^^I am not sure that reading other state controlled media outlets is an improvement over the MSM in this country^^

Totally get where you’re coming from! The advantage the sources I mentioned, and really diving into them to understand their perspectives, is that it can help balance out the narratives we hear all the time. Our media (both right and left and everywhere else) do amplify stories between each other more than we realize, until we read truly outside sources, and the we realize we're in a giant echo chamber and were just concentrating on various different minor echos.

^^ Is there a reason you left Aljazeera off of your list? ^^

Good question. Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language content does get significant funding from the Qatari government, so that sounds like a good sign as we'd get its perspective to align with Qatar’s goals, often pushing back against rivals like Saudi Arabia. But and this is a big bit, its English-language side, Al Jazeera English, launched in 2006, is almost like a separate outfit. Unlike the sources I listed, which have truly non-Western editors, AJE hires folks like former BBC journalists who bring a Western-style investigative vibe. It's designed to connect with global audiences, including in the West, and focuses on storytelling and covering regions that don’t always get the spotlight..