The local newspaper is a hideous rag but the weekend edition contains coupons which I save and actually use at Schnucks for double the face value up to $1; I really do save money. I also like to browse through the weekly Target flyer (is Isaac Mizrahi on sale?) and Walgreens flyer (Rimmel cosmetics are frequently two-for-one).
This newspaper's editorial stance is as predictable as it is reprehensible--far right-leaning, Republicans-can-do-no-wrong, liberals are communists at best, Nazis at worst. The editorial cartoons are insulting and a lot of the time, simply not fact-based. The recent Obama cartoons typically have a racist undertone. Instead of covering more local news or events, the editors pull wire-service copy about what's happening in Hays, Kansas, or someone's ballpoint pen collection (also located in Kansas).
The online commentary is a horror story. Sometimes I visit there just to see what people are saying and I always end up fleeing in terror. The forums have been taken over by a handful of self-righteous right-wingers who, like the gnome under the bridge, wait for someone to come along who disagrees with their anti-evolutionary, the-Bible-tells-me-so worldview, so they can unleash their rude, uninformed, misspelled and wrongly punctuated accusations. Of course the poor commenter, just trying to express a sane opinion, is urged to leave the city, the state or the God-bless-her USA. It's hard to have a dialogue.
It's the type of newspaper that honors parents with way too many children, regular church-goers.
But what would you expect in a state capital full of big families, churches, politicians and REAL Americans?
So what should I do? I hate supporting this offensive publication. But I enjoy the coupons and ad flyers. How would you solve this daunting Moral Dilemma?
1 comment:
I'd write letters to the editor, as snarky as possible, about how you wouldn't put their right-wing rag at the bottom of a bird cage. Suggest that each Sunday they deliver just the coupons - and maybe the funnies - and keep their backwoods neofascism to themselves.
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