THE TEN BEST AMERICAN DAILIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000100730003-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: January 1, 1974
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/28: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100730003-4
10
TIME
1 JAN 1974
The Ten Best American Dailies
Nowhere else can onernd so
miscellaneous, so Various an amount of
knowledge as is contained in a good
newspaper.
-Henry Ward Beecher, 1887
0
Fair enough, but what is a good
newspaper? It does not help to reverse
Beecher's apothegm and define a good
newspaper as one that prints a miscel-
laneous, various amount of knowledge.
All papers do that. But if the knowl-
edge is undigested, or simply wrong,
more is not better. Journalistic quality
is thornier matter. A newspaper in its
variety may be superb and terrible at
the same time, even on the same page.
Playwright Arthur Miller has a
briefer definition: "A good newspaper
is a nation talking to itself." But most
American papers 'cannot speak that
loudly. The sheer sue of the U.S. has pre-
cluded the development of a truly na-
tional press like Britain's. The New
York Times and the Wall Street Jour-
nal try to speak to the country at large,
but almost all of the 1,760 dailies in the
U.S. tailor themselves to the contours
of their localities.
Ten years ago, TIME listed its choice
of the ten best newspapers in the U.S.
In alphabetical order, they were: the
Baltimore Sun, Cleveland Press. Los
Angeles Tunes, Louisville Courier-Jour-
nal, Milwaukee Journal, Minneapolis
morning Tribune, New York Daily
News, New York Tinges, St. Louis Post-
Dispatch, and the Washington Post. Re-
viewing the nation's major dailies today,
TIME correspondents and editors found
marked change: five of the 1964 selec-
tions have been replaced by other pa-
pers that have improved sharply.
These ten papers stand out. in
TiME_'s view, for several reasons. They
make a conscientious effort to cover na-
tional and international news as well as
to monitor their own communities. They
can be brash and entertaining as well
as informative. They are willing to risk
money, time and manpower on extend-
ed investigations. Through "Op-Ed"
pages and dissenting columns they of-
fer a range of disparate opinion. TIME
made its selections on the basis of ed-
itorial excellence rather than commer-
cial success, but economically these pa-
pers range from the sound to the very
'prosperous.
the New York Tinges. Some Bostonians of the Shavian experiments in phonetic
might give that title to the widely spelling rate for jrci,;ht) are a 'thing of OTIS
though it is now largely a journal of com-
mentary rather-than of breaking news.
For nearly a century, the Globe offered
no competition. but it improved abrupt-
ly after Tom Winship, 53, became ed
itor in 1965. The following year the
Globe won a Pulitzer Prize for its cam-
paign to block a federal judgeship for
Francis X. Morrissey, a crony of Joseph
P. Kennedy's. Its four-man "Spotlight"
investigative team picked up another
Pulitzer for a 1971 expose of municipal
scandals in neighboring Somerville. The
Globe, which had not backed a presi-
dential candidate since 1900, changed
policy by declaring for Humphrey in '68
and McGovern in '72. It was the third
U.S. daily (after the New York Times
and the Washington Post) to publish ex-
cerpts from the Pentagon papers.
The Globe is known -as "a writer's
paper"-permissively edited, and allow-
ing a variety of tone and approach. In
George Frazier, whose columns are' a
'continuing tirade against lapses in taste,
morals and common sense, it has one
of the few genuine eccentrics left in dai-
Calf V0fi10ll 0i0br
1VM
WINSHIP
ly journalism. Music Critic Michael
Steinberg's running quarrel with 1--rich
Leinsdorfs direction of the Boston Sym-
phony was a major factor in the mae-
stro's departure in 1969. Sport Colum-
nist Bud Collins is easily the best tennis
reporter in the country.
With a five-man bureau in Wash-
ington, the Globe's national coverage is
excellent. It is somewhat weaker in cov-
ering Boston's own sprawling suburbs.
Overall, the Globe is one of the coun-
try's most improved papers during the
past decade.
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Morning (cite. 081,766)
(1,157,032).
and Sunday
THE BOSTON GLOBE Gone from the front page are the
Morning (cite. 293,000). eV?tning (185,- old-fogyish'editorial cartoons, as well as
000) and Sunday (625.000). the proclamation that this is the "Amer-
Historically, Boston has been a bad ican Paper for Americans." The comic
newspaper town. The old saw used to strip Moon Alullins no longer adot ns the
run that the city's best newspaper was first page of the sports section, and most
respccte< Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/28: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100730003-4