded by talk radio personality Glenn Beck, based in Irving, Texas. TheBlaze has studios and offices based in the Las Colinas urban district in Irving, Texas and Los Angeles. The network is available on regional cable providers throughout the United States, on Verizon Fios channel 112, on Dish Network channel 212, on the Roku Device, on Sling TV, and is available internationally on its own online streaming service. The live audio stream is available on iHeartRadio and both the audio stream and live television stream are available on TheBlaze app, which is on the iPhone and on Android through Google Play. As of December 30, 2014, TheBlaze was available on over 100 television providers, with eleven of those being in the top 25 nationwide.
The Young Turks
#1717.3The Young Turks (TYT) is a progressive American news and commentary program on YouTube, which also serves as the flagship program of the TYT Network, a multi-channel network of associated web series focusing on news and current events. The program was created by Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz, and Dave Koller. Currently co-hosted by Uygur and Ana Kasparian, who are often accompanied by various in-studio contributors, the program maintains an anti-establishment stance and provides commentary on topics of varying news genres. The Young Turks began as a radio program in 2002 on Sirius Satellite Radio; it was later carried on Air America, before launching a web series component in 2005 on YouTube. In addition to being carried on the TYT Network and YouTube, it is also currently available on Hulu, Roku, and through a 24-hour feed on Pluto TV. It has spawned two spin-off television series, one that aired on Current TV from 2011 to 2013 and a second that debuted on Fusion in 2016 as a limited-run program developed to cover the 2016 United States presidential election. The Young Turks also served as the subject of a documentary, entitled Mad as Hell, which was released in 2014. The Young Turks live streams for two hours, with its story selection and associated commentary broken up by format. Issues that the show focuses on include the influence of money in politics, drug policy, social security, the privatization of public services, climate change, the influence of religion, abortion and reproductive rights, civil rights and issues of injustice towards people of color and sexual minorities, sexual morality, and the influence of corporations, neutrality and establishment political thought on traditional news media. The program maintains a liberal/progressive ideology in its political commentary. Co-creator and host Cenk Uygur describes himself as an "independent progressive" and asserts that the show is aimed at the "98 per cent 'not in power'" and what he describes as the 60% of Americans who hold progressive views. The first hour, which is solo hosted by Uygur, focuses on American politics, foreign policy and breaking news headlines. The second hour – which is co-hosted by Uygur and Ana Kasparian – provides social commentary on a wide range of topics, both domestic and foreign. The program also features a post-game show, in which Uygur and Kasparian discuss their personal lives. Uygur has regular bits and on-air interaction with other staff members who create and run the show, including among others Jesús Godoy, Dave Koller, Jayar Jackson and Steve Oh. Each Friday, The Young Turks features a panel of guests from the worlds of politics, journalism, pop culture, sports and comedy – dubbed the "TYT Power Panel" – that is led by Uygur and John Iadarola in the first hour and Kasparian in the second hour. Along with Iadarola, other fill-in hosts and recurring guests include series co-creator/contributor Ben Mankiewicz, Jimmy Dore, John Iadarola, Brian Unger, Hannah Cranston, Hasan Piker, Becca Frucht, Brett Erlich, Wes Clark Jr., Michael Shure, Cara Santa Maria, RJ Eskow, Dave Rubin, Gina Grad, Grace Baldridge, Samantha Schacher, Jayde Lovell and Kim Horcher.
Wall Street Journal
#1817.8The Wall Street Journal has been a staple of workers in the finance industry since its founding in 1889. Its original financial scope has expanded to include significant national and global coverage across its bureau. Dow Jones, publisher of the Journal, was purchased by Murdoch’s News Corp in 2007 for $5.6 billion. Editor-in-Chief Gerard Baker has received some criticism saying WSJ’s coverage of Trump has been soft, with the newsroom leader asserting he’s pursuing objective coverage in a media landscape that failed to conceive a Trump victory. The Wall Street Journal is an American business-focused, English-language international daily newspaper based in New York City. The Journal, along with its Asian and European editions, is published six days a week by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp. The newspaper is published in the broadsheet format and online. The Wall Street Journal is the largest newspaper in the United States by circulation. According to News Corp, in their June 2017 10-K Filing with the SEC, the Journal had a circulation of about 2.277 million copies (including nearly 1,270,000 digital subscriptions) as of June 2017, compared with USA Today's 1.7 million. The newspaper has won 40 Pulitzer Prizes through 2017 and derives its name from Wall Street in the heart of the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The Journal has been printed continuously since its inception on July 8, 1889, by Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. The Journal also publishes the luxury news and lifestyle magazine WSJ. The Journal launched an online version in 1996, which has been accessible only to subscribers since it launched.
Drudge Report
#1918.8As an aggregator of links, the Drudge Report has been an influential online front page for breaking news since its founding in 1995. Primarily curated by Matt Drudge and Charles Hurt, the Drudge Report is generally quick to publish breaking stories like the Monica Lewinsky scandal but has been criticized for its conservative bias and the occasional lack of story verification. The Drudge Report is an American conservative, right-wing news aggregation website. It is run by Matt Drudge with the help of Charles Hurt, the site consists mainly of links to news stories from other outlets about politics, entertainment, and current events; it also has links to many columnists. Occasionally, Drudge authors new stories himself, based on tips. The Drudge Report originated in 1995 as a weekly subscriber-based email dispatch. It was the first news source to break the Monica Lewinsky scandal to the public, after Newsweek decided to hold its story.
USA Today
#2019.5When USA Today was launched in 1980, it paired snappy reporting with a photo and graphics-rich layout that stood out compared to traditional newspaper offerings. USA Today is now one of the largest national dailies in the U.S. and the flagship newsroom for Gannett, a top U.S. newspaper chain with over a hundred national, regional, and local properties like the Detroit Free Press, Arizona Republic, and Cincinnati.com. USA Today is an internationally distributed American daily, middle-market newspaper that serves as the flagship publication of its owner, the Gannett Company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, it operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters on Jones Branch Drive, in McLean, Virginia. It is printed at 37 sites across the United States and at five additional sites internationally. Its dynamic design influenced the style of local, regional, and national newspapers worldwide, through its use of concise reports, colorized images, informational graphics, and inclusion of popular culture stories, among other distinct features. With a weekly circulation of 1,021,638 and an approximate daily reach of seven million readers as of 2016, USA Today shares the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States with The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. USA Today is distributed in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, and an international edition is distributed in Asia, Canada, Europe, and the Pacific Islands.
