Is Your Newspaper America's Worst?

Powerline Blog ^ | 11/20/06 | John Hinderaker

[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.”

[Uriah_lost]

I would note that the St Louis Post Dispatch is not mentioned. That's probably because this is just a list of "amateur competitors". When we start listing the pros I'll nominate the STL PD.

[pleikumud]

The Orlando Sentinel is not worth the toilet paper it's printed on. It's owned by Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times ... need I say more? The Orlando Sentinel endorsed Kerry for president ... need I say more? On the bright side, it is losing circulation and ad revenue steadily.

[pointsal]

LEE PUBLICATIONS owner of the Santa Maria Times....

now staffed with cast-offs from the Santa Barbara News Press.

I would suggest "fish wrapper", but eco-freaks banned fishing in our coastal waters!

[Indy Pendance]

I like Get Fuzzy. I also like the comic with the husband and wife and the kid "hillary". As you can tell, I'm as bad with comic strip names as I am with bands and songs. The Milwaukee Journal is so pathetic, I just read some of the comics.

[GSWarrior]

Here is one reason the San Francisco Chronicle is the worst.

At this moment, the University of San Francisco basketball team is tipping off against the #3 team in the country--Ohio State.

Later tonight, the University of Santa Clara is playing Cal Bears in Bay Area rivalry in basketball.

There was no mention of either game in today's SF Chronicle.

[Indy Pendance]

Here's a question, which paper didn't endorse a dem?

[Dog Gone]

It makes no sense to me, either, Miss Marple. Usually I can detect something of an anti-Bush message in it, but the scrawling is so offensive, I usually just ignore it.

[pleikumud]

The New York Herald Tribune (because it doesn't exist anymore).

[Mpatl]

The AJC is my fire-starter of choice

[got_moab?]

The comics haven't been the same since Calvin and Hobbes signed off. Yet somehow The Family Circus continues to survive?

[Miss Marple]

Well, I am comforted to know that you can't figure it out, either.

I thought maybe I was having a bout of senior-itis !! LOL!

[Psycho_Bunny]

Seattle PI!!! w00t!

[OregonRancher]

The Oregonian in Portland. It's so bad we won't use it
to line the bird cage.

[PhiKapMom]

We have the best newspaper IMHO -- The Oklahoman published by the Gaylord Family in Oklahoma City. Leans right in its editorial pages. Didn't endorse for Governor -- probably thought like the rest of us -- two bad candidates. Endorsed Republican for Lt Gov who lost by a small percentage since the top of the ticket got the least votes of anyone running for statewide office and brought down the ticket.

[georgiarat]

Ditto for the Atlanta Constipation except few good comics!

[georgiarat]

Remeber that Cox is the publisher of the Atlanta Constipation and is Very Tied into the Democratic Party. She had dreamed of running our former Democratic Governor Roy Barnes for President in 2008 until he was upset by current governor Sonny Perdue.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Perhaps you missed the accusations of puffed up circulation numbers by a group of Strib advertisers a few years back. I have no doubt their daily falls off pretty quickly after it enters Dakota and Scott counties and, observed firsthand how they run their numbers to keep their ad sales reps happy.
We took the Sunday for a year or so and were offered the Saturday at half price shortly after. We declined. Two months later, we were offered Thursday and Friday for free if we would pay half for Saturday and full price for the Sunday. No thanks, we said. Their last offer, which we accepted, was Wednesday, Thursday and Friday free, half price for Saturday and full price for Sunday. The kicker was, after were got this whole thing in motion, one particularly awful editorial cased us to call and cancel everything. We got the WSJ delivered to our doorstep and were happy with a newspaper five days a week.

[Katy Deacon]

I concur with all those who nominate the Houston Chronicle, which is my local paper. I used to take it by subscription but now I would sue them for littering if they threw a copy of it into my driveway. However the Chronicle does have three outstanding outdoor sports writers; if you enjoy hunting and fishing they offer the best coverage I have seen anywhere in the US. I have swapped e-mail with them and even run into some of them while out fishing; they are great writers and advocates for their readers. And after reading them for ten years I have no idea what political beliefs any of them have.

I also nominate my hometown newspaper the Nashville Tennessean. Most newspapers have an "entertainment" section; the Tennessean IS an entertainment section.

[Unicorn]

I'll bump that big time.

[TWfromTEXAS]

My parents canceled the Houston Chronicle years ago and still get it delivered. I guess they need to keep their numbers up.