Posted on 11/20/2006 4:04:53 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo
Scott (Johnson) recently suggested that the Minneapolis Star Tribune may be America's worst newspaper. That produced lots of emails from readers who nominated their own newspapers, or others with which they are familiar, for the honor. This gave us the idea for a new poll: What is the worst newspaper in the United States?
Here are the nominees, with commentary by those who nominated them:
The Minneapolis Star Tribune: Nominated by Scott, citing Mark Steyn: “Unreadable sludge.”
The Houston Chronicle: A reader who worked for the Chronicle for “quite a while”: “Its main problem is not even its liberalism, which it suffers from, but its vapidity. On top of that, the editor from Hearst Corp. is trying to teach Houstonians how to be proper liberals. The fact that no one ever hears about the newspaper at America’s fourth largest city should tell you a lot.”
The Olympian (Olympia, Washington): MHJ: “From their editorial about how good it is that the Governor is going to direct the employees of the State Department of Transportation to cooperate with the State Auditor on taxpayer-directed performance audits, to their choice of letters to the editor, the Olympian begs for an editorial staff with common sense and analytical skills.”
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
That's funny! I'm obviously not a frequent reader any more.
True. Story after story of the "plight" of those here illegally, and nary a word about their costs. Couldn't even join the NYT and opine that allowing schools to use "under God" in the pledge was constitutional.
Every once in a while, though, they do some pretty good investigative reporting. Not enough to counterbalance the peecee idiocy, however.
The LA Times has recently become a bit less hard left, but its downsizing shows, and it now is just a pedestrian provincial rag. I finally cancelled my Sunday subscription. The paper committed the unpardonable sin, which is not so much by printing slanted news stories from the Left, and having silly and unpersuasive editorials that next to nobody reads, and even fewer are influenced by, but by becoming a bore.
Looks to me that one of the scribbler's "artistic" influences is Ted Rall.
There was no mention of either game in today's SF Chronicle.
Looks like the ChronicallyWrongicle's sports editorial policy is that all sports is violence against wymyn - except when it's the WNBA (which reportedly is not about basketball).
Like you, I voted for the Red Star. But, then, I got to thinking...
If it has Lileks, can it really be the worst?
If awards were offered by circulation classification, the Madison papers would surely walk away with honors...
Houston Chronicle is horrible. The New Orleans Times-Picayune is also pretty bad. A decent newspaper in the area is the Baton Rouge Advocate. Not too biased and they usually have a good sports section.
You know, I just noticed a very strange phenomenon.
In the political arena, approval ratings for the government as a whole are very bad. However, usually people rank their own representatives pretty favorably (as you would imagine) and the other guy's representatives as evil incarnate.
In the newspaper world however, approval ratings are low AND folks are likely to rate their own paper as one of the worst.
I wonder what that means.
Unfortunately they have a captive audience.
The most recent goobledegoop from the unreadable Richmond Times Dispatch.How aboout just reporting the news instead of spinning the stories based on "diversity".A conservative view point would be "diverse" from this leftist rag.
From the Newsroom: Does The T-D Reflect a Diverse Richmond?
ROBIN FARMER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Nov 19, 2006
Often, when talking about the need for inclusiveness in our newspaper, I refer to a country song with lyrics that go something like this: "When I look at you, I can't see me in your eyes."
It is our responsibility to make sure that when readers from diverse communities read The Times-Dispatch, they see themselves, their communities, and their interests reflected in the eyes of the newspaper.
To keep diversity in the forefront of everyone's mind, the newspaper has a Diversity Committee, which began meeting in January 2005 with representatives from nearly every news department.
Monitoring the paper's content for diversity of sources and topics is one of our responsibilities.
We also attend the daily editors' meeting to critique and/or praise coverage and to ensure stories and photos budgeted for the next day or weekend reflect diversity when possible.
The committee also began holding monthly discussions with diverse guests from the community to talk about their concerns and suggestions.
Dozens of reporters and editors have attended these sessions, which have examined topics as varied as "Issues Affecting the Poor and Working Class," a presentation that included two homeless men, to issues affecting sexual minorities in Virginia. We have met with Virginia Indians, high school and college students, members of the local music community, and Asian and Latino leaders.
These discussions include critiques about our coverage of diverse communities and have led to story ideas and new sources to help us get fresh and deeper perspectives.
LAST MONTH we discussed "Workplace Issues Affecting Employees with Disabilities." On October 18, the newspaper participated for the first time in national Disability Mentoring Day, which is designed to expose college students with disabilities to jobs they are interested in and possibly introduce them to workplace mentors. With a nearly 40percent unemployment rate for college graduates with disabilities, more programs are needed to help students make the transition into the workforce.
Bobbi Bowman, the diversity director for the American Society of Newspaper Editors, recently spoke to our newsroom about the changing demographics of Virginia and the need to include more diverse voices in our stories and photos.
Under the guidance of the Diversity Committee, some discussions have been internal. Questions that have led to candid talk among editors include: What is the newsroom's diversity mindset and mission? What does diversity mean and how is it embraced?
At The Times-Dispatch, we believe that covering all parts of the community is a key tenet for any journalistic organization that strives to offer a complete report consistently.
Recently I received a fellowship from the Casey Journalism Center to attend a two-day conference, "Reporting on Diverse Communities," that attracted nearly 30 reporters nationwide.
We reviewed how in areas across the U.S., racial and ethnic "minorities" are becoming demographic majorities. At least one child in five is from an immigrant family. We were asked: "Is your newsroom equipped to cover your community in these times of change?"
PART OF that answer will come from you, our readers.
Do you have a diversity topic you would like to discuss with our staff? Do you think there are stories we fail to do or don't do enough of in your community? Do you see yourself reflected in the pages of The Times-Dispatch?
Please share your thoughts. We are listening.
Robin Farmer is a reporter at the Metro Desk who covers diversity and cultural issues and leads the newsroom Diversity Committee. Contact her at rfarmer@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6312.
Ah, yes...we likes Lileks!
Good papers: Indianapolis Star and Cincinnati Enquirer. At least they were a few years ago. I had letters published in both. One of the Worst: Bloomington Herald-Times (Indiana) although they published a letter of mine, too.
I get the NY Times puzzles too. Although I hate the rest of the paper. If you want a treat, try the NY Sun crossword puzzles. They are sometimes more challenging than the Times, but they are free. BTW, did you see the movie Word Play? It's about the people who make the Times puzzles.
I nominate The Indianapolis Star for the category of "Most Rapid Deterioration." Ten years ago the paper was reliably conservative in its editorial position, and the news was fairly unbiased.
The the Pulliam family owners (relatives of Dan Quayle) sold it to Gannett.
The same thing happened to the Star's sister paper, The Arizona Republic (Repulsive)...turned it into a typo- filled, whiny, left-leaning rag.
"Kansas City Red Star"
I totally agree with you. What a rag.
Oh yes, my vote would have to go to the Houston Comical...
The Courier Times of Bucks County is only a little local rag, about the quality and maturity of a state college daily, but I would still rank it as the worst.
For the past year (at least) I couldn't pick up the paper on any given morning without reading an "above the fold" front page headline giving the previous day's US death count in Iraq. But whaddaya know - - since November 7th, it's not there anymore.....
If I cared at all to communicate with the sick scumbags at the Courier Times I would ask them, "Is the war over.... or just the election?" But I finally got fed up enough to cancel my subscription, and I don't want to see that paper ever again. That's one paper I hope dies real soon.
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