The most reliable source of news- TV and newspaper?

[FidelMaestro]

Hi guys, I was wondering if any of you know a left wing :hammersickle: source of news which is trustworthy and ideally available in the UK? thanks! :laugh:

[The Idler]

Could you be more specific?
Are you expecting answers like BBC, Guardian, New Statesman?
Or are you looking for more left-wing news publications like Morning Star, Socialist Worker?
Or are you interested in less frequent left-wing publications generally?
Or would you be interested in online-only websites and blogs such as reddit?

[Q]

Al Jazeera is, in relative terms, a high quality (but clearly capitalist) tv news source.

Most of the left wing publications are mere agitational rags with little actual commentary on events, but I'll mention here the most important ones. The Morning Star is a daily and perhaps carries the most in actual news commentary, but I never read it so I'm not sure and of course its politics is god awful, being a remnant of the old 'tankie' wing of the old CPGB.

The Weekly Worker has a lot of indepth commentary and places a big emphasis on debate: You can send in a letter or article that criticizes other pieces. This culture of openness has resulted in generally high quality journalism. Of course, the main project of this group is to unite the left into one party and therefore you'll see the occasional article giving commentary on this or that event on the left. Suffice to say that a lot of comrades don't like this and see the Weekly Worker as a 'gossip sheet' for that reason.

Another weekly is The Socialist. If you want to read about why we need to save the NHS and wage a 24 hour general strike against whatever latest round of cuts, week in week out, this is generally the best place you can go to.

Lastly there is Socialist Worker. Also a weekly. A somewhat sensationalist publication. Also a politics 'lite' publication in my view, for example: When a few months back they were commenting on the Egyptian presidential elections, they called for a vote on Morsi in the second round because the other candidate was representing the Mubarak establishment. Therefore voting for Morsi would, somehow, continue the revolution. Of course, now we can fully see how utterly stupid that was and they'll try to weasel out of ever having said that. But they have these kind of stances all the time.

So much for my, limited, knowledge on UK left publications. There are other publications, but their frequency is less than a week (fortnightly, monthly or longer) and therefore don't count as being a news publication.

[The Idler]

News Line is daily and the New Worker is weekly but frequency doesn't compensate for other reasons you might not want to read them. Solidarity is weekly and isn't as bad as the other two. Correct me if I'm wrong but are Weekly Worker's origins linked to New Worker?

[Ostrinski]

I usually just go with BBC, CNN, or Al Jazeera. I don't know much about left wing publications but those three should suffice for familiarizing yourself with the goings on.

[Q]

Correct me if I'm wrong but are Weekly Worker's origins linked to New Worker?

Not directly. The direct forerunner of the WW is The Leninist (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/about-the-cpgb/our-history/the-leninist-archive), which was a factional publication in the old CPGB. The NCP was indeed were some of the people who would later found The Leninist came from.

For more details, there is this video (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/videos/30-years-since-the-launch-of-the-leninist-faction).

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

Is CounterPunch considered left-wing?
I quite like some of the stuff there.

[The Idler]

Also since you describe Morning Star's politics as godawful tankie wing, can you clear up that Weekly Worker is definitely not tankie or supports the tanks in Hungary 56 or Prague 68?

[Q]

Also since you describe Morning Star's politics as godawful tankie wing, can you clear up that Weekly Worker is definitely not tankie or supports the tanks in Hungary 56 or Prague 68?

I don't know their formal positions on that. Since those events precede the existence of the groups, I'm not sure if they even have a collective stance on it. I doubt it actually.

But I would be extremely surprised if they held a 'tankie' position.

I suggest you ask them yourself: [email protected]

[Ocean Seal]

revleft
has communists
therefore it is most accurate

[The Idler]

Also the Morning Star prints a lot of eco-socialist, Labourite stuff at least in the guest op-eds so it doesn't come across in the same way as say New Worker.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

Also the Morning Star prints a lot of eco-socialist, Labourite stuff at least in the guest op-eds so it doesn't come across in the same way as say New Worker.
They also pledge full support to the communist parties of China and South Africa, so if you're looking for anything leftist the Morning Star might not be the best place to go.