It can be difficult to find unbiased political and election news in the US, though Pew Research 2018 poll found that 78% of US respondents believe that “the news media should never favor one political party over another”.
Many so-called “news” organizations don’t even try to hide their biases toward one end of the political spectrum. However, you can find reasonably unbiased, nonpartisan election coverage if you know where to look. Here are eight great websites for informative and (supposedly) unbiased election coverage.
PolitiFact is the mother of all political information verification websites. Owned by the non-profit Poynter for Media Research, PolitiFact describes itself as “a nonpartisan fact-checking website for sorting out the facts in American politics.”
You can see theirs Latest election newsExplore Truth-o-Meter’s latest fact-checks, from “true” to “fire,” view scorecards on specific issues like immigration or taxes, and find scorecards for specific people.
PolitFact is transparent about it expense and Methodology, carefully explaining how they choose which claims they verify authenticity, and how they determine ratings. These are signs of unbiased reporting. Also check out their off-shoot, PunditFactprovides the same fact-checking capabilities of the media.
FivethirtyEight.com (named after the number of electors in the Electoral College) is the brainchild of statistician Nate Silver, who has retained his position as editor-in-chief of the site through a number of permissions changes. own.
This is a great site to visit for unbiased analysis of political opinion polls. Although it has expanded its focus to include topics beyond vote, like sports and science, it’s still the site to find out what those political poll results really mean. Even better, FiveThirtyEight offers raw data and code on several topics and encourage readers to create their own stories and visualizations.
Ballotpedia is “the digital encyclopedia of American politics and elections.” Like PolitiFact, Ballotpedia is a non-profit organization with an educational mission and commitment to neutrality. You can find information about national, state, and local elections, including candidate profiles, policy positions, election news, and voting information.
You can also sign up for a variety of their newsletters like Ballotpedia’s Daily Brew, a short email sent each morning with a recap of the day’s main political stories.
Factcheck.org is the third nonprofit on our list. Similar to PolitiFact, FactCheck.org monitors “the factual accuracy of what is said by major US politicians in the form of TV commercials, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases “.
You can browse by month, person, issue or location, or try reading through Debunking Archive False Story. (FactCheck.org is one of a number of organizations working with Facebook to flag and debunk misinformation on social media.) You can even submit questions via Ask FactCheck feature.
Financial problems. If you want according to money, a great place to start is with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Although a government agency, the FEC is “an independent regulatory agency responsible for the administration and enforcement of federal campaign finance laws.”
Have you ever wondered how much money the presidential campaign is raising, what they’re spending it on, or how much cash they have right now? The FEC can tell you.
Another good non-profit, non-partisan website to visit is OpenSecrets.org. Run by the Center for Responsive Politics, OpenSecrets.org tracks “money in American politics and its influence on elections and public policy.”
One of their goals is to “show disproportionate or excessive influence over public policy.” Use this site to find out how money plays a role in campaigns, super PACs and lobbying. You can also dig into the personal finances of members of Congress, the president, vice president, and other members of the presidential administration.
VoteSmart.org is serious about remaining unbiased. They said, “Most of us at Vote Smart are unpaid and who only receive the minimum wage to cover living expenses. We will not accept funding from corporations, PACs or any organization that advocates or opposes candidates or issues. This effort will be funded by you and other Americans or not at all. ”
Type a candidate’s name in the Smart Vote search bar, then choose to view the candidate’s profile, their voting record, positions on key issues, endorsements and ratings, speeches or sponsor. If you like, you can also subscribe My VoteSelect the candidates you want to follow and receive a daily email with any new data VoteSmart learns about that person.
The last entry on our list, AllSides.com, believes that “unbiased news doesn’t exist.”
Instead of trying to cover election neutrality, AllSides.com tries to “exposure people to information and ideas from all sides of the political spectrum so they can better understand the world – and about together”. Visit this website to view stories organized by three categories: news from the left, news from the center and news from the right.
You can also find their Media Trends Rating to “make it easy to identify different points of view so you can get the full picture and think for yourself.” Search by problemor check their dictionary which discusses how people of different political convictions define a certain term or issue.
