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The death and resurrection of journalism
We are on the same team as renowned investigative reporter Lara Logan, the iconic former ABC news anchor Ted Koppel, and former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson. We know what great, independent journalism looks like, and we dearly want to restore faith in the Fourth Estate. With all its power, glamour, and social influence, media plays a critical societal role, and journalists must respect and honor their profession's traditions and strive to achieve the ideal. Check your sources, confirm the facts, report the truth, and keep your personal opinions to yourself unless you are penning an opinion piece.
Journalists today walk hand-in-hand with propaganda groups pushing narratives that are not based on facts and honest journalism. ‘Some headlines [in the NY Times] contained raw opinion, as did some of the stories that were labeled as news analysis,’ writes Ms. Abramson in her book Merchants of Truth. Mr. Koppel concurs. ‘We are not the reservoir of objectivity that I think we used to be,’ he says. ‘We have things appearing on the front page of the New York Times and Washington Post right now that never would have appeared 50 years ago.’
‘Our editors are watching in horror as opinion and pejorative language are passed off as fact. Anonymous sources are given complete cover to conduct political assassinations without any regard for the consequences of their actions.’
—Ms. Lara Logan, television and radio journalist and war correspondent.
The irony is, advocacy journalism does not work. The average person, in their gut, knows when someone is trying to fool them. This is why trust (and profits) in mainstream media are on a steep decline. The hard reality is people have very little faith and trust in media today. A recent Gallup poll shows that ‘mainstream media’ is trusted by less than 23 percent of Americans. At a 9 percent trust level, the US Congress is the only American institution less trusted than mainstream media.
In the social media arena, ‘opinion’ has morphed into ‘attack and kill.’ Even the mild-mannered President Barack Obama cautioned recently, “I get a sense sometimes among certain young people — and this is amplified by social media — that they act like the way to make social change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people, and that’s enough.” Mother Theresa had her own spin on this same sentiment. ‘I was once asked why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I would never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there,’ she said.
Our noble cause at Cryptonite is to create a forum for informed, independent thinkers who help curate the best content and hold each other accountable. Cryptonite is designed to tap into the meta-intelligence of the most innovative thinkers, entrepreneurs, and investors in the world but keep all in check by providing a way to ‘vouch’ for each other and reply and rate comments. If we all work together, Cryptonite can become a welcoming and well-reasoned alternative to snarky advocacy journalism and ‘hit and run social’ media commentary. Our bet is when a person feels like their professional reputation is on the line, they will be kinder and gentler — but we shall see.
‘If all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far. That’s easy to do. That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change.’
—Barack Obama comments during an interview about youth activism at the Obama Foundation Summit.
While most content will come from our members, Cryptonite editors exercise influence by curating the homepage stories, re-writing headlines, choosing art, breaking occasional news, writing our own editorials, and producing videos. Even with a less central editorial role than in traditional media, we have committed to uphold the same commitment to transparency as the editors of the Economist and the original Red Herring by regularly articulating our worldview so we may be understood under that context.
In this spirit, we have provided below the list of both the news, features, and opinion sources we regularly review for the most relevant, nourishing, and clever content.
Breaking news sources
Ars Technica + Asia Times + Associated Press + BBC + Bloomberg Businessweek + Business Insider + CNBC + Crunchbase News + Daily Mail + Financial Times + The Guardian + Hacker Noon + The Information + Los Angeles Times + Mashable + MarketWatch + New York Times + NPR + Recode + Reuters + The Street + Tech In Asia + TechCrunch + Term Sheet + USA Today + VentureBeat + The Verge + Wall Street Journal + VC News Daily + Wired +
Features
Architectual Digest + The Atlantic + Cell Press + Cosmos + Discover + Fast Company + The Economist + Entrepreneur + Forbes + Fortune + Futurism + Gizmodo + Greentech Media + Harvard Business Review + Hollywood Reporter + Inc. + Live Science + MIT Technology Review + Motor Trend + National Geographic + Nature + Nature News + New Scientist + The New Yorker + The Next Web + Pitchbook + Popular Science + Rolling Stone + Science + The Scientist + Scientific American + SciTech Daily + Space.com + Stat + Quanta + Quartz + Vanity Fair + Variety + World Economic Forum + Xconomy +
Crypto and blockchain
Amberdata.io +The Block + Bitcoinist + Bitcoin News + CCN + CoinDesk + CoinGecko + Cointelegraph + Coin MarketCap + Today on Chain
Geek news and reviews
Android Authority + BGR + CNET + Engadget + Game Informer + 9 to 5 Mac + Mac Observer + Macworld + PCMag.com + PCWorld + The Register + Tech Radar + Tech Republic + ZDNet +
Aggregators
Digg + Drudge Report + LinkedIn + Medium + RealClear + Redef + Reddit + Speigel
Research sites
CB Insights + Crunchbase + Pew Research + Pitchbook +
What sources are we missing? Lets us know.
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