This flow chart recommends news sources based on your existing political views and your desire to confirm versus challenge those views:

Reading contrary viewpoints is much more difficult mentally than reading supporting views, but as the flow chart illustrates, is necessary for overcoming confirmation bias.

Two noteworthy sets of news outlets and commentary that don’t fit into the flow chart above are:

1. Sources that challenge both the mainstream left and the mainstream right:
   • The Economist. Describing its position as the “extreme centre,” the Economist believes in free trade and free markets, opposes capital punishment, and favors gun control and gay marriage. It will be useful to someone who currently holds the opposite views and wants to consider sophisticated contrary arguments.
   • The Atlantic. Novel and nuanced takes on important issues, and true to its claim of being “distinctively unbiased” overall. This piece on The Obama Doctrine challenges both sides.
   • Two lesser-known sources of commentary that don’t fit neatly within the contemporary left or right are The Rubin Report and the Waking Up podcast with Sam Harris. Like the better-known Real Time with Bill Maher, the hosts of these shows self-identify as liberals and will be vigorously challenging to audiences on the right, particularly the religious right. Also like Maher, however, they forcefully criticize the “regressive left” for overlooking illiberal systems when multiculturalism is at stake. Harris and Maher’s clash with Ben Affleck was a seminal moment in this debate.
2. Quasi-Straight News: These outlets, in my view, are closer to straight news than to advocacy, but their broad feel is more left-of-center than right-of-center: CNN, PBS, NPR and BBC.