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American Newspapers: Difference between revisions
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The United States is one of the few countries where the government is specifically prohibited from licensing the press or reporters or otherwise shutting down a newspaper simply because they don't like the content. While the average Joe knows their rights are protected by the court case of ''[[Miranda Rights|Miranda v. Arizona]]'', most people are unaware of one of the pivotal cases denying press censorship in the United States: ''Near v. Minnesota'', which basically said the government can't shut down a newspaper no matter how much it finds its content objectionable. [[As You Know|Of course,]] [[All There in the Manual|freedom of the press is guaranteed in the first amendment to the Constitution.]]
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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 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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* ''Chicago Sun-Times''—Tabloid, more liberal rival to the ''Tribune''. Notable for film critic [[Roger Ebert]], and being the newspaper in the show ''[[Early Edition]]''.
* ''The Detroit News'' and the ''Detroit Free Press''—Once, every major and many minor American cities were blessed with multiple daily papers; today, Detroit is one of the few "two-paper towns" left. Mainly local and regional stories, plus the sort of focus on the auto industry that the ''Washington Post'' puts on politics or the ''LA Times'' puts on Hollywood. As Detroit has fallen on hard times, so have both papers, and both now only deliver home/office subscriptions towards the tail end of the week, with lighter papers on Monday-Wednesdays only available through retail channels and a heavy emphasis on their websites.
* ''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.
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* ''The New York Sun'', which was founded in 2002 as an intentionally right-wing five-day daily, taking its name from an older paper that went under in 1950 (more known for the ''Yes Virginia, There is a [[Santa Claus]]'' editorial). Circulation was never high and the paper operated at a loss to try and build for several years. In a letter to readers published on the front page of the September 4, 2008 edition, it was announced that the paper would "cease publication at the end of September unless we succeed in our efforts to find additional financial backing." They didn't. Publication ceased on September 30.
Further complicating matters, most newspapers (big and small) in the United States are owned by one of [https://web.archive.org/web/20100926024503/http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2004/narrative_newspapers_ownership.asp?cat=5&media=2 a couple dozen newspaper companies], such as Gannett, News Corp, McClatchy and MediaNews.
== Magazines ==
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