Monday, November 26, 2007

What is a "Family Newspaper"?

I dropped in to read something off The Bulletin website today and noted their banner states they are "Philadelphia's Family Newspaper".

I don't know what that means. How is it a "Family Newspaper"?

Does it mean all of their content has a "G" rating or an "E for Everyone" label?

Does it mean they don't report on shootings, homicides, arrests, rapes, or any other crime element in the city?

Or is it more similar to "Family Style Restaurants" where the expectation is everyone will sit down at a table together and the various sections portioned out like the mashed potatoes?

My guess is that "Family Newspaper" refers to the conservative leanings of their editorials and I'm only basing that guess on the notion that "family values" is a tag line synonymous with conservative politics. I'm also guessing the whole point of publishing The Bulletin with its conservatively colored prose is to act as a rebuttal against the "liberal" Inquirer and the "liberal" media in general.

I could be completely wrong and I could live with being wrong about it, but I can't think of any other reason to add "family" before "newspaper". The answer to a press that leans too far in one political direction is not to publish a second paper equally leaning in the opposite direction.

The answer would be to publish a genuinely unbiased accounting of news and events. I don't need all kinds of inflammatory interpretation from either side. All I want is to know what's going on outside the walls of my house and little work cubicle. I can figure out how I feel or what I think about it on my own time.

It's a newspaper - the news on paper with news defined as the factual recounting of events that might affect me and mine and their future, and paper defined as the medium for delivering the news, be it a tangible printed piece or an electronic vision online.

Unfortunately, it's a distractingly silly phrase. I almost didn't bother reading any of it because I couldn't get past the notion that a conscious decision was made to describe "newspaper" with "family".

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