In Oklahoma City, we have one really big major newspaper and a whole bunch of smaller ones. This may seem too easy, but one of them has to be the worst. Check out the nominees and vote after the jump.
The Oklahoman:
Let’s see. A university report named it the worst newspaper in the country, it publishes a daily prayer on the front page, and its local nickname is the Jokelahoman. They are now even starting to look to us for story ideas (see Gassaway, Mike). They also employ Jenni Carlson. The Oklahoman is a number one seed when it comes to bad newspapers.
Oklahoma Gazette:
Journalistic standards be damned! The Oklahoma Gazette lost all my respect when they published some silly feature article about a local blog last May. They also publish ads for “massage parlors,” but according to Clark Matthews that’s not a bad thing.
Look at OKC:
I’ve never really understood Look at OKC. All they do is publish pictures of my ex-wife and other drunkards at local bars, and then charge advertisers a lot of money to advertise with them. They also have a bad theme song.
The Journal Record:
Although it’s edited well, if you don’t like reading oil, gas and legal news, you should probably avoid The Journal Record. However, if you have trouble sleeping each night, it would be a good nighttime read.
OKC Friday:
I don’t really know too much about OKC Friday because I got turned down for a subscription due to my “lack of affluence.” They may also be the only local newspaper that employs a McGuiness sports beat writer.
Worst OKC Metro Newspaper
- The Oklahoman (58%, 319 Votes)
- OKC Friday (14%, 77 Votes)
- LOOK at OKC (13%, 73 Votes)
- Oklahoma Gazette (9%, 50 Votes)
- The Journal Record (6%, 33 Votes)
Total Voters: 552
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I’d love to vote for the Gazette. I gag as Robyn Meyers hides behind his pulpit and pushes every UberLiberal Agenda point that the wackos can throw out. But, the Oklahoman has a Sports page to butcher–AND WIMGO!! Gotta go with the Dark Tower on this one.
It always amazes me when the Gazette is labeled as some sort of liberal mouthpiece, though I suppose if all you have to compare it to is the Daily Oklahoman, I can see why.
Also, the Columbia Journalism Review already did this for you in 1999: http://tinyurl.com/223nh7
I hate that stuff Robin Meyes spits out…..peace…feeding the hungry…tolerance….stewardship for the environment….throwing the money changers out of the temple….how could anyone make a name for themselves doing crap like that!
Yes, R Meyers is a very close second to JC. Sarcasm. The Friday is the only paper I know of locally that blatantly trades editorial space for ad buys. They all do it, but most have the decency to do it backhandedly, on the DL.
The ONLY reason I read the Gazette is that they sometimes print articles by Robin Meyers.
I do NOT subscribe to the Daily Joklahoman because of their editorial policy, although I recently got a letter to the editor published!
What is it with all the hatred spewed at Robin Meyers?
Is he calling the shots too close to home for the comfort of smug, ignorant Okies?
He’s obviously hit a little too close to home for Reverend Kern who felt it necessary to respond to Robin in The Gazette a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, he feels that calling gays “worse than terrorists” is a good way of expressing love for our neighbor because Jesus said we shouldn’t divorce. (Read it for yourself, I think you’ll see I summarized it pretty well.)
Heh. I’m afraid OCRUDCO has broken the curve on this one. Sad though, they threw the bar on the ground and these also-rans tripped over it.
Meh.
http://www.mayflowerucc.org/listening/PeaceMarchSpeech112004.pdf
Uhh….Lets see.
-Tired, old talking point. Baseless
-No
-Not True
-Blatantly not true.
-Didn’t do it.
Blah-Blah-Blah
I have never had my picture in LOOK while drinking at a bar. For this reason, it gets my vote. BTW, Robin is kinda cute
But, in the Gazette, at least you get the weekly Adventures of Benwick and Scooper!
It’s pretty simple. If you don’t like what’s being written, don’t read it. Freedom of the press is insured. Freedom of the individual requires responsibility for one’s actions. To be a victim of editorial policy is a personal choice. Another option, start your own newspaper and write what you want. That is what got the blog phenomena going in the first place.
I don’t think it’s quite fair to judge the Oklahoman now the same way back when it was the Daily Oklahoman under E.K. Gaylord. Since Christy Everest has taken the reigns, there have been many progressive changes in the Oklahoman. Sure it still has problems, but the paper isn’t the same as it used to be and the policies have changed and will continue to change as the old leave and the new come in. Change is a slow process and doesn’t happen overnight. As a matter of fact, the NAA did a spotlight on the Oklahoman and have now called it one of the most progressive news organizations in America.
Look@OKC on the other hand…. there’s no saving that….
The only decent one I’ve seen was VOX. Brandon and George did their best, but it wasn’t quite enough to survive.
how is friday in 3rd place?! that rag has no news value at all. make all the jokes you want about the others, but really, when have you ever “learned” something from OKC Friday — besides what day of the week it is.
I actually worked for the OKC Friday just out of college. Most of the advertising is trade to remodel the owners homes in Nichols Hills, cover their travel expenses, provide them with new cars every couple years and pay their tabs at Coach House, The Metro and OKC Country Club. All of this while their AE’s are starving to death making a mere 12K a year. Then when you start building up your client base a little and start getting some commission you get knocked back down with them taking your accounts away and turning them into house accounts. It is the case also that they will sell editorial.
the reason i know not to trust Friday is that some of their staff members’ email addresses end in “yahoo.com.” i do not trust any business that shares an email address with me — unless it’s the yahoo founder!
Ron is right. the oklahoman has changed for the better. i don’t give it all up to christy though, i think it has a lot to do with a younger, gayer staff. young minds bring fresh stories, and gay minds make the stories that more fabulous!
example of the “progressive” oklahoman:
they hire a minority. that lone hire subsequently doubles the number of minorities in staff positions. they then send out a litany of press releases to everyone trumpeting the fact that they have doubled the number of minorities working in the newsroom. i guess they have nowhere to go but up…
it’s still a bunch of crusty pale males running things up there. but fear not: the newspaper industry and it’s archaic business model is all but dead. they are counting the days, and crap like wimgo and look aren’t gonna save their bacon.
Hmmm, when I searched http://www.naa.org for “progressive” and “The Oklahoman”, the only thing that came up was an article written in 2000, where an employee of the paper is quoted: “This paper has always been very progressive and innovative…” Yeah, I’m not buying it.
http://www.naa.org/technews/tn000304/visits.html
The most recent article about The Oklahoman on naa.org praises their online video program. I think we all have seen how pathetically awesome those videos are.
http://www.naa.org/Resources/Articles/Digital-Media-Online-Video-Snapshots-Oklahoman/Digital-Media-Online-Video-Snapshots-Oklahoman.aspx
You forgot OKC Business which is also ran by Tierra Media Group.
What about the Gazette’s business weakly, OKC Business?
Equally snooze-worthy but it does have creative layouts and
color pictures throughout. (The editor, Heidi, is hot, too.) That said … The Friday “paper” and its publisher/editor/Nichols Hillsbilly/Gaylord family wannabe J. Leland Borely has to be the absoulte worst in the metro … maybe the world.
Sarah, what is that thing you just did, where you read someone’s dubious statement, then researched it to find out whether or not it was true, then wrote about it exposing it as a fraud? I’ve never heard of that.
Signed,
The Daily Oklahoman News Room
PS For the numerous people who feel the need to let us all know that it’s now called The Oklahoman and not The Daily Oklahoman (like this was some kind of earth-shattering change that happened years and years ago) we DON’T CARE!
There is a reason the worst paper in the country is called the Jokelahoman or the Daily Dissapointment. They are looked at around the country as an example how not to run a paper. They are the most biased paper ever. How can they not be biased when half of OU has the Gaylord name and the new OKC NBA team is owned by the paper’s owners. And when your best reporter is Jenni “give me another donut before I eat you” Carlson, you know you’re in trouble.
The best thing about the OK Gazette is the periodic essay by Robin Meyers and Trudeau’s Doonesbury.
I don’t really know too much about OKC Friday because I got turned down for a subscription due to my “lack of affluence.”
Does anyone find it strange how they cover the Village? The Village, really? Affluent, ha. Just like how it covers Casady, McGuinness, Heritage, and John Marshall. Which one doesn’t belong?
Another annoying newspaper figure is Mary Melon’ (pronounced Melown with a fake ass snooty accent), publisher for the Journal Record. From what I understand she is a nightmare to work for. She is pretty much a feminist and does not like to staff men. Those that do work for her are treated inferiorly and often ran off promptly.
While it is debatable whether the oklahoman has any news and/or editorial value, where they really get to you is in classified advertising rates. A simple 3 line ad in the weekend editions will run the average person over $100, even if you submit it online which has to cost them next to nuthin’ to produce.
But, it does rate a little higher than the Jehovah’s Witness Watchtower but below the Bargain Post.
I’m dizzy with unsaid comments. Will someone get Ryan mcneill in here to set the record straight?
The worst paper is the Tulsa Journal Record. The editor, Ted Strooley, used to dress up like a clown at kid’s parties. He still writes like one, too. A clown, that is.
I like the Oklahoman…I guess I’m just not looking for things to rip on as much as some others.
When you apply for an internship at The Oklahoman only to get a rejection letter full of typos, you count your blessings and move on to another opportunity. I’m pretty sure my sister dodged a bullet on that one. From what I’ve heard about working there - and read in their own print - it’s not innovative at all!
Another crappy rag is Edmond Life & Leisure. Just like the OKC Friday it is a social POS that caters to the elite “Beautiful People”. As a matter of fact, the publisher/owner of EL&L is a Friday/Gourley product.
The Journal Record is full of Associated Press articles. What gives?
Gotta be OKC Friday. Any newspaper that could give The Oklahoman a run for “most conservative” is worth a vote. I love Leland. Only dude I know that would show up to his “induction” into the ranks of distinguished alumni at OU and tell a rape joke. Classic.
Dean’s Laugh is right. The worst paper is the Journal Record. This paper blows Donkey. Seriously. AP stories, and a bunch of hooey about Tulsa. Nobody gives a damn about Tulsa. People in Tulsa hate Tulsa. The editor writes a “blog,” and he thinks he’s hilarious. Now that I know that he used to be a clown makes total sense. I bet he writes his blog in his old clown outfit. I bet his old lady likes that.
The Oklahoman is innovative. The are leading the way in the worst newspaper in the country. They are finding new ways to get worse and worse. They have added horrible videos and blogs to their list of disgraces. And if you see their staff, it’s just a bunch of obese white men (or people that look like men, Jenni). They should do less writing and more jogging.
Thank goodness that we have this diverse blog to protect us. Oh wait…
I was going to ask why Bethany’s “The Tribune” was not on here… Then I realized that the list included newspapers that people actually read.
Looks like the Daily Disappointment still reigns.
The Oklahoman has not improved. If I get a free one, I use it for lining things like bird cages, cat liter boxes, etc. There is too much propaganda in it. They are against every one but a Neo Con and have no real news to make it worthy of anything but animal droppings.
As for Robin, he is right on the mark. It is too bad that a lot of people in Oklahoma (who are brain washed by The Oklahoman, local news media, some Christian right churches, and national FOX News) do not see fascism at work. These people would have followed Hitler off a short pier.
Love The Gazette since you can’t get The Oklahoman to print anything but trash in their editorials. The Oklahoman is very biased against the truth. That is why Oklahoma is so far behind on what is really going on in the world.
For a State that says they support the soldiers, they sure don’t want to know how our poor troops are being exploited and are dying, or being maimed, in a war that was not needed in Iraq.
They don’t want to know how crooked our representatives are here and in Washington, D.C. They don’t want to accept the fact that they have been voting for corrupt politicians. They don’t want to admit that all the problems we have in government is from the crooks they support because of the media propaganda.
I hope they are enjoying our bad economy, high gas and food prices, lack of health care, Medicare cuts, jobs going overseas, and most importantly our soldiers fighting in Iraq for oil.
If The Oklahoman, local media, and national FOX News can keep the public dumb, then our representatives who are getting rich can get away with anything…including murdering our soldiers.
all of the comments are so funny, i’ve been lauging my tail off — and then i read claudia’s, got depressed and did some work. i guess the truth hurts.
back to the funny
The Journal Record is the best newspaper in Oklahoma City, and they don’t sacrifice their editorial content for advertising space. There’s a reason people leave the Oklahoman, the Tulsa World and the Gazette to write for the Journal Record - it’s a paper that actually lets people write and report, rather than slashing everything so they can run dumbed-down breif copy and giant ads. When I was there, it was a great place to work. It’s always a delicate balance when a salesperson becomes a publisher and is charged with managing creative people and creative content, but they always did a nice job of letting their staff do their jobs. As far as I can tell, they still do. It’s a good paper.
Yeesh, Matt, lay off the SuckSauce. While I’m at it, the Gazette blows as well. It’s a shopper, just like Frosty Troy used to call it. Watch people in a restaurant whip through it when they are waiting for take-out. Nobody READS it anymore, ever since they watered down the content, and took the personality of the paper by eliminating columnists. Oh, and by the by, it is hardly a liberal rag. It is the laughingstock of the national guild of alternative newsweeklies for being the most conservative “alt” paper in the country.
I’m with Dean’s Fake Laugh - the SuckSauce is pouring a bit thick. No one even reads the Tulsa Journal Record, not even Tulsans. I wonder if they even HAVE a circulation department anymore. It’s packed with AP stories, which we get in every other paper. There’s no original content, with the exception of ripped off stories from other papers. And, despite my disappointment with the Joklahoman, at least they get some real business stories (sometimes), AND their business reporters and editor have a little credibility in the community, which is more than can be said for the Tulsa Journal staff. Hell, even OKC Business scoops the Journal Record, and its a bi-weekly!!!
If it weren’t for their legals section, which is the bulk of its content, they’d be six feet under for sure!
Oh, and the reason the Journal Record doesn’t run “giant ads” is because they can’t sell any ads, which is because nobody will buy any ads, which is because they know nobody reads the paper.
It is quite clear that The Oklahoman is the worst paper in the United States. The people who think otherwise have never been exposed to true Pulitzer Prize winning materials. It most definitely is not progressive with Op-Eds from Robert Novak and the like. Unfortunately, the longer people subscribe to this rag the longer this state will be uninformed about the real world. But OU football is primary to the typical Oklahoman reader, not knowledge.
I look forward to the articles in the Gazette, especially the ones written by Robin Meyers.
Regarding Chris’ post yesterday afternoon … are you describing The Journal Record, or the Oklahoma Department of Commerce? From what I hear, it’s the same situation there, too. My dubious source says the “man joke” at DOC is that if you pee standing up, you don’t stand a chance of being promoted.
Shocking, Tixe Ylno! I hear the exact same thing. Interesting…
From what I understand, the reason Mary Melon at the Journal Record holds such a grudge against men is because she had such a hard time working her way to the top past the good ol’ boys. Now that she is there it is payback time. You may note that they have an annual feature called “Woman of the Year” but no “Man of the Year”, hmmmmm.
That’s why she promoted Zipper the Clown to editor.
And Zipper easily could be named “Clown of the Year”. Now there’s an idea!
The Oklahoman has been quite progressive in embracing new media. It’s more about engagement than eyeballs these days, and in that regard they’re building quality products for their readers and advertisers. Even if you hate the content, I guarantee you’re consuming more news from them than ever. They’ve also created quite an open platform for readers to express their opinions on editorial. And if someone thinks they can tell a better story, there’s plenty of opportunity for citizen journalism with their MyNewsOK initiative.
does cow bones work for the dark tower? if so, hook a sistah up with a jobby job…nevermind
the gazzette blows… a bunch of wannabe Kerouacs pulling out the old thesaurus to trick readers into believing their opinions are intelligent. While some points are valid their “look what we’ve uncoverd” attitude makes me want to vommit. They dont present facts they save lives… The writers are just like you and me only slightly more stupid and wear “alternative” clothing and eyewear.
Issues only make it off the rack to make the “i have to eat or im going to die” breakfast following the “how did I get here?” one night stand and date 50 “we no longer have anything to talk about” dinners slightly less awkward.
I honestly cannot remember the last time I made it through a single article in that crap rag without thinking of the movie Magnolia. But I’ll keep picking them up so i can flip pages and dicuss erotic massage.
@funny gal
No.
However, I do know of quite a few open reporter jobs, though you’d have to move about 1,500 miles away from OKC.
It’s a good thing the broadcasters didn’t ask us to pick the worst overall media outlet. It’d be hard for me to decide which tv station has the worst broadcast.. Between spending a quarter of the broadcast telling us that it’s going to be sunny the next week (unless you’re Gary England, in which case you’re apparently guiding a small family into their storm shelter over the airwaves, even if there’s no storm on the horizon) and replaying stories already broadcast as “breaking news.”
I guess the station managers assume that people forget everything they hear between five and six p.m., so they can re-use the same “breaking” news (which probably happened in the morning anyways) over and over again.
I do find it funny that the broadcasters are calling foul over a newspaper printing a story they had run, when it’s standard fare for all the tv stations to rip news from the pages of the papers and the AP wires and present it as their own reporting.
And lets not forget the credo, if you can’t get it on film, it’s not worth covering. That is, unless you can re-use the same gas-price graphic you’ve been using the last several years to repeat that prices are, as they’ve been doing, going up.
And have you ever watched on the weekend? They will replay stories that happened on Friday and still claim it’s breaking. Of course, you never have to worry about them cutting their puff-pieces from the airwaves. Without TV news, who would we have to show us the different grill models?
I’ll bet if you poll the movers and shakers in OKC, as well as a lot of media types, they’ll tell you the Journal Record is the most respected and thorough (business, legal, government) newspaper around.