There’s a scary presence on Brown’s campus. It’s up in your dorm room interrupting your study time. It attacks classes by the dozens. It’s stretching its gangrenous arms into your daily conversations, your romantic life, your Facebook news feed. Try as hard you can, you can’t escape…
…from The Huffington Post. That’s right, HuffPost: Brown’s lowest common denominator. Its obnoxious green banner is ubiquitous — if you don’t believe me, just sit in the back row of Intro IR sometime. But why do we settle for HuffPost? Why do we put up with the sensational and bewildering headlines? How do we live with ourselves, seeing that right sidebar populated with such well-researched stories as “The Shortest Shorts You’ve Ever Seen“; “Verdict Handed Down in Pooper-Scooper Trial“; and “Pumpkin Bump” (yeah, click that one)? And those stories are all from Wednesday, by the way.
There must be a better way. There are. Check out these alternative default pages for news:
Maybe smarter than HuffPost
The Atlantic: My personal favorite. Strong, short pieces and innovative (read: quirky) takes on daily stories. A small set of writers means you can seek articles by authors you trust. Doesn’t look like it was recently tornado-devastated.
Mother Jones: Openly liberal. More under-the-radar sorts of stories. Often great photography. Not afraid to get silly either. Hides solid news behind goofy article titles, a la “Rick Scott’s Pee Test Fails a Court Test“.
Possibly dumber than HuffPost
Slate: It’s got short, quick articles. It’s got coverage on a full spectrum of topics. It’s got an advice column. The touch of sophistication lent to it by Doonesbury and former Slate columnist Christopher Hitchens can’t make up for articles like “How the Modern Zombie Represents the Economic Fears of White-Collar Workers.” HuffPosters will like it here.
Salon: It’s hard to tell with Salon. The site is sprawling, yet clean. If you want something and you put your mind to it, you’ll probably find something dumb, nine times out of ten. But the other time? Well, why didn’t you just go to The Atlantic?
Certainly as dumb or dumber than HuffPost
The Daily Beast: The major HuffPost wannabe. As in, it wants to be really lame. The partnership with Newsweek only made both of them look worse.
Drudge Report: Good luck with that.
Finally, the worst website on the web. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.