The reason I hate USA Today

[EstimatedProphet]

The following perfectly illustrates the mindset of the typical USA Today letter writer:

Where's the sweep?
Robert Moon - Cincinnati

With Republicans in firm control of Congress for more than a decade and in control of the presidency for six years, and amid an unpopular war and numerous scandals, Democrats had to fight tooth and nail for a small majority in the House and a razor-thin majority in the Senate. History tells us Democrats should have effortlessly swept Congress years ago and done nothing but gain seats.

Democrats can spin these elections as some big national shift toward liberal views, but those of us who pay attention to history know which direction their party is headed in.


This dumb fucktard actually thinks that the Republicans almost won last week! According to him, all we got is a small minority in the House and Senate. Of course, all that was up for grabs is a small minority, but that really doesn't matter, does it?

[Lex]

1. USA Today is worthless.

McNewspaper.

[WI_DEM]

2. It's just a stupid letter to an editor from a Republican who doesn't

know what he's talking about. Let's see how long it takes the GOP to get congress back!

[NashVegas]

3. Interesting

Personally, I think Ken Paulson (their editor) is one of the good guys, and considering that he was formerly the director of the First Amendment Center, it's not surprising that his paper would consider free speech applies to Freepers, as well as Liberals.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. True, but why do so many of the opinions come off this way?

It seems every time I look at it I see more stuff like this.

On edit: I'm not saying they shouldn't print freeper letters. It just seems sometimes that that's all they print.

[stanwyck]

7. As someone who reads USA Today every day

since we have a free subscription where I work, I agree with you about their LTTEs, which I always read.
I'm not sure how the LTTEs are selected, but it's disheartening to think that their selection is the best of what they receive.
If so, we're in real trouble in this country.
Again, I'm sure there are thoughtful, reasonable conservatives in this country. But they're not getting much of a chance.
This letter you cite is typical. It's like talk radio in print form. All broad generalizations based on opinion with no attention to facts.
Why not print a letter from a conservative which wasn't on the third grade level whining level of "well, maybe you won...but I didn't feel good...and you only won 'cause you cheated...and I'm gonna go home now and take my ball."
This was a particularly inane letter. I can't help but think whoever selected it is a raging liberal who just couldn't help but show the laughable thought processes of the mighty opposition.

[EstimatedProphet]

8. I'm sure it isn't the best selection of letters

Which points to part of the problem I have with them. People that write letters like this will point to the fact that there's a lot more just like this as an indication that most of America thinks the way they do. This may be the place where the author got the idea that everyone in America thinks the way he does - if he reads all the letters, he would get that idea anyway. And it would never cross his mind that the letters are obviously a sample. They have to be, because USA Today must get thousands of LTTEs daily. So if it's a sample, and we see a bias in the sample, likely there's a bias in the sample. Astroturfing, pure and simple.

[Greyhound]

5. USAToday is "amerikas" newspaper. Lots of full color graphics,

writing at a 6th grade level, and utterly devoid of news.

[featherman]

6. Hey, I like USA Today. I'm in a rural area and it's the only paper I can get

with full national news. I like it's concise format (great bathroom reading) and Sports and Living sections especially. I never read letters to the editor or editorials. Why bother? Really don't care about any opinion from some nobody who's agenda and bias is whatever it is.

As far as Business or the main News section, even dailies are so out of date by the morning that I don't bother much. I'll scan them for an interesting feature but I get most fresh news from the internet anyway.

Just my .02.