A question for my faithful readers to ponder...

But unfaithful ones are welcome too!

With the recent local blog coverage of Friday's Louise Smith v. Bill Reddish knock-down drag-out on WICO-AM, it's made me realize that for a growing number of people the blogs are getting to become their number one or number two news source. And with the multiple outlets giving either primary or secondary coverage (in other words, the interview would be considered primary and commentary by bloggers or readers secondary) we begin to see a situation where multiple sources may start competing for a limited amount of time.

And so it is that I run into the situation I'm beginning to foresee for myself. Because I have no desire to lead a hermitic lifestyle and sit around all the time on the internet, I find it harder and harder to find time to read all of the blogs on my formerly manageable bloglist. For example, there's 28 blogs in the Maryland Bloggers Alliance now. It's like I have to do a triage now and go to just the ones that regularly update themselves and present good, timely information. In addition, there are the mainstream news sources out there and they are still of great importance.

So I'm curious to see what my readers think. It's a situation where a poll won't quite do, so this amounts to almost an open thread for comments that I'll attempt to moderate on a pretty regular basis given my schedule.

Before the internet and prior to me moving here, I used to subscribe to my local small-town newspaper. On the average I'd say it took me a half-hour to read a weekday paper, more like an hour for a Sunday edition.

So given those time frames, here's my question:

If you have a half-hour daily to read the blogs and other mainstream news sources most important to you - which ones do you read and why?

Obviously since you're here reading the question I don't count in this case. I have my own answers as well, which I think will be a follow-up and summary post this time next week. Meanwhile, I'm going to spend my time culling my own "favorites" list so I can make better use of my valuable time.