The news: explained and relevant

I am not easily impressed by news sites, particularly South African ones. Noseweek is terrific, but too narrow. The Mail and Guardian has good cartoons, but often fails to explain what is going on. The Times is interesting, but the quality is a bit dodgy: too high on the hype, too low on the content. And I used to work for The Star, so I know what goes on in news rooms.
Sarah Palin gave the word "maverick" a bad name, along with "hockey moms". This is a pity, because The Daily Maverick is a great news site. I first discovered them on Google news when The Star published a front page lead on the lifestyle of Julius "fork and knife" Malema. Their analysis and subsequent follow up stories were timeous, relevant and well written. Usually you get to choose only 2 out of 3.
Today I wanted to find out how well "Invictus" and "District 9" did at the Oscars. Not too well, but the Daily Maverick did a good job of explaining what did happen without all the breathless gushing and irrelevant waffle that usually characterises Oscar stories. This is definitely a site worth adding to your daily news reading.