Newsy?

     I stumbled across a cable news network that I had not heard of before: Newsy. It was tucked in a part of the channel guide I rarely frequent. It is surrounded, oddly, by Christian ministry channels just below the series of movie channels I frequently peruse.
     I thought it was a kind of an odd name for a cable channel, and as I was feeling kind of newsy, I decided to watch it for a bit. I did not know what to expect. If anything, my expectations were on the low side because the name of the network did not sound serious.
     My first reaction, after a few minutes of watching, was that Newsy seemed to be unbiased. Believe me, this assessment did not involve any serious analysis. It is was a quick judgement relative to my other news sources. I listen to Morning Edition from NPR on my morning drive to work and whatever is on NPR when I drive back home. When I am home in the mornings, I tend to watch MSNBC’s Morning Joe. I read the Wall Street Journal six days a week and The New York Times on Sunday. The only magazine I read is The New Yorker. So, I have a mix of conservative, centrist, and liberal news sources.
     I am watching Newsy while I am typing this. This is only the second time I am watching it. Their evening news magazine, called The Why, is airing now. At this moment, they are doing an in-depth piece on Venezuela. It seems their President Nicolas Madura is in Istanbul. He is shown smoking cigars and eating steak and Newsy is reporting that this is not sitting well with his people who are, literally, starving. They contrasted Venezuela to Cuba as they are both Caribbean socialist countries. It was a fascinating comparison that again seemed amazingly unbiased. They then provided the history of how Venezuela went from an oil rich democracy to poverty ridden socialist dictatorship that has the country past the brink of collapse. The coverage was, maybe, fifteen minutes long and was very well done. The Why airs for two hours every evening.
     I did a google search on Newsy and learned the following:

• Newsy was founded in 2008
• Bought for $35M in 2014 by E. W. Scripps Company, a media company based in Cincinnati with $865M in sales in 2017
• The slogan is: Be informed, not influenced
• Newsy is not even mentioned in websites and articles that track cable news ratings. 
• In 2017, Scripps bought Retirement Living Television and rebranded it as Newsy making it available in 26 Million homes
• Website: www.newsy.com

     Per Wikipedia:

Newsy was founded in 2008 on the premise of creating quality video journalism that was easily digestible on mobile devices and the web.[2] In its early years, Newsy operated primarily as a syndication business, selling news and original content to major digital journalism brands that included AOL/Huffington Post, Microsoft and Mashable. Since being acquired by E.W. Scripps, Newsy has become the national news brand focused on delivering news to millennials and Gen X consumers.

     Per Tubefilter.com

“Newsy has already made a name for itself among millennial news consumers who rely on over-the- top television. Now we’ll be reaching Americans with cable and satellite service who are looking for a fresh approach to news coverage,” said Adam Symson, president and CEO of Scripps, in a press release. “This expanded reach for our advertising business alongside carriage fees furthers our strategy to develop Newsy as a prominent multi-platform news network with dual revenue streams.”

     I am thinking, seriously, of making Newsy my TV news source. My go-to source had been MSNBC’s Morning Joe with my morning joe. But, frankly, the liberal perspective has just become a Trump bashing platform. I found Newsy kind of refreshing. Are they truly unbiased? Compared to MSNBC and Fox News, I would have to say yes.

     While I think they are unbiased, a poll I found considers them "slightly" left of center.  But, the polling site is "slightly" right of center.  So, if "Least Biased" is number 2 on this least, I stand by my view.