K:
You have really touched on a "hot button" issue with me. I can't resist taking a shot at this topic.
THE WASHINGTON POST
First of all -- The Washington Post is the most blatantly anti-gambling newspaper in the country. It's not even close. This is a newspaper that continuously hammers all pro-gambling initiatives -- both local and national -- on its editorial pages. For example, it is perfectly willing to let 100 years of thoroughbred racing in Maryland go down the drain because they are so set against any expansion of gambling at the area tracks -- Pimlico, Laurel, Rosecroft, etc.) that might increase the purses and allow Maryland racing to compete with Deleware, West Virginia, and New Jersey. Furthermore, the Post sports section is an absolute joke. It provides horrendously narrow coverage slanted heavily towards local teams (without any depth whatsoever) and is now so "politically correct" they give fully a third of coverage to women's athletics (no bash against women's sports, but the WNBA does not deserve the same amount of coverage as the NBA, let's face it). As for sports lines -- FORGET IT! No baseball lines. Ever. No NBA lines. Ever! No NHL lines. Ever! Furthermore, the Post has its lips firmly glued to the NCAA's azz, as they will not print lines on college sports. As for pro football lines, the Washington Post prints a tiny box, about an inch in diameter in the back, near the rugby and lacross results from Upper Sardinia. When I complained once about this in a phone call to the staff, asking for more SPORTS GAMBLING coverage, the Post replied that they "did not want to encourage" illegal sports betting. Yet these same pillars of journalism compromise those principles when it comes to ad revenues. For exmaple, if you look on the back page of the sports section EVERY DAY, there are no less than 30-40 adverstisements for "message" parlors in the DC area. Of course, we all know how popular legitimate "messages" are with the predominantly male reading audience. But should message parlors outnumber the ads for every other company by 10-1. I also have a personal vendetta against the Post as I am convinced they WILL NOT print any pro-gambling Letters to the Editor. I have had about a dozen letters printed in the Washington Post over the last 6-7 years -- on political topics, mostly. BUT EVERY TIME I HAVE WRITTEN A LETTER ON GAMBLING, it is not printed. It's no longer a case of standard deviation that the political letters just so happened to be printed, while the gambling letters ended up in the wastebasket. That is bias. That is a conscious effort on the part of the staff to thwart the free exchange of ideas and information to the public. I haven't even begun to touch on the Posts' liberal bias and warped political views. If I get into that, I'd be here forever. The bottom line is, while I love the romanticized version of Post life in the movie "All the President's Men," this is a corrupt, blatantly biased publication with a vendetta against what we are trying to promote.
NEW YORK TIMES
As to the The New York Times, the aforementioned comments apply fully -- albeit to a lesser degree in terms of their sports coverage. Contrary to the Washington Post, the NY Times (in my view) does have a pretty good sports section. It's very provincial, of course, but the writing is first rate and things are often well put into context, especially sports' application to society and larger issues. The NY Times, nonetheless, is another anti-gambling rag that has fought tooth and nail against every pro-gambling initiative in NY State. The fight to destroy the effort to legalize cruises from NY City with gambling on board was led by the Times, which ran several anti-gambling editorials and columns which scared the living daylights out of anyone who was until that point undecided on the issue. The times has also run several stories that I had the personal misfortune to read that were just insanely slanted towards anti-gambling forces. I simply don't trust ANYTHING that this newspaper reports. As far as news coverage, I think the NY Times is vastly over-rated, that is -- unless you want to read off-Braodway theatre reviews or learn about an obscure scandal at the Port Authority. The Times does excel in coverage of international events, but beyond that it is just another big city rag with major attitude.
The Washington Times does a good job considering its much smaller staff and resources. As they are the stepchild of Washington journalism (and national journalism, too perhaps), it's remarkable that their sports coverage is actually superior to the Posts. The Times also runs gambiling info such as lines, totals, and many gambling-related features in its sports section. Politically, the paper is very conservative, and does nothing to hide this fact (meanwhile -- The Post remains in denial). Their editorial staff is more extensive giving lots of space to varying political viewpoints. Other than political and sports coverage, The Washington Times has very little to offer , however. As for the Moon Church owning the publication, I have never seen any bias that suggests an influence of that sect over any news coverage.
OTHER NEWSPAPERS
In my opinion, the best sports sections in the nation are in: THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, which is absolutely loaded with coverage from ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. Sure, the local Philadelphia teams get lots of coverage, but you are just as apt to pick up a tidbit from New Orleans or Detroit as the local scene. THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS and NEW YORK POST also have pretty good sports coverage. Both give a lot of gambling news -- with updated lines and spreads. Since just about everyone in PHILA and NYC is betting on the games (NFL), these papers are simply giving the markets what they want. No wonder the Daily News and Post OUTSELL the much over-rated NY Times in New York City. Another very good paper for sports is THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, which has arguably the second-best sports section in the nation. Every game on almost every event is broken down and there is a mountan of information about every sports in the DMN sports section each day.
For non-sports and non-gambling, I believe the WALL STREET JOURNAL is, bar none, the bet newspaper in the country. Nothing else even comes close. All I can say is -- thank God for the Internet so we are no longer subject to the mind-corrupting influences of such "stalwarts" of journalism as the Washington Post and NY Times.
I've tried not to be biased towards any region or area as I am sure there are other newspapers out there who do very good coverage.
-- Nolan Dalla
