Who Cares About California?

Who Cares About California?

by Roxy Haji

 

 

            One of the big news stories of the week was about how my home state, California, finally came to a “solution” for its enormous, 26.3 billion dollar (and growing and every day) deficit. After what seemed like forever, the Republicans and Democrats collectively agreed on a new budget deal to plug the state’s financial gap, leaving only The Governator to give his autograph before the new deal can be passed. I analyzed the reporting on this big story using four news sources, all of which had their articles online. The New York Times, BBC, USA Today and The Los Angeles Times had quite different ways of informing the public about the California budget deal.

            The first article I read was from the BBC webpage. Its length was the first thing that caught my eye: it was rather short. But I wasn’t too surprised, considering news about California must not be of grave concern to people in a completely different country with completely different accents thousands of miles away.

         Then I read the USA Today version and was shocked. Its article on California made the BBC’s article look like a PhD dissertation. It was two sentences. In fact, here it is:

 

                  “The California Assembly has approved a plan to close most of

                   a $26.3 billion deficit. The legislation now goes to Gov. Arnold

                  Schwarzenegger, who is expected to sign it.”

 

         After reading USA Today’s report, if I can even call it that, I read The New York Times’ article. The New York Times was nice enough to devote a whole page to California’s crisis, but I did notice a cynical tone and felt more like someone with a slant was giving me the news, not an objective reporter. Words like “nebulous” and “oddities” found their way into the article in, what I thought, were inappropriate contexts.

         The Los Angeles Times was the last paper I read and, of course, its report on its home state was much more detailed. And one would hope so. The article was very in-depth and very impartial. I couldn’t tell if the individual writing it was a Democrat or a Republican or was for the budget deal or not for the budget deal. All in all, it was informative and unbiased.

            Out of the four newspapers, my favorite is The Los Angeles Times because USA Today is too hasty and shallow for me, the BBC is a great source for global, objective news, but not so much for American news, and The New York Times is too biased and has a not-so-subtle slant. I used to read The New York Times exclusively and mock those who read The Los Angeles Times (when I lived back in L.A., since nobody reads The Los Angeles Times out here), but a few months ago I began to recognize more and more its sometimes cynical and partial tone and it turned me off a little bit, so I turned to The Los Angeles Times, which is actually quite good, in my opinion.