I think, if you were to do any real research, you would have to stick to journals and magazines that are open to to the body of peer reviewing. I know it would be a lot of work, but really, if you want to get educated, you go to a university library (whether online or not) and just look through their catalog and read up something written by someone who knows what they are talking about. These are the sources that serve as the basis for any real intellectual debate (at least the majority of the basis).
The best thing you can do is find information that is free of editorializing and provides QUICK and EASY access to the information it quotes (as a method for people to check its legitimacy). Any REAL paper will provide this information readily and in great detail.
I find that the problem with most people (not just americans at all) is that there is SO MUCH information out there, that the task of looking at it all and making your OWN decision about it is simply too hard. People settle for some degree of having someone else tell them what to think. The process is simply masked in one way or another. Many news stations will simply pick and choose which information is important for their viewers to see, thereby (whether knowingly or not) shaping their views on the subjects discussed. FOX is a perfect example of this, though they also editorialize like crazy. Even in interviews from the news team itself, most times the questions asked by reporters or the topics discussed will prevent anything that might piss off their viewers from being said. I have even seen anchors cut off the people they are interviewing to prevent them from further explaining a "distasteful" idea.
---------- Post added at 08:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:14 AM ----------
Infowars is theh right set up, possibly, but it is completely biased and unverifiable. You could never use that site as a source of primary information in a paper about anything in the world except for maybe a paper about news sites.
Really the best way to check the legitimacy of a source is to ask yourself "Could I use this information in a research paper and not have my teacher jumping on me for it's illegitimacy, and if so, how would i even cite it?" I know it MAY seem drastic, but it really isn't, at all.
ya 
