Washington Times Over The Ny Times example essay topic

Throughout many generations and years gone bye the media and presentation of issues by news sources have influenced society's opinions on moral and governmental issues. Dating back to the writing of the constitution the general public was influenced by what was said in the media presentation. The framers of the American Constitution banned newspaper reporters from hearing any information regarding the constitutional meetings due to the fact that our founding fathers did not want to be influenced by the way the news was reported. In today's technological society this influential concept may be even more prevalent with the advancement of the internet and the easy accessible news. In order to be informed you no longer have to pay a bill to subscribe to your local newspaper, but you can simply click on a story on a website and read the same text that appears in local papers. Two sources which are both easily accessible and well respected are the New York Times and the Washington Times.

Both newspapers report on both national and local news pertaining to all areas that deemed being covered. Upon evaluating the ideology, bias, reporting style, and ease of learning new information, I found these two well respected and well known newspapers to be vastly different. Upon attempting to navigate around the two websites I found that locating stories and specific writings on the NY Times website was tougher than on the Washington Times website. The NY Times seemed to have many small headlines and appeared to be a bit cluttered, whereas the Washington Times had fewer and larger headlines which made making a selection easier. I believe that there is a small difference in the stories that the two papers report. The NY Times reports more stories that pertain to local news and more entertainment subjects than does the Washington Times.

The Washington Times seems to report news that pertains to national issues and politics rather than entertainment and services around the particular city of the newspaper. I chose to evaluate the two papers on Sunday, March 10, 2002. I found several news articles that were written on the same subject by different authors in both papers. The one article that particularly interested me, which was reported on in both sources, was an article about the United States decision to allow the construction and testing of nuclear bombs again. In the article in the NY Times entitled "US Nuclear Plan Sees New Weapons and New Targets", to be much more liberal that the Washington Times.

The Washington Times article entitled "Pentagon Plans use of Nuclear Weapons", seemed to be more conservative in reporting the facts in this story. The NY Times reported the story as if the US had already made a decision of who they were going to bomb, why they were bombing them, and when it would occur. The Washington Times simply reported the fact that Congress had made a decision to allow for nuclear bomb development and testing if need be, but with no intention to use these capabilities at this time. Upon reading the editorial section of the two newspapers I once again found that the NY Times was writing articles that pertained more to entertainment than politics. The Washington Times seemed to write articles strictly on political issues or issues relating to relationships with other countries. In my opinion, the actual text of the editorials once again shows the liberalism of the NY Times and the conservatism of the Washington Times.

The writers of the NY Times editorials seemed to favor more government intervention and action which would tend them to Liberalism. The Washington Times writers seemed to support the government, but not necessarily favor strong government intervention which would tend them towards Conservatism. In my opinion I would prefer to read the Washington Times over the NY Times. I believe both papers do an outstanding job, better than the majority of other newspapers I have had the chance to read, of presenting clear and correct news. However, I tend to be more conservative in my beliefs and enjoyed reading from the Washington Times point of view.