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Newspaper Nicknames: The Good, the Bad and the Scatological (FR Mentioned)
Poynter Online ^ | October 28, 2003 | Chip Scanlon

Posted on 10/28/2003 11:48:34 AM PST by Timesink

Poynteronline
Posted, Oct. 28, 2003
Updated, Oct. 28, 2003


Newspaper Nicknames: The Good, the Bad and the Scatological

By Chip Scanlan (more by author)



I began my newspaper career at The Milford Shitizen.

After several years toiling for small community newspapers, I finally hit the big time. I landed a reporting job with a major metropolitan daily, the Providence Urinal.

After eight years, I moved on again — this time to sunny Florida and the staff of the St. Petersburg Pravda.

Most newspapers have another identity, usually a pejorative one, in addition to the one gracing the front page nameplate.

Sometimes they're an inside joke, the play on words providing an escape valve for staff frustration.

But in my experience, the source of a nasty nickname is more than likely customer-based -- disaffected readers and viewers who christen their local news organs with monikers selected to highlight perceived journalistic failings.

Consider the recent posting on FreeRepublic.com, which bills itself as a "Conservative News Forum."

To bash St. Petersburg Times columnist Willliam Maxwell, a poster named "dawn53" trotted out a familiar nickname for my old paper, the publication that lands at my door every morning, the one owned, it should be noted, by The Poynter Institute which depends on its success to fulfill our mission "to teach and inspire journalists and media leaders." 

That Maxwell is a liberal is an understatement. He writes for one of the most liberal papers in the country, the St. Petersburg Pravda (Times).
Renaming newspapers is a national pastime. (I imagine a similar tradition exists in broadcast news.) Witness this admittedly incomplete litany gleaned from an informal survey of reporters and editors gathered last week for a Poynter seminar:

The Dallas Morning Snooze

The Gnarley Trombone

The Indiana Daily Stupid

Ravenna Wretched Courier

The Daily Repeater-Herald

Virginian Pile-it-on

The Daily Salt Mine

Newspaper nicknames have their value. They toughen our skin against slings and arrows, always useful in a field where newbies are routinely advised, "If you want to be liked, you're in the wrong business."

And I always like to point out that there's an advantage to starting out at a paper known fondly around town as "The Shitizen." From there, everything's uphill.

[ What nasty names do folks call your newspaper or station? ]



http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=52802



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: mediaschadenfreude; newspapers; schadenfreude
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Daily Worker = Daily Worker
41 posted on 10/28/2003 12:07:39 PM PST by Consort
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To: DianaN
Apparently he teaches psychology.

Ah, yes - psychology, one of the "hard" sciences.

Molecules have feelings, too! ;-)

42 posted on 10/28/2003 12:08:20 PM PST by an amused spectator
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To: Timesink
I can't believe no one's mentioned the Portland Oregonian, which parodies itself.
43 posted on 10/28/2003 12:08:34 PM PST by Igraine
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To: Timesink
CBS - Clinton Broadcasting Service
CNN - Clinton News Network
ABC - All Bill Clinton
NBC - Nothing But Clinton

Hmm, I spent some time trying to come up with one for the Boston Globe without much luck. Perhaps that's because it simply the best bird cage liner made in America?
44 posted on 10/28/2003 12:08:41 PM PST by swilhelm73
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To: E Rocc
Washington Times = The Moonie Paper
Washington Post = The Commie Paper
Washington City Paper = The $#!++y Paper
45 posted on 10/28/2003 12:08:48 PM PST by ArrogantBustard
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To: swilhelm73
Back in the day, ABC used to be known as the "Almost Broadcasting Company" because it had a substantially weaker network of affiliates than NBC and CBS.
46 posted on 10/28/2003 12:10:49 PM PST by Timesink
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To: Timesink
That reminds me of when Fox was in the same boat. It's first "hit" Married with Children, spoofed it, when they decided to watch FOX on the tv, and they had to hold out wires, coat hangers, and foil, to "assume the FOX watching positions".
47 posted on 10/28/2003 12:13:21 PM PST by dogbyte12
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To: Dan from Michigan
Don't forget USA TOADY!
48 posted on 10/28/2003 12:14:09 PM PST by Timesink
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To: kaktuskid
a.k.a. Arizona Soviet Socialist Republic.
49 posted on 10/28/2003 12:15:25 PM PST by uglybiker (Founding member of the Freerepublic Beer Drinking Team)
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To: Timesink
"...who christen their local news organs with monikers selected to highlight perceived journalistic failings."

"Gee, Ollie, what did he mean by that? I'm too stupid to understand anything that I read." (/Stanley dumbass act).

Hey, Chip Stanley, if you read this, understand that it is not only perceived journalistic failings that we rail against, it's confirmed ones. Funny how you (Chip) didn't pick up on the other, real message in the FR thread that you referenced.

50 posted on 10/28/2003 12:23:00 PM PST by hollywood
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To: Timesink
The Portland "Boregonian"
The Reno "Gaggette-Journal"
The Minneapolis "Red Star" Tribune
51 posted on 10/28/2003 12:27:38 PM PST by Atlas Sneezed
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To: seamole
US Snooze and World Distort
52 posted on 10/28/2003 12:31:41 PM PST by Timesink
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To: Timesink
Whatever happened to The Huron Analysis? What can you do with a name like Times-Picayune? And has anyone really been able to say "I'm Brown from The Sun?"
53 posted on 10/28/2003 12:32:07 PM PST by speedy
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To: speedy
Whatever happened to The Huron Analysis?

I've never heard of that one. Google pulls up nothing.

What can you do with a name like Times-Picayune?

The Slimes-Pick-On-You?

54 posted on 10/28/2003 12:34:46 PM PST by Timesink
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To: txflake; cheme
"Austin American Statesboy"

We call ours The Austin Real-Estatesman.

Weak. It is the "Anti-American Statesman" or you could call it the "Amateur-Statesman" or you could call it what it really is, the "Democrat House Organ".

55 posted on 10/28/2003 12:39:29 PM PST by Tall_Texan ("Is Rush a Hypocrite?" http://righteverytime2.blogspot.com)
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To: Timesink
I'm immediately suspicious of any grown man who still goes by schoolyard names like "Buzz", "Chip", "Skip", "Booger", etc. Time to move on with life, guys...

8 posted on 10/28/2003 9:45 AM CST by Tall_Texan [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

More proof...

56 posted on 10/28/2003 12:47:05 PM PST by Tall_Texan ("Is Rush a Hypocrite?" http://righteverytime2.blogspot.com)
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To: Timesink
Thanks for letting me know.

I'm famous!!!

57 posted on 10/28/2003 12:47:22 PM PST by dawn53
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To: Timesink
The San Francisco Comical and the San Francisco Excreminer.
58 posted on 10/28/2003 12:53:35 PM PST by L.N. Smithee (Just because I don't think like you doesn't mean I don't think for myself)
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To: Eala
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a.k.a "The P-U"

I used "Propaganda-Intelligencer" once in a letter and their competition, the Times, printed it.

59 posted on 10/28/2003 12:55:45 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Timesink
Conservative folks around Alaska many times refer to the Anchorage daily News as "The Daily Worker" due to it's far far left liberal-socialist leaning.

But after an especially sarcastic and arrogant remark they wrote into an article on our 4th of July parade, which included a float with some old WWII and Korean Vets, I replied with a scathing Letter to the Editor referring to them as "The McClatchy Commie Daily."

The young pinko wire-rewriter who contacted me seemed to take offense at my term for her company, and did manage to stall publishing my Letter for almost 2wks, but I steadfastly refused to alter it one iota.

I use the term in polite conversation around town every chance I get, to the amusement of many, and to those who flinch, I make note.

The McClatchy Publishing empire includes:

The Anchorage Daily (Worker)
The Fresno Bee
The Modesto Bee
The Sacramento Bee
The Star-Tribune in Minn-St.Paul
The News Tribune in Tacoma, WA
The News & Observer in Raleigh, NC
The Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, WA

The McClatchy Commie tentacles extended into the South in 1990 when it acquired three dailies in South Carolina: The Herald in Rock Hill, The Island Packet in Hilton Head, and The Beaufort Gazette.

Readers ... BEWARE !!

60 posted on 10/28/2003 12:58:46 PM PST by CIBvet (It's about preserving OUR Borders, OUR Language and OUR American Culture)
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