The Neutral Site is something long overdue. While conceptual ideas have come before, many were volunteer efforts or ran out of funding and unable to continue to maintain bandwidth. This time, it’s a fully-unbiased-funded project that showcases there are more than two sides to every story.
While there is original journalism included, every story comes complete with traditionally Left, Right and Center stories to give readers a balanced overview on topical stories. The business model for The Neutral Site is different from traditional journalism as it does not rely on advertisements, page takeovers of popups. It creates an easy reading experience without interruptions. Powered on the backend by Turbine Labs, an A.I. listening platform, Leigh Fatzinger, company founder is passionate about assisting journalism and showcasing the power of combining artificial intelligence and human creation.
I look forward to watching the evolution of this site and their upcoming journalism partnerships (including the hiring of many out-of-work journalists) and efforts to support smaller outlets and publications with organic traffic and community.
If I know anything about this team, it is that their hearts are in the right place and they love constructive feedback. Let’s focus on something positive together and see how we can work to reduce misinformation and rumors and eliminate information overload.
@prsarahevans This is awesome -- something SO needed. I'm always struggling to know which major news sites to go to to get unbiased info. Thanks for this!
@prsarahevans@kairi_thornton Kari - thanks so much for the feedback. I would love to hear what you think of the formatting of the stories on the site. Feel free to reach out to me on PH, or you can DM me on Twitter @lfatzinger.
Hi Product Hunt community. Long time listener, first time caller here and both excited and nervous to share something our team has been working hard to bring to life.
I’d love to introduce you to “The Neutral,” an A.I. powered unbiased news site that includes original journalism, offers multi-sided views with the hope of driving views, engagement and more back to original news sources.
For every upvote received in the next 24 hours, The Neutral will donate $1 to the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and the Online News Association (split equally).
In answering @prsarahevans question... The Neutral was created to do a few things:
-->Eliminate information overload
-->Remove bias and offer multiple views
-->Give access to news sites not often mention in mainstream media
-->Drive traffic, views and engagement to original news sources
This has been a labor of love with many resources used from our core company and we believe the site will be a great resource and space for access to current events, viral moments and expose readers to content they might not otherwise see. We use a combination of design, A.I., journalism and psychology that allows readers to consider contradicting views they might not have otherwise been able to actually “see.”
Unlike similar concepts in the past, The Neutral Site has a dedicated staff and resources to ensure content is populated daily and will not become stale and stagnant.
We also offer readers a chance to quickly click and share their personal point of view so we can anonymously track (and never use or sell) where sentiments lie around various issues. While A.I. will power the trends and breaking news and multi-sided support, it still relies on real humans to pull everything together and make it an actual source of news.
When readers share a link to social from The Neutral Site, they’re not just sharing our content, they’re sharing at least two sides to every story. That means an opportunity to showcase unbiased news and an opportunity to drive more traffic back to original news sources.
I’ll be available all day (and then some) to answer your questions, listen to ideas and suggestions and do what we can to truly make this the best source of unbiased news possible.
Here’s to telling more than two sides to every story,
Leigh
The Neutral is something we've all been craving. I get get multiple perspectives in ONE place now. I love that there is AI technology backed with an actual journalist so I know that I am receiving unbiased facts.
Finally a news source that truly cares about journalism and will report balanced and objective news, so I'm able to form my own opinions. This is so important, NOW more than ever!
@cortesnick Nick - Thanks so much for giving us a look. I promise we will do our best to exceed your expectations. Please feel free to message me directly with any feedback.
@skellskellskell Michael - Great to hear. Our goal is to continually exceed your expectations. With every story. Please feel free to reach out to me directly with any comments or suggestions.
At first glance, my first response is WOW! What a needed resource for news. I am so sick of not being able to know what the facts are these days. Thank you!
@jennifer_miller2 Jennifer - greatly appreciate your initial feedback. My number one goal is to make sure we earn the same response every time you visit the site. Please feel free to message me directly with any suggestions or feedback.
I need fast reads and have a subset of sources I reference daily -- this is now top of the pack: @morningbrew_, Ad Week, Shelly Palmer, The Information and a host of other sources.
Finding unbiased, fact-checked content might be more a challenge than finding the needle in a haystack these days, here is a resource that not only solves this problem, but does it WELL.
I’ve long been disenchanted by traditional news sources, to the point where I’ve been tempted to tune out completely. But decision-makers can’t afford to do so. Thank you for addressing a huge need in this space. I welcome objective information in an easy to digest format. Well done!
This certainly isn't the first news site to launch promising to solve the bias and overload in the news - but I'm very impressed by what I've seen of the team and execution.
In particular, the fact that Turbine Labs' main financial incentive is to prove that it can deliver accurate, unbiased information to businesses means it's a lot more likely that The Neutral will stand a chance of living up to its name 🙌
I just wanted to pop back in and say thank you to everyone who upvoted today. Love sharing new finds and, of course, checking in here, daily, for the awesome hunts posted by others.
It so disappointing for me to see this product coming out in 2020. This beloved idea of neutral journalism needs to be crushed, not further cemented.
Jay Rosen, Lewis Raven Wallace and Rob Wijnberg have the right ideas to go forward.
@johrich72 Johann - I feel exactly the same way you do, and I think you'll see we're taking a vastly different approach. Each story on The Neutral is divided into three sections. The first offers a "lowest common denominator" view of the facts of a topic. Then our platform selects as many as four stories from opposing perspectives - linking back to the original news site. So you could see a story from the National Review adjacent to a story from Huffington Post (if they have opposing perspectives). Then we offer influencer statements using the same criteria. Go ahead and test us. I'd love to get your feedback, so send me a DM after you've had the chance to read a couple of stories.
Can you please give me your thoughts on Chomsky & Herman's Manufacturing Consent? Or Paulo Freire's assertion that education (hence journalism) is never politically neutral, it is a means to direct liberation or oppression (Pedagogy of the Oppressed). Or a contemporary acknowledgement of McClure's Magazine and muckraking journalism? Journalism ain't neutral, it is a mistake to think otherwise.
@ravi_bajnath Ravi. I agree with you completely. At the single story level, there's no neutrality. Biases are built into every human - and every journalist. Which is why we're taking vastly different approach. Each story on The Neutral is divided into three sections. The first offers a "lowest common denominator" view of the facts of a topic. Then our platform selects as many as four stories from opposing perspectives - linking back to the original news site. So you could see a story from The Federalist adjacent to a story from Salon (if they have opposing perspectives). Then we offer influencer statements using the same criteria. Please take in a few stories and test our methodology. I'd love to get your feedback, so send me a DM if you'd like to discuss.
@lfatzinger Hi Leigh, thanks for following up. I asked a human question and I got an answering machine. What happened to my questions?
As I pointed out, Journalism and Education can never be neutral, it is always politically motivated. Objectivity implies 100% transparency of the editorial curation and democracy amongst its consumers (Louis Brandeis "Sunshine is the best disinfectant, electric light is the best policeman"), would that be possible for this product? Sociology 101 - Media A.I. products are inherently weaponized to manufacture ontology (consent of the governed), which is why ethics in product making must be prioritized, this is not a neutral Product. As far as DMs, I would like to keep it public, granted that the data, informal or formal, is exchanged with partners either way.
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