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ALTERNATIVE TRAINING WHEELS: How the Other Half Lives

By Owen Perry

I like to spout that I write "alternative media." That's my gig, I guess. I write and edit for this little rag and get to play "subversive guy;" you know, all troubled and angsty, mad at the world. But really, that's not me. I just like to know everything about everything. People sometimes get mad if a "news" story doesn't show both sides of a story. To those people I say, there are more than two sides to every story. Even the alleged "balanced and fair" media are not giving their audience the full story. I'm not saying that their coverage is bad. Rather I am saying that if people want balanced truth, then they need to look beyond CNN or Fox News or the New York Times or Buzzsaw Haircut.

There's my spiel. Now here's a list of some nice "alternative" and not-so-alternative sources that you can use to supplement your search for the great Truth. This is by no means a complete or even adequate list. Its not supposed to be. Think of it as a starter kit for the curious.

Mediachannel (www.mediachannel.org)

Mediachannel is a non-profit news source focusing on global media issues. The Web site allows readers to find sources of media all over the world which discuss topics ranging from war to hip-hop. Mediachannel claims to be the "first media and democracy supersite on the World Wide Web."

While the columns and interest of the site tend to lean leftward politically, Mediachannel is still an invaluable source for anyone who cares for what happens to people beyond one's hometown.

FAIR (www.fair.org)

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting is a media watch group which seeks out bias in mainstream news reporting in the United States. The group publishes a media criticism magazine called Extra! and a radio program called CounterSpin. They also do activist work and research on a number of issues including racism and women's issues. FAIR has a pretty liberal tilt, but their coverage is very good when it comes mainstream reporters dropping the ball on tough issues.

AIM (www.aim.org)

Accuracy in Media is the conservative counterpart to FAIR. AIM searches for "botched and bungled news stories and sets the record straight on important issues that have received slanted coverage," according to the group's Web site. For all you conservative, liberal media bashers, this is the site for you.

The Independent Media Center (www.indymedia.org)

Democracy in action. IndyMedia is the media of the masses. If there is a major protest, rest assured that there will be up-to-the-minute stories posted on this site about them. This is where anyone with a digital camera and a microphone can be a journalist and tell his or her story. Ithaca has its own section on the site that is well worth checking out if you want to know what's up with Ithacan activism.

Jim Romenesko's Media News (www.poynter.org/medianews)

This site is not necessarily alternative, rather it collects stories written about media industry. If you care about the news you’re getting then you should care about the source that is giving it to you.

Arts & Letters Daily (http://www.aldaily.com/)

This is a ridiculously extensive Web site of news, reviews and essays. As the title implies, A&L is updated every day with literally hundreds of links to articles on everything from Darwin to Pooh Bear. I recommend this site for nerds like me who love to sit in front of their computer reading for six or seven hours.

Cornell Review (www.cornellreview.org)

OK, so Ithaca is a liberal town. But to hear the columns of the Cornell Review tell it, we're living in a Maoist paradise. I'm not trying to knock this paper. See I'm including it in my list. This is Cornell's conservative paper. Good for a…uhmm…conservative stuff.

Enter Stage Right (www.enterstageright.com)

A conservative e-magazine that "promotes unfettered capitalism, liberty and individualism as expressed by thinkers like Ayn Rand and Aristotle." In other words, fun times for all. Actually, this is a very funny, and sometimes thoughtful site. It definitely doesn't try to hide the fact that it is right wing.

Z Magazine (www.zmag.org)

Some consider this the be-all of alternative, leftist publications. This is were Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn are often sited/cited. There are a good deal of stories here, with lots of liberal heart bleeding. This is where liberals with credibility get to talk.

YellowTimes.org

The news source doesn't make an effort to give you information that you'd get from the mainstream media easily. Instead, the reporters and writers for Yellow Times bring new voices to the story.

In reference to mainstream media, the folks at YellowTimes say: "By putting television shows such as Survivor on the cover of their newspapers, or nicknaming a horrible conflict as a showdown, these guilty parties have given up on real journalism."

"Our aim is to present new ideas, organized in such a way as to hold the reader's attention without insulting his/her intelligence," writes George Lewandowski, Content Director of YellowTimes.org on the Web site.

Buzzsaw Haircut (www.ithaca.edu/buzzsaw)

I had to throw it in.

For a couple of big lists of media sources go here: http://www.altpress.org/direct.html or here:
http://www.medialinks.info/links/Alternative_Media/Conservative_and_Libertarian/index.shtml
Happy reading.