American Newspapers: Difference between revisions

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]]) and the "Newspaper of Record." 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.

 

These two papers are widely considered to be the top of the journalistic profession in America, and you can expect any young reporter in fiction to dream of working at either one. In general, the ''Times'' does better in reporting international news, as well as arts and culture, while the ''Post'' is considered to be the go-to for political news. Both are often cited as being proof of the "[[Strawman News Media|liberal bias]]" of the press. The accuracy of this accusation is extremely debatable, and many observers vociferously disagree with it. (The ''Times'' has several columnists, such as Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd, who do tend to make conservatives' blood pressure rise; on the other hand, they also boast well-known conservative writers such as Thomas Friedman and the late William Safire, who in addition to his political column wrote a highly-regarded column on the American English language for the Sunday edition for many years. The ''Post'' generally steers a middle line in its editorial coverage, with the results that they irritate conservatives when a Republican president is in power and annoy liberals when a Democrat holds the White House.)

Other papers of note:

* ''Chicago Tribune'' -- Conservative midwestern broadsheet. Once a rather national paper, but the decline of the industry in general and some horrible mismanagement in particular actually sent it and the other ''Tribune'' company papers into bankruptcy for a time. Best known for their famous "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline following the 1948 election, which successfully predicted ahead of time President Thomas E. Dewey's defeat of challenger [[Harry Truman|Harry S Tru--]] [[wikipedia:Image:Deweytruman12.jpg|er, wait]]. Moving on...

* ''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.

* ''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.

* ''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.

* ''[[The Onion]]'' -- One of the most famous [[News Parody|satirical newspapers]] in existence. Has its own page.

* ''The New Hampshire Union Leader'' -- Formerly the ''Manchester'' Union-Leader (note the dropped hyphen as well). Otherwise typical regional paper that rises to prominence once every four years just before the beginning of the Presidential primary season, on the back of its' home state's first-in-the-nation primary. Under its former publisher, William Loeb, it was one of the leading conservative papers in the United States.