It seems like the goal is to become more familiar with the viewpoint and arguments from another side of the left/right divide in American politics...? This is a noble aim. There's a good idea behind this challenge, though I'm not entirely sold yet. I've done things like this, and mostly just gotten frustrated at the end.
I might suggest this, if for no other reason than discussion: part of the problem is being captive to the news cycle.
Let me explain: Left and Right have different takes on roughly the same set of events, and rev up their respective media outlets in response to whatever is "going on," in attempt to earn persuasive capitol for their ideology. The interpretation of a data point will in general come from the philosophy. At best, each outlet has an honest interpretation of what happened, at worst - it's media "spin" and "propaganda." I suggest that well meaning news-cycle newsmedia of all ideological stripes tend to fall prey to confirmation bias, as the data can easily be spun to mean whatever you already wanted it to mean. Trump could tweet the letter "b" (nothing else) and... I can only imagine what narratives each side would invent in explanation.
Now perhaps that's all fair play in a cultural battle between "left" and "right." (relative terms that don't seem very helpful to me at all... as if a "center" compromise was somehow the correct resolution of a given issue). But being beholden to the outrage machines of either left or right sides in a conflict seems to me to be very unhelpful.
I'm a social, economic, and political conservative, but I cannot stand fox news. Even if I might agree with them on a point, it's too caustic, and feels too much like an outrage machine. I can't stand CNN, ABC, or MSNBC either, for the same reasons, though they're coming from another ideology. This is partly because of an obvious bias to the information AS presented, and the information SELECTED TO BE presented. (NPR is much more palatable in tone, but seems to present things from an overly progressive viewpoint so I don't spend a ton of time there anymore).
I despair of finding an unbiased news source. Media outlets are biased from the start, because they predetermine which sorts of stories to look for, then in gathering data to report, they select those data points that fit the narratives they want to push. Even well meaning reporters do this, since "reporting the news" implies a perspective as to which events are "newsworthy." Getting news from the internet is also suspect, as social media is curated by algorithms... either Zuckerburg's algorithm selects the newsworthy items, or you've disabled that and created an echo chamber for yourself. Either way, it's not helpful.
For a challenge I'll give this: listen to MainStreamMedia sources only insofar as you're looking to compare/contrast what data was selected as newsworthy, and to what extent the data was selected. FOX/MSNBC is probably a decent pairing for tv, (though maybe ask someone who uses that media regularly). ... not in terms of tone or intent, but simply for "what counts as news."
Or better yet: go after think pieces. Not the events themselves, but the philosophy behind them. You're finding someone you know has an opinion that differs, so they're seeing the world in a different way. MSM is a terrible place to hear reasoned arguments, because that's not what the medium is for. I'm not a conservative because of some event that happened in a news cycle when I was 18 years old, or because one particular news outlet told me how to think about Comey. You're not a progressive because of Harambe, Trump, or Obama - at the root of it, political leanings ought to follow the principles we hold dear to our hearts... with or without the propagandized maelstrom of a news cycle.
The renaissance and reformation period of history had a phrase that seems appropriate here. "Ad Fontes" means "to the sources" ...that is, go to the source documents to learn what they really said. Don't rely on commentaries about commentaries about the original events ... just go find the thing yourself. Want to know about Comey? Find to the original audio/transcipts of the hearings. Want to know about a bill? Read the text of the bill yourself, or watch the congressional events on C-SPAN. Read SCOTUSblog to get texts of actual debate between justices.
More to the point, if you want to know what conservatives think or why, stop writing off conservatives as racist, homophobic, sexist, greedy ignoramuses. The charge is probably true of some of us, the same way that other negative charges are true of some-but-not-nearly-all progressives. If you were paying attention to the latest US election cycle, you'll notice that both major parties weren't exactly united and confident in a particular candidate. What factions among the american political parties could you respect, even if you don't like everything they stand for? How would you even know, if you're going to write everyone off in black and white terms?
So forget MSM. It's a big, lame shell game with far too much incentive to spin things for political gain. You're smart enough - go read some of this and let's report back on the ideas. Find a piece here if you're conservative-curious. I can't vouch for what portion of red states they represent, and I have no intention of convincing anyone of anything. They are all conservative sites. I don't agree with any of these all the time, and you don't have to agree with any of it at all. This is a field trip, to see if we can seriously engage ideas. For the sake of good discourse, let's stop arguing about the shadows on the wall of the news cycle, and get out into the sunshine of the ideas driving people to react the way they do.
http://thefederalist.com/
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/
http://www.heritage.org/
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/
http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/
https://www.prageru.com/ <---good for "explain it to me like I'm five" concept videos
https://fee.org/
https://home.isi.org/
If I were to try to check out "left leaning" analogues of these, where would I go?
Safe space for right wing Conservatives
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