To Open The Sky
The Front Pages of Christopher P. Winter
A Selection of Reliable News Sources
January 2025
Mainstream media in this country are still good sources on current events: things that are happening now, or happened a short while ago. However, they have two major shortcomings: most of them are owned by a few corporate interests which want to treat them as profit centers, and the advent of digital media means they have lost print advertising. As a result, they have cut back on coverage, especially of foreign news, they do less in-depth investigation generally, and they often steer clear of certain controversial topics.1
I depend mostly on a selection of YouTube channels for coverage of the aspects of reality that the mainstream media don't adequately cover. Here they are, in no particular order.
| Web Site | YouTube Link | Host(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Lincoln Project | The Lincoln Project | Rick Wilson | Political consultant Rick Wilson is the real deal. He formerly worked for Republicans, and he was good at getting them into office. Then Trump came along, and everything changed. He is the author of two book: Everything Trump Touches Dies (2018) and Running Against the Devil (2020). Check out The Lincoln Project, which includes his own "The Elephant in the Room," a weekly show, "The Breakdown," podcasts, and political ads that are really effective. |
| Resolute Square | N/A | Rick Wilson | "Resolute Square is now Lincoln Square Media! Lincoln Square Media is everything you've come to know, love, and value from Resolute Square and more. Our mission is to expose, inspire, inform, lead, and connect — and give you the tools not just to fight back, but fight forward for the America we all deserve. Join us." |
| Zeteo | Zeteo | Mehdi Hassan | "Founded by Mehdi Hasan, Zeteo has a strong bias for the truth and an unwavering belief in the media’s responsibility to the public. Unfiltered news, bold opinions." |
| Brian Tyler Cohen | Democracy Watch | Brian Tyler Cohen | The focus is on Trump and his minions, and their lawlessness. Closely associated with Marc Elias. Not to be confused with Canada's Democracy Watch, or the CBS News feature of the same name. Look for Brian Tyler Cohen's book Shameless (Aug. 2024). |
| Democracy Docket | Democracy Docket | Marc Elias | Marc Elias is a former partner with Perkins Coie. He left that firm in 2020 and founded the Elias Law Group in 2021. The focus is on Trump and his minions, and their misuse of the law. His law group has filed dozens of suits opposing efforts to advance Trump's Big Lie. |
| Glenn Kirschner | Justice Matters | Glenn Kirschner | Glenn Kirschner was an Army legal prosecutor and an assistant U.S. Attorney in the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. He now provides legal commentary on Justice Matters and occasionally teams with Brian Tyler Cohen. |
| DCReport | Johnston, a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, appears only on other YouTube shows. | David Cay Johnston | "DCReport is published by the Next Echo Foundation. We are a unique, not-for-profit service that provides reporting, information, and perspective on the policies, politics, and events that affect our everyday lives and futures. We do so to protect your rights as citizens, consumers, workers, investors and voters." |
| Laura Flanders & Friends (Simplecast) | Laura Flanders & Friends | Laura Flanders | "Where the people who say it can't be done take a backseat to the people who are doing it," Laura Flanders & Friends explores the solutions of tomorrow, today, with award-winning reporting every week. Airing nationwide on public television and radio and available as a free podcast, this upbeat, outspoken, half hour is non-commercial. Join Laura every Friday at 5:00 pm ET on YouTube for a brand new premiere and subscribe to the channel to get the latest episode. Like the program? Share it. Support the show at https://lauraflanders.org/donate. |
| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Wikipedia) |
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez | First elected in 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represents New Yok's 14th district in the US House. In this video (2/04/25), she "dives into the latest developments in Washington, breaking down what's really going on and what it means for our communities. More importantly, she shares how we can respond, organize, and take action to fight back." |
| Rachel Maddow | The Rachel Maddow Show | Rachel Maddow | Rachel Anne Maddow hosts The Rachel Maddow Show, a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special event co-anchor. She holds a bachelor's degree in public policy from Stanford University and a doctorate in political science from the University of Oxford. She has received multiple Emmy Awards for her broadcasting work; in 2021, she also received a Grammy Award for the audiobook version of her 2019 book Blowout). She is the author of 4 books; the most recent is Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism (Oct. 2023). It is based on her podcast series Ultra chronicling U.S. right-wing extremism during the 1940s. |
| Democracy Now! | Democracy Now! | Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonzalez & Nermeen Shaikh |
This nightly show, formerly carried on PBS, covers general news but is especially good on the conflict in Gaza. Produced in Manhattan, the show is broadcast live weekdays at 8 AM Eastern. Amy Goodman is the author or co-author of 8 books, most notably Truth, Torture, and the American Way (with Jennifer K. Harbury) and Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back (with David Goodman). |
| Amanpour & Company (PBS) | Amanpour & Company | Christiane Amanpour | A long-time CNN correspondent based in New York City, Amanpour now lives in London and reports on PBS. Her focus is on international affairs, and she often goes on-site to cover these stories. She is the co-author of 3 books on journalists and journalism. |
| The Talking Feds Podcast | Talking Feds | Harry Litman | "Talking Feds is a roundtable discussion that brings together prominent former government officials, journalists, and special guests for a dynamic and in-depth analysis of the most pressing questions in law and politics. The host and executive producer of Talking Feds is Harry Litman. Litman is a former line prosecutor, United States Attorney, and Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice. He is an active litigator in courts around the country and a professor of constitutional law at U.C.L.A. and U.C.S.D. He appears regularly on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox. Read Harry's columns on the Talking Feds Subtack: https://harrylitman.substack.com" |
| Political Voices Network | Political Voices Network | Stephanie Miller | Political Voices Network is the Exclusive home for Stephanie Miller on YouTube! Get Stephanie Miller's take on the day's news, events, and other noteworthy topics. Funny, quirky, honest… Check out Stephanie Miller's entire show on PoliticalVoicesNetwork.com. More about Political Voices Network… It's a big country, with lots of voices — and this is America's audio and video platform representing them all. Political Voices Network is your source for all voices spanning the range of opinion in the political arena. Political Voices Network features some of political-talk's most popular personalities, opinion-makers, and influencers — such as exclusive content from leading radio hosts Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, John Fugelsang, Glenn Kirschner, Julliana Forlano, Richard French Live, JoJo from Jerz and MORE. This is Political Voices Network, available at PoliticalVoicesNetwork.com. |
| N/A | What a Day | Jane Coaston | If you're looking for hype, fake outrage, and groupthink, kindly keep moving. Our mission at What a Day is simple: to be your guide to what truly matters each morning (and the fun stuff you might have missed) in just 20 minutes. Host Jane Coaston brings you in-depth reporting and substantive analysis on the big stories shaping today and the creeping trends shaping tomorrow—and when she doesn't know the answers, she asks someone even smarter to fill us all in. Radical, right? New episodes drop at 4:00 a.m. Pacific/7:00 a.m. Eastern, Monday-Friday in your favorite podcast app and on YouTube. Being informed was never this easy. |
| Pod Save America | Pod Save America | Philip Weiss | Begun as a blog by journalist Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss developed into a news Web site staffed by Weiss, Adam Horowitz, and Alex Kane. It has a variety of contributors. In June 2011 it became a project of part of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change. Around that time it defined its aims as fostering greater fairness for Palestinians in American foreign policy, and as providing American Jews with an alternative to Zionism. It has, of course, often been called antisemitic. Its podcasts run as much as an hour; its videos vary in length. |
| Robert Reich | The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich | Robert Reich & Heather Lofthouse | The Secretary of Labor for Bill Clinton, Robert Reich has been a steadfast explainer of why unregulated markets are dangerous and how extreme wealth inequality threatens democracy, with 15 books to his credit. Here's my review of Supercapitalism. In addition to his weekly Coffee Klatsch, Reich provides frequent explainers via Inequality Media as well as interviews with people like Elizabeth Warren. |
| N/A | Countdown | Keith Olbermann | Video home of "The Countdown With Keith Olbermann" weekday podcast. Video previews with the link to the newly completed audio episode post Monday-Thursday just after midnight ET. New VIDEO episodes post Tuesday-Friday at 6 AM ET and bulletins as the news warrants and the throat abides. |
| MeidasTouch News | MeidasTouch | Ben & Brett Meiselas | This show covers mainly Donald Trump and the current members of Congress. |
| The Bulwark | The Bulwark | Tim Miller | The focus is on current events. Look for Tim Miller's book Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell (June 2022). |
| The Ezra Klein Show Podcast Podbean |
The Ezra Klein Show | Ezra Klein | Ezra Klein is a New York Times columnist. |
| The Contrarian Substack |
Jen Rubin's Green Room | Jennifer Rubin | Columnist Jennifer Rubin left the Washington Post after Jeff Bezos preventied the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential campaign. She started her YouTune channel, "Jen Rubin's Green Room," and she teams with former White House ethics czar Norm Eisen on "The Contrarian" podcast, hosted by Substack. |
| The Majority Report | The Majority Report | Sam Seder & Emma Vigeland |
The focus is on current events. The show also takes phone calls. Look for Seder's satirical 2006 book F.U.B.A.R.: America's Right-Wing Nightmare, co-authored with Stephen Sherrill. |
| Leeja Miller | Why, America? | Leeja Miller | The focus is on American politics and current events. |
| The David Pakman Show | The David Pakman Show | David Pakman | David Pakman was born to a family of Ashkenazi Jews in Buenos Aires in 1984. He came to the United States at age 5 and is a naturalized citizen. He is married; his first child, a daughter, was born in June, 2022. He had programs on radio and TV but chose to end them in August 2024 to concentrate on digital media. Look for his first book The Echo Machine: How Right-Wing Extremism Created a Post-Truth America, due in March 2025. |
| The David Doel Show (PodBean) | The Rational National | David Doel | "Independent political commentary, media criticism, news and culture, with an occasional comedic tinge; hosted by David Doel. Fights for human rights, workers' rights, and equality. David comes from a background working in broadcast news, ran for political office as a Canadian Green Party candidate, and hosted an AM Radio show in downtown Toronto. Through 'The Rational National' he breaks down the latest political news, exposes media misinformation from all sides, and works to push society forward in a way that centres human rights and equality." David Doel also podcasts on YouTube at The Leftist Mafia and David & Miles. |
| Bean Thinking | Bean Thinking | Ahsante Bean | "So I've Bean Thinking... about a flourishing democratic society with liberty and justice for all, not just for some. Video essays, analysis, explainers, and nuanced takes on the way we live and how things could be. We're living in the product of other people's imaginations - why not imagine our own?" |
| N/A | American Friction | Jacob Jarvis | "Does American politics scare and bemuse you? Want to know what Trump is up to, without pulling your hair out? Then you need American Friction, the UK podcast about US politics — from the makers of Oh God, What Now?, The Bunker and Paper Cuts. Every Friday, we'll speak to leading experts and blockbuster commentators from the United States to explain the latest news and the big issues behind the vote with hosts Jacob Jarvis (ex-Newsweek), Chris Jones (Podmasters) and Nikki McCann Ramirez (Politics Reporter at Rolling Stone). Out every Friday." |
| The Agenda | TVO Today: The Agenda | Steve Paikin & Nam Kiwanuka |
Hosted by veteran journalist Steve Paikin and multi-platform journalist Nam Kiwanuka, The Agenda features in-depth conversations about contemporary social, political, cultural and economic issues affecting Ontarians. The show is broadcast weeknights at 8PM/11PM EST. |
| Jews United for Democracy and Justice | America at a Crossroads | Patt Morrison | "America at a Crossroads is a joint undertaking of Community Advocates, Inc. and Jews United for Democracy and Justice. The virtual series was initiated in the spring of 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Community Conversations that the two organizations had held since early 2017 morphed into an on-line town hall series on Wednesday evenings that is watched across the globe. Since the initial program on April 22, every week a new pundit, elected official, scholar or opinion molder has appeared in dialogue with an exceptional moderator who poses questions of his own and those culled from the large audience. Upcoming programs will be noted here. |
| The PoliticsGirl Podcast | PoliticsGirl | Leigh McGowan | Leigh McGowan alternates short videos (3 to 4 minutes) with some that run 40 minutes or longer. The subject is current events. Look for her book A Return to Common Sense (Sept. 2024). |
| The Mark Thompson Show (Apple Podcasts) | The Mark Thompson Show | Mark Thompson | Covers current events in a longer format, approaching an hour. Look for the episodes when David Cay Johnston is the guest. Mark Thompson has had a varied career, working as weather reporter, DJ, anchorman, publisher, and actor in feature films. |
| Margaret Claire Hoover (Wikipedia) | Firing Line | Margaret Hoover | The original Firing Line ran on PBS for 33 years, hosted by conservative William F. Buckley. The show was relaunched on PBS in 2018, hosted by Margaret Hoover. She too is a conservative, but with a difference: she is married to John Avlon, who ran for the House seat in New York's 1st district but lost to Republican Nick LaLota. The new Firing Line thus brings on a variety of guests, from Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez to Democratic political consultant James Carville. (Note that Bill O'Reilly walked off his interview to duck uncomfortable questions: the only guest to do so.) Margaret Hoover's 2011 book is American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party. It shares its title with that of a book by Herbert Hoover, who is her great grandfather. |
| The Hartmann Report | Thom Hartmann Program | Thom Hartmann | Veteran journalist Thom Hartmann provides a print report, a radio show, and a YouTube channel. He is the author of 37 books, notably The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight (now in its third edition) and the ten-book Hidden History series. |
| The Humanist Report | The Humanist Report | Mike Figueredo | The Humanist Report (THR) is a progressive political podcast that discusses and analyzes current news events and pressing political issues. Our analyses are guided by humanism and political progressivism. Each news story we cover is supplemented with thought-provoking, fact-based commentary that aims for the highest level of objectivity. |
| Greg Palast Investigative Journalism | Thom Hartmann Program | Greg Palast | Greg Palast is an investigative journalist whose work has appeared in The Guardian. He is the author of 7 books, the lastest being How Trump Stole 2020 (Seven Stories Press, 2020). He has also produced 8 films; the most recent, Vigilantes Inc. can be downloaded from his Web site. |
| N/A | Farron Balanced | Farron Cousins | The focus is on American politics and current events. Farron Cousins also appears on The Ring of Fire YouTube channel. |
| Dollemore Daily (Changing Minds Media) |
The Dollemore Daily | Jesse Dollemore | Jesse's podcasts and his YouTube videos cover general political news. He welcomes comments and also has a telephone call-in line. |
| The Al Franken Podcast (audio only) | The Al Franken Podcast | Al Franken | Al Franken was comedian with Saturday Night Live and a presenter on the liberal Air America radio network from 2004 to 2010. He later won a contested election with Norm Coleman to become a US Senator, and then resigned over allegations of mild sexual improprieties — a decision he regrets. He is the author of 7 books, most recently Al Franken, Giant of the Senate (2017). His weekly 45-minute podcasts feature guests who are sometimes poorly known, but always well informed. |
| Letters from an American | Politics Chat | Heather Cox Richardson | Dr. Heather Cox Richardson also does a politics chat on Facebook. She is the author of 6 books, most recently Democracy Awakening. |
| N/A | Secular Talk | Kyle Kulinski | Kyle Kulinski discusses current events in an often florid way, and sometimes has guests. He's also had a TV talk show since 2008. The IMDB describes it thus: "Kyle Kulinski discusses politics, the culture and religion with hard facts and comic exaggeration." |
| The Damage Report (Apple podcasts) |
The Damage Report | John Iadarola | Complementary to, and allied with, TYT, The Damage Report shares the same focus. |
| TYT Home | The Young Turks (TYT) | Cenk Uygur & Ana Kasparian |
Cenk and Ana work in a sort of point/counterpoint fashion. Some will remember James Kilpatrick and Shana Alexander debating issues on 60 Minutes during the 1970s. Cenk rants a lot, but he generally makes good points. Look for his book Justice Is Coming (Sept. 2023). |
| Breaking Points | Breaking Points | Saagar Enjeti & Krystal Ball | Breaking Points launched in June 2021 when Ball and Enjeti broke away from The Hill's "Rising." They provide an audio-only podcast on iHeart, Apple and elsewhere, and the video is available on YouTube, Rumble and Spotify. They appear as primary hosts on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, with journalist Ryan Grim and culture writer Emily Jashinsky (also from "Rising") co-hosting a show called Counterpoints on Wednesday and Friday. The Friday show often features debates. |
| N/A | Beau of the Fifth Column | Beau & Belle | Beau has always been an insightful source on American and international politics. He's been less active for about a year now, or maybe the algorithms are missing his content. Lately, Belle of the Ranch has taken over the commenting job — but she maintains the high level of insight. |
| If These Hills Could talk | Tennessee Brando | Brandon Fulson | Tennessee Brando has a YouTube channel and a variety of podcasts on multiple sources. |
| N/A | Texas Paul | Paul Schroder | As his channel name indicates, Texas Paul lives in The Great State. His views on the many mistakes the government of that state has been making are spot on. Like Beau, he is leaa active lately — or I don't see him as much due to the YouTube algorithms. |
| The Katie Halper Show (Apple podcasts) |
The Katie Halper Show | Katie Halper | Katherine Rose Halper is an American comedian, writer, filmmaker, podcaster, and political commentator. She is the host of the podcast The Katie Halper Show and co-host of the podcast Useful Idiots with Aaron Maté. She has directed and/or produced four documentary films. Her articles have appeared in a variety of outlets from The New York Times to Feministing, where she was a guest columnist. As a commenter, she has appeared on cable channels from MSNBC to The Ingraham Angle. She was a featured host on The Hill's "Rising" until September 2022, when Rising refused to air a segment on their show in which Halper called Israel an "apartheid government". She was subsequently fired from the show. |
| Briefly: A Newsletter from Briahna Joy Gray | Bad Faith | Briahna Joy Gray | After graduating from law school, Gray worked as a corporate litigator in New York City. She worked for The Intercept and her columns have appeared in a number of other publications. She was National Press Secretary for the 2020 Bernie Sanders campaign. She was the co-host of "Rising" on The Hill from September 2022 to June 7, 2024, when she was fired for comments critical of Israel. |
| Mary Trump Media | Mary Trump Media | Michael Walker | Mary L. Trump is the niece of Donald J. Trump, but there is no love lost between them. She is also a clinical psychologist, a writer, and the founder and CEO of The Trump Coaching Group, a life-coaching company. She is the author of 3 books, the first and most important being Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man (July 2020). Here's my review. |
| INTERNATIONAL COVERAGE OF GENERAL NEWS | |||
| The BBC | N/A | Tim Davie (Director-General) | The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Since 1927 it has operated under a royal charter which is periodically renewed. Supported by fees charged annually to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts or to use the BBC's streaming service, it employs over 21,000 staff in total; approximately 17,200 of these are in public-sector broadcasting. Since 1 April 2014, these fees have also funded the BBC World Service (launched in 1932 as the BBC Empire Service), which broadcasts in 28 languages and provides comprehensive TV, radio, and online services in Arabic and Persian. Sometimes called "the Beeb" or "Auntie," the BBC provided invaluable radio service to the nation during World War II and has earned a reputation for straightforward reporting. Despite this, it has often been accused of left-wing bias — especially during the Thatcher years. Conversely, left-wing columnist Owen Jones charged that it is "stacked full of rightwingers." It provides videos on its main site, but does not have a YouTube channel. |
| N/A | Owen Jones | Owen Jones | UK citizen Owen Jones operates an independent YouTube channel where he tries to "challenge and expose injustices, give a platform to the unheard, and offer alternatives to a broken system." He writes a weekly column for The Guardian and contributes to other newspapers. He is the author of 4 books, most recently Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class (new edition, Oct. 2020). |
| COVERAGE OF CONFLICTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST | |||
| Novara Media | Novara Media | Michael Walker | Novara Media is an independent media organization founded in 2011 by James Butler and Aaron Bastani. Based in the UK, it has offices in London and Leeds. It covers general news from a Labor Party viewpoint, and lately has frequently covered Israel and its ongoing conflict with its neighbors. |
| Al Jazeera News | Al Jazeera English | Mostefa Souag (director general) |
The Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, and funded in part by the government of Qatar. It provides channels in Arabic, English, and other languages, operating 70 bureaus around the world to cover global news. It had an American version of Al Jazeera English on satellite and cable channels from 2013 to 2016, but that closed due to the "economic landscape." Its funding by Qatar has led to charges that it is "state media," but it maintains that it is independent. Israel shut down its operations in that country in April 2024, citing national security concerns. |
| Middle East Eye | Middle East Eye | Jamal Bessasso (director) |
Middle East Eye (MEE) launched in London, England, in April 2014. It primarily covers news related to the Middle East, North Africa, and the wider Muslim world. Jamal Bessasso, a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian living in London, is the sole director of its parent company M.E.E. He was also a former director for the Hamas-controlled Al-Quds TV, which shut down in 2019. It is said to receive funding from Qatar. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have banned it. Jamal Khashoggi was a MEE correspondent for two years prior to moving to the Washington Post, working without a byline because of his critical coverage of Saudi Arabia. |
| Mondoweiss | Mondoweiss Videos | Philip Weiss | Begun as a blog by journalist Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss developed into a news Web site staffed by Weiss, Adam Horowitz, and Alex Kane. It has a variety of contributors. In June 2011 it became a project of part of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change. Around that time it defined its aims as fostering greater fairness for Palestinians in American foreign policy, and as providing American Jews with an alternative to Zionism. It has, of course, often been called antisemitic. Its podcasts run as much as an hour; its videos vary in length. |
Again, the mainstream news services are still useful, but not completely reliable. I still rely on many folks on MSNBC (though that may change with its new owners): Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, Lawrence O'Donnell, Ari Melber, Nicolle Wallace. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have done good work in the past, but sadly appear to have sold out.
References
1 One prominent example: Israel's genocide in Gaza.
