A return to RSS to combat the changing media environment

The combination of recent acquisitions of major news outlets by extremely rich individuals in combinations these owners are have made some efforts to influence the tenor of programming and the topics covered is causing me some concern. I admit that it is difficult to operationalize story selection, objectivity, and even the target of humorists has become a topic of public discussion. I occasionally take a look at the data collected by organizations that attempt to measure political orientation (e.g., AllSides) and I see that recent news stories CBS, NBC, and the Washington Post are still listed as “leans left”. Part of the challenge here is that the companies making such determinations make use of public ratings rather than some more objective approach and public perception may influenced by accusations rather than facts.

Wealthy owners have almost by necessity controlled news organizations.

The Ochs-Sulzberger family, who own The New York Times.
The Murdoch family, owners of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Post

Newer wealthy owners largely come from the tech sector and are far more diversified in their financial interests.

Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter).
Mark Zuckerberg, whose platforms—Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp—reach billions.
Larry Page & Sergey Brin, whose Google and YouTube dominate search and video.
Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post and Amazon MGM Studios.
Larry Ellison, whose companies are expanding into CBS, Paramount, and potentially CNN and TikTok.

Much of my own understanding of major news outlets has been come from reading books focused on the history of the New York Times and Washington Post. For example, my most recent read was Marty Baron’s recent book describing his personal history with the Washington Post (Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos and the Washington Post). I think it fair to suggest that journalism as an ideal is about accurately presenting the facts and there is a constant tension within the professional between this goal and pressures to interpret and motivate.

Recent analyses of online news traffic, ownership structures, and platform consolidation reveal a trend that should concern anyone who cares about democracy, transparency, and the free flow of information. So, are billionaires taking over the news media? The evidence increasingly points toward “yes,” though the story is more nuanced than simple takeover headlines suggest. How objective is the news that we consume and have the few who control what we consume biased what is available to the public?

Why Are Billionaires Buying Up Media?

The motivations vary and are speculative, but here are several of the proposals:

1. Influence, Not Journalism

Owning a media outlet means controlling—not just influencing—the agenda. Which issues get amplified, which voices get sidelined, and which perspectives become “mainstream” can all shift at the whim of ownership.

This happens both subtly, through editorial pressure, and overtly, through firings, policy changes, and platform algorithms.

2. Protecting Business Interests

Billionaires with vast non-media empires benefit from shaping political and public opinion.

A critical news investigation can spark antitrust scrutiny, regulatory action, labor pressure, or public backlash. Owning the outlet that might publish such investigations can conveniently soften that blow.

3. Political Leverage

When politics and media ownership mix, journalism suffers. Several media owners have cultivated close ties to political leaders—particularly U.S. presidents. This relationship can lead to:

favorable regulatory rulings,
advantageous business deals,
less oversight,
and more power.

The public rarely sees this influence—but journalists inside the newsrooms often do.

4. Prestige and Legacy

Historically, newspapers have been considered markers of influence and intellectual status. For many billionaires, buying a publication is as much about image and legacy as profit.

Journalism’s core purpose – to hold the powerful accountable – cannot thrive in an environment where the powerful own the press.

Who is at fault?

The unsettling part is that present trends are probably not as devious as might be assumed and are a result of the following:

failing local news revenues,
the collapse of newspapers,
tech giants becoming gateways to information,
and billionaires filling the vacuum because they could.

The result is the same: a public sphere increasingly shaped by private interests.

We all bear some responsibility if we rely on “free” social media for news and have given up our subscriptions to newspaper (even digital) and magazines. The combination of free in terms of money and less demanding in terms of the effort to read longer form content is a bad combination. Of course free isn’t really free. We offer our time and attention to those who provide information and we open ourselves up to the manipulation associated with displaying more ads and attention grabbing content fed to us by algorithms designed to attract our attention. Our personal biases and motivations are fed by these algorithms rather than objective journalism.

Of course, we are told to purchase national and local newspapers and read in general, but maybe this is too idealistic.

Try RSS Again

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) was popular in the early 2000s as a way for individuals to keep an eye on multiple sources such as blogs and news sites to see if those sites contained any new material. Instead of taking the time to go to each site to check, a news reader kept track for you and offered a way to scroll through a list of updates to select sites you wanted to revisit. You were in control of both the sites you followed and the updated material you took the time to view.

RSS became less popular when Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites with feeds made it easier to find new content in their feeds, which featured what others found interesting and useful. However, it wasn’t really everything. Algorithms selected what appeared in our feeds and what appeared at the top. In a way, self-selection was replaced by algorithms.

RSS readers still exist – e.g., Feedly, Inoreader, Reeder. I use a new service called Current. The issue is how such services are used.

My Proposal

If the goal is to spend more time exposed to unbiased content, here is what I think makes sense. Identify sources based on solid journalism committed to a fact-first approach. I wondered if there was a way to avoid what might be my own biases or at least add solid sources to my personal biases. I decided to involve AI and I suggest others with goals similar to my own might want to take a similar approach.

Step 1: Prompt AI to identify the type of resource

My Prompt: What are the best unbiased news services for national news in the U.S?

*********

The AI response

A practical way to get “unbiased” U.S. national news

No outlet is perfectly unbiased, so the most reliable approach is to combine:

a straight-wire source (fact-first reporting), and
a bias-comparison / aggregation tool (to see how different outlets frame the same story).

Best “least-biased / straight reporting” services (great for national U.S. news)

Associated Press (AP / AP News) — widely used as a baseline “just-the-facts” wire style.
Sources: AP “About” (independent, nonpartisan), AP News
Reuters — another global wire service known for restrained, fact-forward reporting (excellent for politics, courts, and especially business/economy coverage).
(Reuters is commonly paired with AP in “least biased” recommendations; see also aggregator lists like PureVPN’s list for how it’s often categorized.)

Best “see multiple perspectives” services (reduces single-outlet framing)

AllSides — shows coverage “from the Left / Center / Right” and provides bias ratings; helpful for avoiding echo chambers.
Source: AllSides Balanced News
Ground News — compares how outlets across the spectrum cover the same story; useful for spotting omissions and framing differences.
Source: Ground News

Best “public-service style” national news (generally lower heat, more context)

PBS NewsHour — often recommended for measured tone and interviews/context (not a wire, but typically less sensational).
Mentioned in “least-biased” style lists like: PureVPN’s list
NPR — strong reporting and corrections culture; perceptions of lean vary by topic, but many people use it as a core national source alongside a wire.
(Also commonly listed in “low-bias” roundups: PureVPN’s list; and discussed in evaluation guides like UAA/APU library guide)

If you want a “single app/site” that tries to be neutral

Straight Arrow News (SAN) — positions itself as “unbiased / straight facts” and includes meta-coverage tools.
Source: Straight Arrow News

Quick starter stack (simple and effective)

AP or Reuters for your default daily read
AllSides or Ground News when something feels politically charged or confusing

If you tell me whether you prefer (a) fastest headlines, (b) deeper explainers, or (c) video, I can narrow this to the best 3–4 for your routine.

*****

Step 2: Create a convenient way to import these sources into the RSS Reader

It would be easy enough to take the list from Step 1, adding each recommendation manually. There is an easier way I thought might work given the coding capabilities of AI.

My Prompt: Create an opml file to access these sources

AI response

I have created the unbiased_news_feeds.opml file for you. It includes the “Top Stories” and “National” feeds for the sources we discussed: AP News, Reuters, NPR, PBS NewsHour, AllSides, and Straight Arrow News.

You can download the file directly from the interface and import it into any RSS reader (like Feedly, Inoreader, or NetNewsWire) to have a single, organized feed of U.S. national news.

How to use this file:

Download the .opml file from the chat.
Open your RSS reader of choice.
Look for “Import” or “Import OPML” in the settings or sidebar.
Upload the file, and your reader will automatically subscribe to all these sources at once.

If you’d like to add or remove any specific sources, just let me know!

*******

Here is the content of the OPML file.

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>

<head>

<title>Unbiased U.S. National News Feeds</title>

</head>

<body>

</outline>

</body>

</opml>

If you want, you can copy and paste the OPML content that appears here. Save it as a text file ending in .opml – e.g., balancednews.opml. If you are already an RSS reader user or want to try one of the tools I listed above, all you need to do is import this source, and you will be following the news sites I follow.

To complete the process, here is what I would do with my reader.

Current offers several ways to add sources. In the image above, my existing sources appear (all education blogs). At the bottom, there is an Import OPML button that allows the AI-created OPML file to be uploaded.

Summary

It seems reasonable given the politicization of news to exercise greater control of the content each of us consumes. News organizations seem less independent. The RSS reader approach allows this control if the sources identified by AI meet the requirements I specified. Hopefully, the description offered here are sufficient to give others what is needed to duplicate my approach.

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