The very worst way to look for truth
@VaughanJB is to start with labeling sources right-wing, left-wing, much less consider the writer. That's where people get intellectually lazy with "reliable" or "reputable" sources which is actually confirmation bias. Read as wide a variety as you can for a topic of interest, trace the keywords relevant to the original source of the story and try to determine the truth from there.
Possibly, but then you're assuming that I think something is "bad" just because it's one of the other. That's not the case. It's all about context. So, if I'm reading something about, say, one candidate over another, I can judge the veracity of information by taking a look at the bias of the publication. It's well known the right-wing publications don't publish pro left-wing stories. The same applies the other way. So knowing the bias is essential. One example is Fox News - it's really really terrible. I don't see any reason to ever include it in any follow-up or analysis.
Same with writers. If a writer's last 50 articles are littered with heavily biased takes on a topic, then you know you're not going to get both sides from their 51st. This is all especially true of the so called "alternative media" where it's highlighted even more starkly. I don't think that's "intellectually lazy", I just think it's obvious.
Take the tabloid press. Tabloids rely on drama and the cult of personality. Everything is dramatic, extreme, and overblown, it's news delivered in a circus. You don't go to tabloids to get a reasoned view on a topic. It's more akin to gossiping over the fence to your similarly biased neighbor. It's chatter. I don't see how it's intellectually lazy to acknowledge it (it's more intellectually lazy to read it at all!)
Of course, to determine these things you have to have read widely. Not to mention, history matters a lot too. For example, you can't really make sense of the Ukraine War without knowing some history, same with the issues in Israel right now. They're not isolated incidents, they're part of a continuum.
Personally, I don't rely on any single source. As I've said, I have a site which I skim for the latest news, but that's at a high level where I just want to know the event rather than the detail. If I want to know more, then I can go to multiple other sites to get a fuller picture. Sadly, far too much today is simply taken from a Reuters feed.
As for original sources, that can sometimes work, sometimes not. Again, let me reference the Ukraine War. We get various sources from the Ukrainian side giving us news from the front, and we also get some from the Russian side. Which is truly accurate? Both are invested in bigging up themselves.
I'll end by saying - so much of what is in the news is on a persona level trivial and insignificant. I don't bother researching everything. Not because I'm lazy, but because it just doesn't affect me in any meaningful way, and I prefer not to get invested or excited by things which have no impact on my own life.
