A while ago (when the Abu Ghraib prison stuff was going on) I compared websites five major news sources: CNN, Fox News, Al Jazeera, BBC, and CBC.
CNN = BBC = Al Jazeera -- all pretty much the same stuff and the same tone.
CBC desensationalized things a little--while the above three went into explicit details on torture positions, CBC kept the gory details to a minimum and focused on the political fallout and implications.
Fox News had the same stuff as the first three, and in addition either had more information from military sources, or else they were the only ones who felt it was relevant to list by name every single Staff Seargeant who was being reprimanded over the incident.
If you specifically want to avoid sensationalism, I'd say CBC is your best bet. If you really want to understand a story, check multiple sources (and notably, check multiple sources that aren't just using the plain Associated Press feed--I know I've checked 10 smaller American news stations only to realize the story is word-for-word identical because they're just posting the Associated Press report). If you don't want to check the story in four places...there's several good news sources that all tend to report the same stuff (CNN, Al Jazeera etc).