In 2025 I frequently complain about the dismal quality of our news media ecosystem. I also don't like spending as much time on social media sifting through all the chatter to find information. Sometimes I just want long-form content, but I don't currently have a good aggregator. I think creating my own with RSS feeds is in my future. In the meantime, here is an attempt to just make a list of sources I read on a somewhat regular basis for news. Some of these I pay for, hey you should pay for independent media, journalism costs money.
I plan to keep this updated occasionally, so expect changes
In no particular order...
Do Read
Zeteo
Mehdi Hasan started Zeteo and he is a journalist I have followed for a while. He is a very good interviewer and debater, and brings some of the British approach to journalism that sees its role as holding power to account. I appreciate that when he asks a question and someone evades or does not answer, he will follow up and simply ask the question again instead of moving on. When someone lies during an interview, he will stop and correct the lie and often has receipts.
Truthout
This is a new publication for me but I've had it recommended by multiple people who I consider mensches recently, so I've started following it. https://truthout.org/about/ links a couple of articles/opeds where I think they do a good job describing their approach in their own words.
Liberal Currents
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/
I enjoy reading Adam Gurri. I enjoy reading Samantha Hancox-Li. These were both people I followed on social media and would read articles when they posted them. I actually didn't realize they were part of a larger publication. Hey, awesome, this is exactly why I am doing this curation exercise. I liked the end of this article that talks about how best to support independent journalism:
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/why-we-need-a-reconstruction-of-the-liberal-public-sphere/
Wired
There is a ton of political pressure being put on traditional "prestige" media (e.g. NYT, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, your major TV news stations). Some of them have been bought, some of them have been threatened with regulatory action. So we must look elsewhere for good political reporting, and outlets that do other good reporting with some politics on the side are good candidates. Wired does tech reporting but puts out the occasional politics issue: https://www.wired.com/politics-issue/ so they fit nicely.
That said, they have a similar "access journalism" problem of being a bit too close to the Silicon Valley elite to consistently report on them objectively. So we also seek out some more "counterculture" tech media.
In Formation
https://informationmagazine.com/product/in-formation-magazine-issue-3/
This BlueSky thread pretty well explains how the reboot of In Formation came about and how Paulina Borsook worked for Wired in the 90s, warned about a lot of what we are seeing today, and was ignored. https://bsky.app/profile/gilduran.com/post/3lzm3dyh5js27
404 Media
Do a lot of good reporting on surveillance state, how AI companies are providing tools for DHS / ICE to abuse people.
Rolling Stone
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ another "other good reporting that occasionally does politics", so the politics coverage hasn't been pressured yet.
Hammer and Hope
https://hammerandhope.org/about
I enjoy reading Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, which is how I found this. Soon after I started reading they were covering a farm union in La Conner, WA (right near my hometown of Anacortes). https://hammerandhope.org/article/ice-farmworkers-streets. Rare is the outlet that would just hand the mic to a labor leader and listen.
Lawfare
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/ good coverage for Supreme Court cases, cyber security stuff
Do not read
Teen Vogue (RIP)
I used to enjoy reading the politics coverage from Teen Vogue, but then this happened. httpshi://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/what-we-lost-when-conde-nast-unceremoniously-shuttered-teen-vogue. I mention it here to illustrate what a purge media outlets are going through right now, and why actively seeking out good sources is extra important.
Reuters
Thomson Reuters is helping the facist project by selling big data sets to ICE to help them track people, so they can go to hell. https://www.404media.co/this-app-lets-ice-track-vehicles-and-owners-across-the-country/