How do you find out about breaking news?

If I want to know what's happening in B. Spears life, I will watch cable news. If I want to know the latest headlines, I'll surf my bookmarked on-line news sites.

Last few breaking news stories I paid attention to...

I heard about recent sewage spills in the SF Bay via KQED's morning radio news show. We have a radio alarm, so I'll often hear about things this way. I didn't go anywhere in particular to follow up after hearing it. Same for the Cosco Busan oil spill - heard about it on the radio, talked to people at work when I got in later that day.

Sheldon Brown's passing was related through the grapevine: a friend told me after he heard about it via e-mail. The first place I went to read more was Metafilter.com, because I assumed that such a story (fairly niche, of interest primarily to web-heads who ride bikes) would be discussed there.

Primary election coverage was something that I was intentionally following, so I cycled through SFGate.com (local "paper") and NYTimes.com during the afternoon and evening of the 5th to get information. I'm also a heavy user of RSS feeds, and generally rely on my subscription to Andrew Sullivan's site for election-related news due to his thorough coverage.

I follow most of my Oakland, CA news by subscribing to an RSS feed of the keyword "Oakland" from Google News. It results in a flood of A's / Raiders stories that I don't care for, and content from other places named Oakland around the country, but it's been a reasonable way to stay on top of local development news and breathless crime reporting from the Oakland Tribune.

Although I didn't particularly follow the San Francisco Zoo tiger attack story, I was impressed with the Chronicle's dedicated topic page (http://www.sfgate.com/tigerattack/), which boasts an excellent URL and an exhaustive summary of their coverage. I don't know why it lacks an RSS feed.

Lately, I'm hearing about most of my political news via The Daily Show, and find this embarrassing.

Twitter seems like it would be an ideal channel for news stories.

When I initially discover a breaking news story, it always is on the cnn or msnbc site within minutes of it breaking.  If it is something I am interested in I google it and find where if anywhere it is mentioned.  If not mentioned I tag the url enter it into my tracking system so when anything mentions it I am alerted and can investigate - I never utilize rss.

If it isn't covered by CNN I seldom trust the media and will turn to any of my numerous news groups for someone in the area to get to the truth, if it is available.

The web offers a more comprehensive coverage that can be replayed for clarity; offers indepth analysis often immediately; offers diverse coverage.  I seldom turn to the printed page.  No longer turn to Newsweek or Time Magazine as they are no longer reliable.  There was a time they presented unbiased news, no longer.  CNN is the uncontestible truth spreader.

MSNBC proved itself with the Ismus employee and it's acknowledged historic practices.  I always double check any and everything covered by this group.  If MSNBC breaks a story I immediately turn to CNN on the web and the tv TO VERIFY the information.  Some of MSNBC's writers are much better and on occassion I return to MSNBC for that reason, for a different qualified view point.

For those who are avid followers of current affairs, as I am, generally it might be in following order:

[a] Set home page - like I have mine set on Google News, so the moment I load my browser, it comes up with at least some recent news.

[b] Once home page loaded, go and quickly check out headlines at CNN.com; Washingtonpost.com; NYTimes.com, and MSNBC.com. This 2 minute tour throws up any breaking kind of news that I would like to follow.

[c] Email alerts - Breaking news alerts on email - from politico.com, Reuters, etc. These alerts pop up as I work on my computer, and I go check them out.

Mostly I come to know of breaking kind of news via the Net or emails. To learn more, one turns to Google News (sorted by date); CNN, NY Times, MSNBC and Wash Post web sites.

I go to CNN, MSN, and Yahoo.  I watch Chris Mathews, Keith Olbermann, and Tucker.  If I am on a newsite that uses those pop-ups that fly around or get in the way of the text, I don't bother with that story and I don't even look at the product, so those advertisers are wasting teir money on me.

I don't want updates emailed to me.  I have enough in my inbox as it is.  I do like the way CNN.com is continously updating their stories, and check them more than MSn.  (Don't shoot me, I like both.)  I don't care about celebrities and wish all of you would stop with them.  They are not worth the attention, even that train wreck Spears family.

I just found out about David Shuster on Yahoo, and I like that guy.  Don't be to hard on him, the Clinton's are just over-reacting for publicity.  

GO Shustermann!!!

I go to MSNBC first and formost! It is the best.
CNN is a SOMETIMES second.
Then I go to my local news station WCVB in Boston.
Then I go to MSNBC on cable.
After that FOX, then SOMETIMES I go to CNN.

MSNBC sends me breaking news emails..and there very quick..sometimes it's just a heads up, but if there's something I want to know about at greater depth, I will go to this website. Since your on top of it, the only news may be the headline.

I usually hear about breaking news on the TV or on BBC news online.  MSNBC doesn't have much news on its front page, you have to go to other pages to find any news and it takes a while to load all of those darned advertisements.  Also, your front page realoads itself every three minutes or so.  On a dial-up connection that slows down the loading of other pages that really have news on them.

Breaking news comes first and foremost directly from the New York Post or New York Times. MSNBC is the last place to watch for news as their attack dogs are too busy trying to be funny rather than serious reporters.

It depends on where I am when I hear the breaking news. If I hear it at work, I go to the Fox web site and read about the details when I get a chance. If I am too busy at the time, I wait until I get home and then I watch it on Fox and then read the Fox web page. I also compare the story to MSNBC. Between the two, i get a good idea of what has happened.

The one thing I don't do about reading breaking news on MSNBC.com is go to the comments section of the stories to read feedback on the story because MSNBC doesn't link your stories directly to a comments board like ABC or NBC. It's very helpful to be able to respond positively or vent negatively about news stories.

I find out about breaking news depending on where I am.  If I'm away from the PC (rare), I'll hear about it on TV (if in the living room), or on the radio (in the car), if I'm on-line but not browsing the web, just about every news station I've ever visited starts sending me 'breaking news e-mail alerts' about 15 minutes after a story breaks, and that'll usually get me to learn more about a story (I too, often use google news when I don't know where else to look for details).  I seem to like the msnbc method of breaking news when it happens the best, which is this:  Whatever page you happen to be browsing on msnbc suddenly has a big bright red background with white text that says "BREAKING NEWS:..."-- I also like the color coding they do for different types of story which again display on all pages not just the front page.

MSNBC's web site is the best for reliable information.  I don't trust CNN (they recently criticized an msnbc reproter for upsetting a politician, cnn opts to give the politicians what they want, and that's not news, there's another word for that kind of coverage).

These days, I usually see someone post about it on Twitter, then I head to msnbc.msn.com to get details.

Most all of my news alerts come via messenger from MSNBC and immediately go there as it is my homepage anyways.However,I do have one beef that I doubt I'll get any response to in the positive.When it comes to news and weather,the world doesn't stop at the 49th parallel.An entire country full of news above there.Belong to MSN/MSNBC for all things

My first source for breaking news is MSNBC via MSN home page.
I usually follow the story on MSNBC as far as it goes, then, if it is important (to me), I go to the BBC news web site for their spin on it.
That is all that I usually do, unless it is Really important, then I go to live coverage on streaming TV (CNN, FOX, or a local station close to the action).
Thanks for all of your good work on MSNBC news.  It is good to have the information available.

MATT DRUDGE!!!

I, generally speaking, get e-mail updates from CNN regarding breaking news.  I frequent Digg throughout the day and generally hear about most of the stories that seem to fall through the cracks elsewhere.

MSNBC is my homepage and is the main "major" news outlet that I visit with CNN falling into second.

I get breaking news on my "Verizon Yahoo" homepage. I would like an additional selection added to my news catagory containing breaking news from msnbc.

my mobile. i have signed up for several news services (CNN mobile) and reuters. I am first alerted by my cell phone, and than i go online.

CNN tells me and then i check MSNBC. I never check CNN online - I am only MSNBC but only after CNN Alerts me via mobile.

Huffpo is one place for breaking news: my iGoogle page has a whole bunch of news sources. Democratic Underground is a good place for follow-up info

Foxnews is actually a great resource though their opinion pieces are always fluff.

Political news: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart! When I saw Fahrenheit 911, it was like watching a best-off clip show from the Daily Show: they already had broadcast almost everything in the film (the parts with Cheney and Bush, being the empirical war mongers)

Breaking News.....hey, what's that ?  Paris Hilton getting out of jail ?  No way I'd want to miss that.  Kobe Bryant stepping out of a van in front of a courthouse in Colorado ?  Wow, that's really interesting.  Such riveting television.  Thank God for the OFF button on the remote.    

My breaking news comes from many sources into my email account and phone text messages, though I wouldn't consider all the news I get... "breaking".

My home page is MSNBC, but I never open videos on the page because I hate waiting around for a commercial. I also watch NBC News and listen to NPR.

I go to Yahoo first, then CNN because they have a poll question I like to answer, then MSNBC.

I either got to MSNBC online for news and gossipy or to TV for latest weather in our area as the weather channel has a chart over our spot on its channel when showing radar, etc.so we never get a good reading from them....strange huh, you would think a weather channel would depict the entire state area, on screen but they dont.