AllSides tends to attract some of the most rational thinkers around: people who want to see all sides of something before drawing a conclusion about it.

Does that sound like you? If so, you might get pretty annoyed at people who take a strong view that seems ill-informed.

The next time time you feel angry at someone who is loudly proclaiming a nonsensical viewpoint, let yourself feel affirmed by this fact: though that person thinks their opinion makes perfect sense, opinions are rarely rational.

As 2012 comes to a close, some media watchdogs on the right and left have been announcing awards, but these are not the kinds of awards you want to win. 

Award from the Right

On the right, media watchdog Media Research Center has a whole page of awards. Here's a highlight: 

We applaud media watchdogs for their investigative journalism and for publishing bias news that goes unmentioned in mainstream news.

But who watches the watchdogs? After all, it’s only natural that watchdogs have their own bias.

At AllSides, we say bias is not a problem as long as it’s transparent and we can see more than one viewpoint at once. That’s why we’ll periodically highlight stories from different watchdog viewpoints.

The political polarization of Americans is reaching new heights, and the Internet is making it worse. How did we end up so divided and is there anything we can do about it? 

Polarization has been exacerbated by what I call the “Internet brain”. It goes beyond a mere fad--it's more fundamental, even physiological.

Here is what’s happening…

How we get information trains our brains to think in different ways

The written word encourages logical, linear thinking: There is a past and a present that leads to a future. 

Had to share this awesome photo. Yes, we can disagree and not only be civil with each other but be friends. It's a core part of AllSides, and beautiful too see on these front lawns.

Looking at the Presidential endorsements of the top 100 newspapers, we see that they generally stuck with their reputation, but there were a few changes and surprises.

It is natural and expected that different news agencies choose different stories to cover and have different perspectives. For this Presidential campaign, a current example is in the coverage of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the Obama administration’s response.

In the last presidential debate before the election, “the candidates again contradicted each other, while each offered incorrect or twisted factual claims,” according to FactCheck.org.

And, once again, headlines from different sources made each candidate look like a winner or loser, depending on the news source bias. 

In AllSides' quest to help you cut through the ultra-partisan rhetoric and 24-hour news cycle noise, we've got something new for you this week. It just might help you decide who to vote for for president too. 

New things you can do on AllSides 

Select an issue you care about...

Energy policy, gas prices, women, Libya, taxes, and jobs: these are tricky topics from last night’s presidential debate that continue to be debated by all sides of the media today.

In fact, there is even a bit of debate over who won.

See what you think. We'll start with news from the Left since we started with the Right last time in 15 Headlines from the VP Debate.