h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

At least your local newspaper wasn't rated the, and I quote, "Worst Newspaper In America" by the Columbia Journalism Revue. And deservedly so.

The paper I speak of is the Daily Oklahoman. Or more commonly referred to (in thinking circles at least) as the "Daily Dissapointment". It is owned by a horrible rich conservative old man, who doesn't want anything against his views in his paper.

In the Oklahoman, you can expect to find articles bashing Clinton (I don't know about you, but I don't have any problems with the man) and most definitely homosexuality and abortion. And articles promoting prayer in schools and vouchers (vouchers would take money away from public schools to give to people who put their kids in private schools. But it's no where near enough money to cover even half the cost.)

I'm sure some of you share the views of this paper (hopefully you are a minority HERE), and that's fine, that's your opinion. But you are not a newspaper, which is supposed to be unbaised and show both sides of an issue. The Oklahoman never does.

This is very bad for the people of Oklahoma, as this is the only daily paper we have.

Sounds like there may be room for someone to start a web-based competitor - local volunteer reporters submitting stories electronically, etc. If the Disappointment really is *that* bad, it couldn't be too hard for even a free e-paper to beat it. There must be someone in the thinking circles who could give it a go.

You are overestimating the intellegence of the majority of Oklahomans. Not, that they're "stupid" exactly, but they've grown up with this paper, and a lot don't realize the bais, because it's all they've seen. And many are too lazy to go out of their way to view the other side.

We have some decent news publications in Oklahoma. There's the Oklahoma Gazette http://www.okgazette.com/ but while it has good articles, and a great letters section, it is more of an entertainment thing, and it only comes out weekly.

Then there's The Oklahoma Observer (I would show a link for it, but they don't have a website), which is a Democratic publication. It has great articles by good writers, some local (my mom is one), and some national, like Molly Ivins. While it is a Democratic paper, they acknowldge bad things Democrats do, and good things Republicans do. Their motto is "To Comfort the Afflicted and Afflict the Comfortable". The Observer is a great newspaper, but it's published by a husband and wife, and they don't have the money like the Oklahoman does. And, it's only published twice a month, and it's distrobution is pretty small.

I hear that the Tulsa World is a good paper, but I haven't really read it.

The problem is this, say we divide the population of Oklahoma into thirds (in reality it wouldn't be exactly thirds, but I don't know the exact figures, and besides, I just want to make a point). One third, agrees with everything the Oklahoman says, and doesn't want to hear anything different, and when they do, they stick their fingers in their ears and yell, "I can't hear you! I'm not listening!". Another third either doesn't know any better or they just don't care. The last third, the forward thinkers, is divided into two factions. The first actually want to do something about our problems, people like my mother and Frosty Troy (the editor of the Observer). The others think that anything they do won't make a difference (these people just buy the Dallas paper).

So, you see things look pretty grim for us in the OK journalism wise at least.

(I'm sure that the Oklahoman has a web site, but I'm not going to put a link to it here, because I don't want to contribute to it in any way.)

GreyRose