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Is Your Newspaper America's Worst?
Powerline Blog ^ | 11/20/06 | John Hinderaker

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 ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dinosaurmedia; newspapers
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

The Roanoke Times. The liberalism of its editorial page takes a backseat to none. This skimpy paper is composed of articles that are mostly warmed over reprints from UPI, Al-AP, and Al-Reuters. A real Mickey Mouse effort.


61 posted on 11/20/2006 4:56:01 PM PST by GunsareOK
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To: armymarinemom

The Bangor Daily used to be fairly good, BUT, that was a long long time ago.


62 posted on 11/20/2006 4:56:57 PM PST by MrLee
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To: Man50D
"a front page article on the topic approximately two years ago accompanied by a picture of two lesbians, one dressed as a bride, kissing while a little girl stood between them"

Wow, two years ago, you're lucky. The Providence Journal runs those pictures two to three times a week!! I canceled me subscription a few years ago after they were purchased by Belo.
63 posted on 11/20/2006 4:58:14 PM PST by got_moab? (got_moab? now comes complete with 50% MORE Hyper-conservatism!!)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

It is important for conservatives to face these issues and face them often. Think of the papers as providing a liberal stew that we don't like but are powerless to take away from them. One strategy is to lean over and spit in their stew. They will say it looks the same and smells the same but it will not taste the same.

These newspapers are business operations and unhappy, critical people neither advertise nor buy them if they can avoid it. If nothing else, sooner or later the bottom line will be influenced by a line by line criticism of their liberal dogma. More immediately it is the rare person who can hear consistent criticism without changing behavior. The "spit in the stew effect."


64 posted on 11/20/2006 4:58:20 PM PST by shrinkermd
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To: Dog Gone

You have my vote on that one. The Houston Chronicle is biased, left leaning and only prints what it wants to. A true newspaper prints the News. The Houston Chronicle does not, they try to make the news.


65 posted on 11/20/2006 4:58:37 PM PST by Dov in Houston
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo
I vote for the Atlanta Urinal Constipation.

Pure garbage.

66 posted on 11/20/2006 4:59:29 PM PST by SIDENET (Everybody was kung-fu fighting)
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To: Excuse_Me

Ping to Manchester Union Leader, Boston Herald, and NY Sun.

The NY Post sometimes has some good op-ed pieces, too. Plus, the headlines are funny.


67 posted on 11/20/2006 4:59:55 PM PST by dashing doofus (Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber)
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To: Indy Pendance
What's that really awful black comic, that trashes everything? It's in our comics as well.

If you're think of "Boondocks", that's on hiatus. I guess the author made enough to quit drawing his hate.

However, the Houston Chronicle has made sure that it's replaced on the hispanic side with this kind of humor:

La Cucaracha

November 20, 2006



68 posted on 11/20/2006 5:00:24 PM PST by Dog Gone
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To: cidrasm

I'll second that. Bring back the Times.


69 posted on 11/20/2006 5:00:36 PM PST by MadJack ("Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet." (Afghan proverb))
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo
I don't usually rate newspapers so much on their political slant as on three other criteria: (1) ratio of ad space to content space -- some of the worst rags out there run very little content to a lot of ad space, (2) ratio of actual content from the newspaper's staff versus wire service and other syndicated content, and (3) target audience's educational level -- many papers aim to provide information at a 5th grade level.

For me, political slant comes after those three.

I really dislike looking at a page of a newspaper that I bought that has only a thin trail of content in the left column, and with the remaining 90% of the page is devoted to advertising.

Likewise, I don't want to search through the whole newspaper to find two or perhaps three pieces that were actually written by the newspaper's staff. If I wanted to read just wire service copy, I myself wouldn't buy a local newspaper.

70 posted on 11/20/2006 5:00:58 PM PST by snowsislander
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To: Indy Pendance

My local paper (Providence Journal) does that too.


71 posted on 11/20/2006 5:01:27 PM PST by got_moab? (got_moab? now comes complete with 50% MORE Hyper-conservatism!!)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

The Cleveland Plain Dealer comes to mind. Don't know if it's the worst, but it's certainly a leftist rag.


72 posted on 11/20/2006 5:02:03 PM PST by meyer (Bring back the Contract with America and you'll bring back the Republican majority.)
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To: Dog Gone

Boondocks, that's it. We don't have the hispanic cartoon yet.


73 posted on 11/20/2006 5:02:54 PM PST by Indy Pendance
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To: got_moab?

Dilbert is a far superior cartoon.


74 posted on 11/20/2006 5:03:27 PM PST by Indy Pendance
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To: OldFriend
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.

Since then, it has deteriorated both in quality and content. I cancelled my subscription when they posted a front-page article (complete with photos of each of the justices) saying that the 2000 eection decision was 5-4. It totally left out the 7-2 decision. When I called about it and spoke to the managing editor, the excuse was that the editor on duty didn't get the full story from the wire services until after the deadline. Since I, as an average housewife, knew the decision before the deadline, I told the guy that I knew he was lying, and I cancelled.

The paper since then has made a policy of propping up the democrat mayor with fluff stories, attacking the Republican governor at every opportunity, and undermining the traditional social structure and religious fabric of our city.

Examples:

They quit running the Easter Story and the Christmas Story on the front page, something they had done for over 75 years.

The only Jewish stories are about cooking. Religious observance is invisible.

Mother's Day? Run a feature story about two lesbians who have a child conceived by artificial insemnation.

Father's Day? Run a story about two gay men raising a boy.

Memorial Day? Run a story about disgruntled Veterans.

Veterans Day? Run a story about disgruntled veterans.

Fourth of July? Run a story about Jefferson's mistress.

Thanksgiving? Run a story about how there are so many hungry people in the city.

See how this goes? Anything that brings joy, positive thoughts, or patriotic feeling is countered with a "life sucks" story. Very demoralizing, and they can't understand why their subscription numbers are dropping.

I will bet cash money that the subscriptions would have stayed on track if Gannett hadn't bought the paper.

My grandad was a pressman for that paper for 50 years, and my sister and brother both worked for it several years ago. Heck, I even was a teen correspondent for their now-defunct high school edition. I take this personally, you see.

It's a real disgrace, and a detriment to our city.

75 posted on 11/20/2006 5:03:29 PM PST by Miss Marple (Lord, thank you for Mozart Lover's son's safe return, and look after Jemian's son, please!)
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To: Indy Pendance
Any paper that carries AP stories.

There's a lot of truth to that!

76 posted on 11/20/2006 5:04:28 PM PST by meyer (Bring back the Contract with America and you'll bring back the Republican majority.)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

The little paper I take probably isn't the worst in the nation, but it's right up there. They carry molly ivens and several other commie columnists, have a couple of far-left local college profs and some retired librarian (who considers himself a folksy wit because he refers to President Bush as "Flight Suit Pinnochio")for local color (one wrote about the joys af anarchy), and the editor has called for a "revolution" against Republicans. And this is in western Kansas. I mainly take it for the TV schedule and the Sunday funnies.


77 posted on 11/20/2006 5:06:19 PM PST by ozzymandus
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To: Dog Gone
I don't know how you can get any lower than the Houston Chronicle.

New York Times?

78 posted on 11/20/2006 5:06:23 PM PST by beckysueb
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To: Indy Pendance

Dilbert is excellent as is Get Fuzzy and Pearls Before Swine.
Now, Doonesbury is just plain shit.


79 posted on 11/20/2006 5:06:58 PM PST by got_moab? (got_moab? now comes complete with 50% MORE Hyper-conservatism!!)
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To: Dog Gone

I don't even understand that comic. Dog Gone. I looked at it for a while, but it made no sense to me. Plus the drawing is abysmal.


80 posted on 11/20/2006 5:07:09 PM PST by Miss Marple (Lord, thank you for Mozart Lover's son's safe return, and look after Jemian's son, please!)
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