Neutral Sources of Candidate Information

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I am scheduled to do a presentation for adult "Sunday school" at chuch on how to select a candidate. This is NON-PARTISAN, stuff like "see where she stands on the issues," "check out his voting record," "decide what issues matter most to you," "assess their plans for the economy," etc. I want to give them a few web and non-web sources where they can look up information on the candidates, both local and national. What sources are agreed-upon as neutral, non-partisan, good sources of information on candidates? I won't tell you what I have on my list, I want to see what y'all come up with first

(Please note that this is NOT THE SOAPBOX. If you disagree with someone on an organization's "neutrality," just register your vote with an "I disagree with you about XXX." If you want to debate the issues or groups, take it to the Soapbox, s'il vous plait. )

[Prepoia[$]]

The League of Women's Voters is the most non-partisan in this area. They put out newspaper type publications for every national election. I love this pub!

[wivabef]

Check your newspaper web sites. The newspapers tend to do a great job with lining up the candidates and explaining where they stand. Though some may not do this until right before an election.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Newspapers around here, not so much... Newsday's on one side of the political spectrum and y'all know where the NYTimes seems to be. And if they're not, they're perceived to be anyway so it doesn't much matter.

I also need non-web sources because many of the older folk in the church aren't wired yet.

[jgibson2[$]]

In addition to choosing neutral sites, I think it can be useful to look at sites which openly state their bias, because you know which issues are most important to them. As an example, the local archdiocesan newspaper will print reviews of the candidates voting record or their stated position (if not an incumbent) on social justice and life issues.

For local candidates and issues, I really like my hometown newspaper, but I'm less impressed with the larger papers in the area. The local does a great job of presenting the local candidates and the local issues. Ours has done a good job of keeping endorsements on the editorial pages. Their web site? Not so much. Need hard copy.

[thinkerlady[$]]

In the past I have used Scholastic.com and their print materials in my classroom for teaching about elections. They do a pretty good job of explaining the candidates and their platforms--usually one at a time since they are primarily focusing on children. We have to present both sides to kids, and not support any one side either. You might want to check them out, after the conventions usually. Sometimes they have stuff you can download and print too.

[theworm[$]]

That's interesting that Scholastic does something for the kids.

MJ - I honestly don't know if its really possible to find any non-biased sites anymore.

[Prepoia[$]]

The League of Women's Voters. It's not just for women.

League of Women Voters US: Election Day 2008 Will Affect Your Entire Family Nonpartisan political membership organization encourages informed, active participation of citizens in government, works to increase understanding of major ...

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

FactCheck.org has been great these past few weeks - and yes, they've dinged both sides about misleading statements at the conventions and in their ads and speeches.

Someone recommended ProCon.org as a good source for outlining candidate's stands and records, but I haven't had time to dig into it yet.

[drmomentum[$]]

Looks like FactCheck has a lot more entries correcting the McCain campaign than Obama.

So clearly, they are biased.

[wivabef]

That's too bad. This thread was going so nicely.

[drmomentum[$]]

I take back what I said about factcheck if it caused more ulcers than chuckles.

Let me say the same thing with less snark. I find one of the problems with our media is an attempt to seem unbiased. People have learned to game their effort to "balance" and avoid criticism by one or both parties.

One silly method of achieving balance is by trying to do the same number of stories about each party, or the same amount of time. That's clearly biased not toward a specific party, but whichever campaign can (or is willing to) get more distortions out faster.

I don't think we can necessarily agree on bias. But we could judge a news source by how thorough it reports a story, where thoroughness includes a willingness to both debunk and criticize where necessary.

Despite the perception that NPR is liberal, I find it to be of high quality and less biased (subject to gaming) than the more sensationalist media. I find more in depth information listening to NPR than anywhere else. And they are less likely to obsess. In fact, it's the only place (as of this morning) I have heard a similar lament to Elyzabeth's regarding the focus on the lipstick story to the exclusion of other important news.

But I know how that suggestion is likely to be received.

[wivabef]

I, too, enjoy NPR. I love political junkies Wednesday on Talk of the Nation and one day I hope I can go to the Knight auditorium in the Newsium to be there!

[anderclayton]

drmomentum said

Despite the perception that NPR is liberal, I find it to be of high quality and less biased (subject to gaming) than the more sensationalist media. I find more in depth information listening to NPR than anywhere else. And they are less likely to obsess. In fact, it's the only place (as of this morning) I have heard a similar lament to Elyzabeth's regarding the focus on the lipstick story to the exclusion of other important news.

But I know how that suggestion is likely to be received.

*laugh*

I disagree about NPR.

Prob with this thread is that given the stipulations here you can't really defend yourself. Ummmm... I used to listen to NPR a fair deal when I lived in Seattle...

Ander

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

VoteSmart.org Hmmm... lots of databases...

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Dnet.org – League of Women Voters; voter guides

FEC.gov – Federal Elections Commission; elections information and National Mail Voter Registration Form

[drmomentum[$]]

The presidential race is not the only one with candidates this november. ACLU has a senate and rep record scorecard people may or may not find useful:

American Civil Liberties Union:

[anderclayton]

drmomentum said

The presidential race is not the only one with candidates this november. ACLU has a senate and rep record scorecard people may or may not find useful:

American Civil Liberties Union:

I disagree that the ACLU is a neutral source of candidate information

[anderclayton]

Personally I kinda like the BBC to some degree. Sure they aren't neutral but they have different biases than we do. BBCA does OK too.

In general I prefer my sources to have their biases up front though. And there really aren't too many entirely neutral sources...

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Thank you everyone, the handouts are made and the presentation prepped. Regarding news sources, I didn't cite any specifically except to say a) know what their biases have been and b) look for in-depth stories instead of soundbites. Unfortunately, other than the League of Women Voters, I wasn't able to find much non-web stuff for the unwired seniors.

[Prepoia[$]]

mjfrombuffalo said

Thank you everyone, the handouts are made and the presentation prepped. Regarding news sources, I didn't cite any specifically except to say a) know what their biases have been and b) look for in-depth stories instead of soundbites. Unfortunately, other than the League of Women Voters, I wasn't able to find much non-web stuff for the unwired seniors.

Thank you for the suggestion. Although not a nasty, one sided, site it does carry good, easy to understand politics.

Here's a great one too (although I know you're done with the project).

Debate Watching 101 :: Teaching Tools from the League of Women Voters