I wish there was a left leaning national daily tabloid I could go buy and

[laststeamtrain]

read (and look at) right now. A combination of USA TODAY and the MIRROR in the UK.
I could leave it on the bus for others to read or at the diner or maybe take it to work and leave it in the break/lunch room.
Lot's of graphics of foolish Bush administration figures. Emotionally moving pics of what tax cuts mean to real people in NOLA.
Contests, celebrity BS, fiery populist columns like Breslin's in NEWSDAY yesterday.
I'd like to see this as the next step from AAR.

[wake.up.america]

1. I would like to see news program. Honest to the point . A news...

program with just the facts. No BS like FOX.

If people knew how many people were hanging out their windows waiting for help, then if they knew it had been up Bush provide the material and manpower to rescue these people, more would be upset. As it is now, it makes you dizzy trying to figure who was responsible for what.


Facts, facts, facts... irrefutable hard facts.

[laststeamtrain]

3. Why there isn't a 24/7 national news service like BBC baffles me...

What do UK people pay for it? Pennies a year? A few dollars? Sometimes I just want to be able to turn on a station(radio or TV) just like you describe. All calm, rational presentation of facts and features with knowledgeable pros offering analysis and commentary.

I also want the populist tabloid newspaper.

[julianer]

5. It's about $15 per month

per household with a TV. You can have more than one TV at no extra cost.

It is not always so calm and rational. The BBC has its critics from both left and right and it also comes under pressure from politicians and governments - to what extent this is successful is hard to tell.

It has failed to report anything accurate from Falluja and it has asked no tough questions of Blair about the Downing Street Memos.

It has a history of conforming to governmental interests in times of crisis and is not above distorion and misrepresentation as in the miners' strike of the 80's.

[laststeamtrain]

7. That much, huh? Thanks for the info.

I guess the pressures you mention cause the lapses. I listen to Live/Five and the world service online sometimes. As NPR gets ever more timid BBC stills sounds good to me.
I try to get a spectrum. I don't mind outright partisanship and advocacy at all. It can hardly be avoided. There's good stuff on US 'community' listener-supported stations amidst the...er...ah...less than rigorous.
I guess it's a 24/7 'always there' quality on radio I'm after.
Again thanks for the info. Best...

[rman]

2. I'm not so sure USA Today and the Mirror are that left-leaning

Surely The Nation and Mother Jones are more left-leaning, though they are not daily.
And there's Democracy Now (www.democracynow.org), which is daily, but it's not a paper.

[laststeamtrain]

4. I meant the distribution of USA TODAY and the mix of the MIRROR.

I think DEMOCRACY NOW is very good. I like that it's on demand online.
Wouldn't it be great if the writers from the NATION and Mo Jo had the distribution daily of USA TODAY with the 'pop' BS paying the bills and getting the 'eyeballs'?

[julianer]

6. Are you mad?

The perfectly adjusted free market system must have kicked in to produce a plethora, surely? :sarcasm:

[laststeamtrain]

8. Hehehe...nope. Not yet.

[LTR]

9. Tabloids tend to attract the lowest common denominator

That's why they lean conservative. Not as much thinking required.

Does your town publish an 'alternative' weekly? That's about as close as you'd likely get. Most of these tend to be very liberal.

Otherwise, if you can sacrifice the coin, Rolling Stone magazine has always been pretty liberal.

[Land Shark]

10. would be great if someone would trust the reader's intelligence

and give links to "emerging" facts and theories and "let the reader decide". You know, "We report, you decide", which has lately become "we decide what to report"