Quoted Text

To survive, newspapers must lose their biases

    The March 17 Gazette contains a story about the demise of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. As we read in that story, many newspapers are in trouble today. One reason certainly is the proliferation of television and Internet news sources.
    But another reason for the loss of readership by newspapers is their increasingly political bias.
    Newspapers have become — deliberately, I believe — agents of advocacy, rather than sources of broad-based news. In a country more or less split equally between conservatives and liberals, it should be obvious that if a newspaper favors one side or the other, it stands to lose roughly half of its readership. The New York Times is a blatant example.
    Before going out of business, the newspapers should consider returning to their original mission: The distribution of news regardless of which political philosophy it favors. If I am right, newspapers will see their readership numbers pick up. They will have a chance to recoup their historic place as a source of unbiased knowledge for the general public. In short, “editorial policy” should give way to “information policy.”
    It is significant to note that even if a paper shifts to Internet-only publication and continues its advocacy policies there, it probably will not be successful in that medium, either, because again it antagonizes half of its potential viewership.
    I greatly enjoy reading the Gazette with my breakfast, even though it seems to be getting thinner these days. I would sorely miss my local hard-copy newspaper.

    THEODORE G. MIHRAN
    Niskayuna