Fixing 'the Essential Newspaper': For me, the issue at the top of the list is whether the press has indeed been too timid in probing and challenging an administration that is, in contrast, perhaps the most skilled in modern times at diminishing and closing off many of the so-called mainstream media.
That may be the substantive challenge. Here's the practical one from a reader in New Hampshire. "I got rid of my TV, stopped my lifelong love affair with the N.Y. Times and Washington Post (I'm 83) when O.J. Simpson coverage and Princess Diana coverage just wiped me out. TV was the worst, but the newspapers weren't far behind. I had a brand new Apple computer with a big screen, a new easy chair in front of the screen and enough computer skills to make the type large enough for easy viewing. . . . I really thought it was only a temporary hiatus until the offensive coverage was over, but I have never gone back. I still read the Times and Post on the Web, along with the Los Angeles Times, Manchester Guardian, Der Spiegel and an eclectic bunch more. I Google the world and it waits for me. When I got broadband, then I knew I was hooked forever."
