American Newspapers: Difference between revisions
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Not officially national, but two papers with wide-reaching national influence are:
* ''[[The New York Times]]''—Founded in 1851. Daily read of the East Coast intelligentsia, known as the "Old Grey Lady" (although since they've started printing in color it [[Artifact Title|doesn't make sense anymore]]). The United States' ''de facto'' [[wikipedia:newspaper of record|newspaper of record]] in the absence of a state-sponsored newspaper. Most famous for publishing the "Pentagon Papers," which was a classified government report on how the USA got into and ran the [[Vietnam War]]. The government tried to stop it from being published, but the courts ruled that the government had to show an extreme danger before the press could be stopped from publishing something. No [[Newspaper Comics|comics]], but the best crossword in the nation. The ''Times'' also owns the ''Boston Globe'' newspaper and a stake in the Red Sox. Despite its fame, it's still not recession-proof—for the first time in history, it now runs ads on the front page. Despite nominally being a New York paper, it is easily available in most parts of the country, if only by being the paper sold at most Starbucks (which also gives a hint as to its readership). A rarity in today's market, the ''Times'' is still a basically a family business, with a majority of shares controlled by the Ochs/Sulzberger family since 1896.
* ''The Washington Post''—Main paper of the capital region. Most famous for exposing Watergate, as seen in the movie ''[[All the President's Men|All the Presidents Men]]''. Both the ''Post'' and the ''New York Times'' were in competition to be the first to report on Watergate as it unfolded, but the ''Post'' first brought it to light and did most of the exposing. One reason was that they had the informer Deep Throat (a top FBI official, the late W. Mark Felt) to help them. Also has good sports coverage: its sportswriters Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon are national celebrities from their daily arguments on ESPN's ''[[Pardon the Interruption]]''. From 1961 to 2010, The Washington Post Co. was also notable as the publisher of the nationally-circulated magazine ''Newsweek'', and currently also owns the Kaplan education and test-prep company, and the online magazine company Slate (which it purchased from [[Microsoft]] in 2004).
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* ''Boston Globe''—Major paper in the New England region; notable for its role in the exposure of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal, as portrayed in the film ''Spotlight''.
* ''Los Angeles Times''—Biggest paper on the West Coast, owned by the Tribune Company (named for the aforementioned ''Chicago Tribune''). Like the ''Chicago Tribune'', was once something of a nationally-reowned (albeit not necessarily nationally read) paper, but has taken a bad turn over the last decade or two due to the decline of the industry and bad management. Previously owned by Times Mirror before Tribune bought it in 2000.
* ''New York Post''—Founded by [[Alexander Hamilton]] in 1801; has gone through a dizzying series of ownership and format changes. Currently, it's owned by [[Rupert Murdoch]], and is as sleazy, sensationalist, and slanted as you can get while still technically remaining a newspaper. Brits, think a Noo Yawk-accented version of the ''Daily Mail'', or ''[[British Newspapers|The Sun]]'' without the [[Page Three Stunna|Page Three stunnas]] (though if the headline is saucy enough, they'll put the tits right into the story). Arch-rival to the ''Daily News'', a slightly less obscene NYC tabloid. (''[[Damned By Faint Praise|Slightly.]]'') Not much overlap in readership with the ''Times''. Mainly read as a sports paper, and for its [[Punny Headlines|infamously obnoxious headlines]] ("Headless Body Found in Topless Bar"; "Masturbating Mugger Pulls Another One Off"), to the point where it has even published a book full of their most famous ones.
* ''The Washington Times''—Established by the Unification Church of [[South Korea]] with the aim of being a conservative alternative to the (not very liberal in the first place) Post. Has lost over three ''billion'' dollars, since DC liberals read the Post and DC conservatives hold their noses and also read the Post to keep on the same footing as the liberals. Still, the Church continues to fund it, as they want to shift American opinion to the right in order to take out the North Korean government so the Church can expand its influence to the entire Korean peninsula, and from there, the world. [[Gambit Roulette|Good luck with that, Moonies.]]
* ''The Denver Post'' and ''(Denver) Rocky Mountain News''—Denver <s>is also</s> was a two-paper town. The ''Post'''s sportswriter, Woody Paige, appears on ESPN's ''Around the Horn''. The News was placed for sale by its owner, the E.W. Scripps company, in December 2008. Due to the economic crisis, there were no takers. Publication ceased on February 27, 2009. It was a [[Tear Jerker]] for a good number of people (not all of them employees).
* ''The National Enquirer'' -- The king of the trashy supermarket tabloids. Its owner from 1954 to 1988 allegedly had [[The Mafia|Mob]] ties, and thus refrained from discussing anything pertaining to their activities. Unlike most newspapers, it will pay sources for tips, a practice that is frowned upon by journalists. Generally read for entertainment value, as little of what is inside can genuinely be classified as news, although they do occasionally break some major stories (the most recent being John Edwards' affair). Bizarrely, its publisher's Boca Raton offices were one of the targets of a anthrax attack in 2001, which killed a photo editor.
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