News & Newspapers

Library article databases provide you with complete articles from numerous news publications for free.

Get your free access to credible news sources through Library & Learning Center institutional subscriptions. Digital versions of these newspapers are available to you free of charge as an MJC student, staff, or faculty member. 

You can use these sources here or find them listed alphabetically by name on our  Articles & Databases page.

The New York Times

• Use these instructions to access your free MJC account with The New York Times. 

The Wall Street Journal

• Create account here. Note: You will be prompted to first  enter your MJC single sign-on credentials, after which you can create the account. 

The Atlantic

• To learn how to sign-in and to download The Atlantic app, follow these instructions. 

The Modesto Bee

•  Free access to the digital (daily) Modesto Bee
•  Free digital access to the print version of the Modesto Bee (This version looks like the print paper you get at home on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday) 

Many newspapers provide their most current content freely on their Web sites. They do, however, charge for archival materials.

California News

National News

Beware of These Trust Busters

If you spot any of these problems, look elsewhere for credible news.

False or untrue content:

• Publishing a demonstrably false claim without correcting it.

Clickbait tactics:

• "Baiting” you with sensationalized language, including misleading or exaggerated headlines, or headlines that are purposely vague to drive clicks.

Lack of balance:

• Consistently focusing on one angle or side of a legitimate debate or controversy, while ignoring or distorting other perspectives.

Manipulated images or videos

• Tip: You can do a reverse image search using and (among other tools) to see if visuals have been misrepresented or altered in some way.

State-run or state-sponsored propaganda

• Using government- controlled news organizations to further national agendas and improve public image

Dangerous, offensive and malicious content

• Could include discriminatory language, unverified pseudoscience, content that promotes violence or coverage that — as the SPJ Code of Ethics states — panders “to lurid curiosity."

"Is It Legit? Five Steps for Vetting a News Source." News Literacy Project, newslit.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IsItLegit_infographic.pdf. Accessed 16 Nov. 2023. 

To find out more about an author: 

Google the author's name or dig deeper in the library's biographical databases.

To evaluate internet sources: 

The internet is a great place to find both scholarly and popular sources, but it's especially important to ask questions about authorship and publication when you're evaluating online resources. If it's unclear who exactly created or published certain works online, look for About pages on the site for more information about the authorship, or search for exact quotations from the text in Google (using quotation marks) to see if you can find other places where the work has been published.

To see what others say about your source, use lateral reading:

While applying the CRAAP Test to a website, that site isn't always the best place to answer questions concerning authority, accuracy, and point of view about itself. You can not always trust what an author or organization says about themselves, and there are sites that may look very professional and credible that are actually promoting a certain agenda or viewpoint. 

If you are unfamiliar with a online source, it is good practice to open a new tab and perform a search on the author and/or organization providing the source. This process is called Lateral Reading. In addition to reading "down" the webpage in order to evaluate it, you open additional tabs and read "across" multiple pages to determine what others are saying about your potential source. This helps you build the body of evidence needed to determine if the source is suitable for your research need or not.