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 ...
I nominate the Sun-Sentinel. Thankfully, it no longer carries the name of my hometown, Fort Lauderdale. It's nothing more than a newsletter for the local RAT party and a cheerleader for the queer agenda.
on the good side, the Pittsburgh tribune-Review ROCKS!!!!
NJ's Star Ledger. We used to have a real paper long ago but the union went on strike and killed it off.
The Spacecoast fishwrap, Florida Today. The "red" paper is a tribute to the radical leftist, Alan Neuharth's micromanagement skills. The paper is as boring as it is tendenitiously leftist. The liberal editorial page has bled over into the hard news coverage to the point that one is indistinguishable from the other. This has to be one of the worst papers in the Western world.
"Pittsburgh tribune-Review"
I'll be certain to check it out.
Thanks!
Okay, that's pretty pathetic.
The Houston Chronicle, though, used to run Mallard Fillmore adjacent to Doonesbury in the funny pages. They replaced it with Prickly City which I haven't figured out yet. It supposedly is conservative, but seems to ridicule us about 40% of the time.
The Dallas Morning News circulation is down something like 13% in the last year. Sounds like a bunch of folks think it is pretty bad. That's worth a vote of two.
A newspaper??? What's that? Oh yeah, that's the thing I use line our cat's litter boxes.
Kansas City Red Star
The WASHINGTON Times
The Boston Globe---celebrating diversity and gay pride 24/7.
Far left paper which was caught recently in falsely jacking up its circulation numbers in order to defraud its advertisers.
When I had a subscription, not a day went by that it didnt do a human interest story on someone who isnt white. That is to say, they were more impressed with the persons race, than his or her accomplishments: The HISPANIC real estate agent, the BLACK dentist, the ASIAN musician. As if these things were still anomalies in this day and age.
Also this: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2005
Claim: Newsday editor tried to influence vote with calls
A Nassau County legislator claims Newsday editorial page editor James M. Klurfeld tried to influence the selection of a new presiding officer by making calls to legislators and others who could sway them. Klurfeld acknowledges calling one lawmaker "to find out what was going on and to express our opinion. My job is to express the opinion of Newsday."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1589114/posts?page=48#48
And this:
Levy Wins Despite Newsday's Threat
Dem Leader Discloses Editor Told Him: "This is War" By Paul Perillie
HOLTSVILLE—For Suffolk Democratic Party Chairman Richard Schaffer, his candidate's primary victory Tuesday night was extra sweet. Steve Levy, an 18-year veteran of Long Island politics, had not only battled William Cunningham, his political rival in the primary race, but he fought relentless opposition from Newsday, which endorsed Cunningham, and threatened to battle the Democratic party's chairman.
To be sure, endorsing political candidates is something that newspapers do. But there are endorsements and there are endorsements. Long Island's lone daily paper ran multiple editorials praising Cunningham and/or belittling Levy. Some observers even feel that the bias leaked out of the editorial pages and into the paper's news coverage. According to Schaffer, in late April, when he confirmed to Newsday that he and the party would back Levy and not Cunningham, Editorial Page Editor James M. Klurfeld "blew his stack" and responded, "Then we're going to be enemies, and this is war."
Luckily for Levy, it seems Suffolk Dems don't care much about what Newsday thinks.
Less than an hour after the polls closed in Suffolk County's Democratic primary for county executive, the jubilant celebration in suite 351 of the Radisson Hotel in Holtsville, filled with reporters and Levy supporters, was spilling out into the hallway.
The 5th District assemblyman shook hands and answered frenetic questioning on how he trounced the challenger, former Nassau County Chief Deputy Executive William Cunningham, taking 68 percent of the vote to Cunningham's 32 percent. Conventional wisdom: A good old-fashioned grassroots get-out-the-vote effort trumped Cunningham's powerful backers in the media, Nassau County and the national stage.
BILL WHO?
According to Schaffer, Newsday approached him as early as December 2002, even before Robert Gaffney, the Republican occupying the county executive seat, announced he would not seek a fourth term. Already, Democratic players were itching for the chance to take on the incumbent, who seemed vulnerable. Even Schaffer's name was being bandied about.
That December, Schaffer was called to a meeting with Newsday's editorial board for an informal preliminary discussion about candidates. Schaffer says he offered up Frank Petrone, Huntington's town supervisor. Two months earlier, Petrone, a lifelong Republican, had flipped over to the Democratic Party. Schaffer felt Petrone had good name recognition, and thought his background might win over a good chunk of Suffolk's 260,018 unaffiliated voters, and possibly even a few Republicans.
"Then they mentioned Bill [Cunningham]," Schaffer recalls. "I didn't even know he had a desire to run." According to Schaffer, members of Newsday's editorial board praised Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi's work and suggested that Cunningham, Suozzi's deputy, might be a good choice for Suffolk.
"I told them Bill just wasn't well-known and would have a tough time drawing voters," Schaffer says, adding that he thought the meeting ended amicably but without consensus.
Schaffer, who still hoped that Newsday would support the party's candidate, whoever that person turned out to be, kept in contact with Klurfeld. In a phone conversation in February, the chairman and the editor danced around the candidate question again to see if a consensus might be found.
"James [Klurfeld] said he thought Tom [Suozzi] could be governor and maybe even president," recalls Schaffer. "I told James the last guy that talked like that was Halpin." Patrick Halpin was the last Democrat county executive in Suffolk, but the one-termer's loss to Gaffney began a Democratic drought. Halpin, it should be added, is a Cunningham ally, who would challenge Schaffer for the party leadership job if Cunningham won.
Schaffer says his comment cooled his relations with Klurfeld. "I told him it was nothing personal. I just felt that it was too early for Tom and Bill to move on up," says Schaffer, who has been Democratic Party chairman for three years.
POL POLL
Consider the fact that Schaffer and the party hadn't yet picked their candidate. On March 13, Schaffer called together the five men who hoped for the nod and shared with them the results of a poll he had conducted in preparation for the November election. Rather than play personal favorites, Schaffer wanted voters to tell him who they wanted.
The poll results clearly showed it was Levy's time. The numbers confirmed that Levy already had a commanding lead against other ranking figures, including Petrone, Babylon Town Supervisor Steve Bellone, Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-East Setauket) and Cunningham. Levy's name was recognized by 65 percent of the Democratic primary voters polled. Even more significantly, 75 percent of those polled expressed a favorable opinion of Levy. Schaffer gave the poll to all the would-be candidates, telling them to go home and consider their desires in light of these numbers.
The battle lines between Schaffer and Klurfeld were drawn the following month. According to Schaffer, during the April call he received from Klurfeld in his North Babylon law office, he told Klurfeld he was "going with Steve."
Schaffer recalls: "I told him Bill was not known in Suffolk and that he had a lot of problems as a candidate—his position as a liberal could hurt the party in the general [election] and his role in the [Clinton] pardons could be devastating."
That's when Klurfeld threw down the gauntlet, Schaffer says, threatening him with "'then we're going to be enemies and this is war.'"
The Long Island Press has attempted repeatedly to contact Klurfeld, who is in France. Other Newsday executives deny any impropriety.
Klurfeld has been described as a liberal whose conservative strain comes out when he writes about Jewish and Israeli security issues. Klurfeld's affinity with the Suozzi clan reaches back to the days of America's Camelot. Insiders say that while working as a journalist in the 1960s, Klurfeld cultivated a personal relationship with Jack English, the founding partner of Cunningham's former law firm, Meyers, Suozzi, English and Klein.
Another co-founder, of course, was Joseph A. Suozzi, Tom Suozzi's father. English is still considered one the most successful Democratic leaders in Nassau history. In the 1960s, English emerged as a leading figure in national politics, serving as a top adviser to John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Senator Edward M. Kennedy. And now, some political observers believe that Klurfeld is trying to fulfill his destiny as kingmaker of the Suozzi political clan.
On Aug. 21, Newsday made official what Klurfeld and what some call his "rubber-stamp" editorial board had been doing all along—in seven previous editorials. Saying voters have "an unusual chance to choose a candidate of rare quality," Newsday gave its official endorsement to Cunningham.
No. It's not good enough to be. ;^)
The New Haven Register has to be among the worst.
What's that really awful black comic, that trashes everything? It's in our comics as well. Luckily, my hubby only subscribes to the Sunday Milwaukee paper. As a side note, they deliver free to the portion of the state not in their regular routes.
"Please list some that shouldn't. New York Sun, Washington Times, Waterbury Republican, Manchester Union-Leader, Boston Herald, Toronto Sun. Can you think of any others?"
Orange County Register (California)
A libertarian editorial position.
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