This is, safe to say, the only paper I’ll be reading each day. I was recently classified as ‘middle-of-the-road conservative’ in my political views.
Anyways, which paper should I get? Washington Post (Liberal), Washington Times (Conservative), etc. etc. What do you reccomend as the most informative daily paper out there, guys?
OK, important: your political views don’t matter. Not at all. I know some people love to accuse the media of having a particular ideological bias (and I’m not by any means accusing you of this), but in the world of the press, it really doesn’t play much of a role. There is no major American newspaper that approaches Fox News in terms of ideology influencing content.
As such, you should be looking at the paper’s quality, rather than any ideological slant (perceived or otherwise). I’d recommend taking the respected, reasonably high quality journalism of the Washington Post over the tabloid trash of the Washington Times.
The one palce where ideology may impact your decision is on the editorial page, which is quite seperate to the rest of the paper. For instance, the New York Times is, barring recent gaffes, a good paper, but I could well understand a conservative finding its editorial pages unbearable. I am not sure what the Post’s editorial pages are like, but even if they are too liberal for your tastes, I would still recommend sticking by a paper with all-round high quality journalism, even if you do feel like punching many of the columnists.
Then again, you could go the Wall Street Journal, if you don’t mind getting an out-of-town paper. It’s a good paper, and you probably share more in common with it politically.
Just… for your own sake, don’t feel like you should buy a trashy paper because it happens to have an editorial page you agree with. The true parenthetical attachment for something like the Washington Times is (Trash), not (Conservative).
Hands down (in my view): The Wall Street Journal
The Daily Diary of the American Dream. (or so says the WSJ)
And let me toss out there that the WashPost isn’t the liberal pillar that most people seem to believe. On fiscal issues they’re quite conservative in the ‘if you want to have it you have to pay for it’ mode.
They also supported the Iraq war during the run-up. As did the New York Times. That said I think it’s a pretty decent paper with good foreign reporting. And their editorial page is far more diverse than the Times. The Post has Novack, Krauthammer, and Will in their op-ed page. Does the Times have a single liberal columnist?
Don’t be thrown off by the name, but The Christian Science Monitor is an excellent source of national and international news. It does not report from a religious perspective at all except for one or two religion specific stories on the inside back page.
I’m a liberal, but I read the* Wall Street Journal* every day (except Sunday). I have read the Washington Post as well and I love it. * The Washington Times* is just too biased for me.