Bong. Bong. Bong.

This is not a drugs related post, but rather about the news. Though drugs may well have been involved in the design of Jeremy Vine's election graphics.

I'm not going to rant about how shit TV news is. Go watch Charlie Brooker's Newswipe - he shares my views, plus he does masturbation jokes.

Instead, I want to mention a few of the news sources I do use, trust and love.

The first is BBC World Service. It's a magnificent institution. Friendly, expert and with a genuinely global focus. In fact, those adjectives could apply equally to another favourite of mine, the International Herald Tribune. It's the international spin-off of the New York Times. It has a magazine-y writing style, and a confidence that the reader is intelligent and interested. Also, they are quite happy to put tiny, quirky stories on the front page - Carol Ann Duffy was front page news for them! Unlike the World Service, it does have a moderate-liberal bias. That's fine with me, because that's about where I am, but you need to read some of their columns with care.
The next is The Economist. The quality of the journalism is simply unparralleled. They have an excellent style guide, which makes their writing more careful than anything else. They know more than anyone else. Their strong opinions are always clearly seperated from facts; a prescription for action, or some predictions, usually follow a clear explanation of the situation.

Finally, there is The Guardian. They are too liberal for me, especially when it comes to foreign affairs - for about 3 years, they published an identical story every day on page 3, about suicide bombs in Iraq. It is wearying, and their writing is always completely loaded with assumptions. That said, their writing style is excellent; the quality of prose is extremely high. Also, their sport coverage is by far the best around, because it mixes serious analysis with genuine humour.

I would love to work for any of these, someday.