Looking for more posters and sources.

Martin's recent "hello," reminding us that he sometimes feels alone, reflects the vacuum posters can feel on this board. The response said readers appreciate what they're finding here but don't necessarily feel the need or the permission to post anything in response. I think that if more people were finding and posting information, the isolation the primary posters feel might be somewhat abated.

That doesn't mean I think we should necessarily chase after the same stories in an effort to post them first. Instead, I believe we're totally missing much that is happening because not enough of us are covering even a fraction of the possible sources that exist. For example, on another thread I mentioned I go to World Wires on a daily basis to look at international feeds for breaking stories. In addition to the world wires, the site has links to wires in several different countries, most of which I don't have time to go to. If anyone reading the board cares to take on the daily task of monitoring these other sites, I would be more than happy to see that happen.

I'm convinced that local newspapers do the best job of covering local events. Thus, for example, when I hear on radio or tv that a water problem has occurred in a certain place, I try to find the newspapers there for the stories closest to the source. For stories in the US, one good site is AP Wires because it has a long list of online newspapers.

So far, I have found Canoe to be the best source for Canadian news. I would dearly love to locate a site similar to AP Wires for the Canadian press, for British press, etc. Does anyone here know if they exist and, if so, their links?

As an aside, I've followed with interest the articles posted here about the 700,000 Chinese troops in Sudan--world wires have had no mention of this story. In fact, the only somewhat-related story I have found recently about Sudan is that some of their journalists are being jailed for daring to write about corruption in government. Guess they won't be writing about troop invasions any time soon....

How about it? Do any readers here care to help me build a list of good "close to the event" sources and/or contribute to monitoring them?

BTW, Martin, Dee, and Spider, I think your skills and your sources are just phenomenal. Keep up the good work!

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), August 28, 2000