I am a news junkie with a secret: I am also an op-ed junkie. News junkies are supposed to care more about news stories than about opinion pieces, but I am not sure where my allegiance lies as a reader.
Perhaps my morning newspaper routine offers a clue (I still subscribe to two dead-tree dailies). After a cursory glance at the front page of the Wall Street Journal, I go straight to the editorial and opinion pages. I look at the headlines, at least a couple of paragraphs of the opinion pieces and essays, and most of the unsigned editorials. I don’t agree with much of the page’s politics, but I like to see what’s there — it’s the serendipity of the content that brings me back.
I then pick up the New York Times and with an even-shorter glance at A1, proceed to the editorial and op-ed pages. I read the columnists, the pieces by outsiders, and most of the unsigned editorials. Again, I don’t agree with much of the page’s politics, but I like to see what’s there — it’s the serendipity of the content that brings me back.
Only after spending some time on these pages — including on letters to the editor — do I read the rest of the papers. Anyone else out there like me? The only break from my Journal routine: on Thurdays, I first read Walt Mossberg‘s Personal Technology column and on Fridays I also turn to the “Taste” page at the back of the Personal Journal Section. Thanks to the mix of commentaries and unsigned editorials in “Taste,” it’s like having two WSJ editorial sections that day (I haven’t quite figured out why there are two such sections, but I am not complaining).
This need for an opinion fix keeps me seeking out commentaries and essays throughout the day on the Internet. My stops include OpinionJournal.com, the sister site of the WSJ editorial page, which, unlike WSJ.com, is free. I eagerly await, each afternoon, the arrival of Best of the Web Today from OpinionJournal. This column — or is it a blog? — looks at the day’s news events from a conservative (very, very conservative viewpoint). I find myself disagreeing with many of the opinions expressed in it, but the writer, James Taranto, puts it all together in an entertaining, must-read fashion.
Which brings me to Opinion-Pages.org, which links to opinion pages of more than 600 English-language publications in 30 countries (and a smaller number of letters-to-the-editor sections). You can access these publications geographically (by U.S. state or by country) or you can search the publications. You can also search the opinion pieces — or, as the site calls them, “Columns, Columnists & Commentary” — in areas such as politics, business, sports, etc. The design is circa 1997, which means it isn’t pretty, but it is easy to use and understand.
The publications here are almost all online versions of “old-media” sites and therefore this is not the place to read weblogs and other new-fangled stuff (go instead to sites like Daypop.com, with its links to 35,000 sites and blogs).
Are you a fellow opinion junkie? Have a site you want to recommend? Write to poynter@sree.net.
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