Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Doonesbury & the Fort Worth Star-Telegram


You may remember me mentioning that I am up in Tacoma. And that I'm reading the daily Tacoma News Tribune. And that the News Tribune and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram are both part of the same newspaper chain, that being McClatchy.

You may also remember me mentioning that the Star-Telegram has been shrinking, ever smaller, for quite some time, with fewer and fewer features and columnists.

Both of these papers have the Doonesbury strip on their editorial pages. When the Star-Telegram had its most recent makeover they shrunk Doonesbury so small you needed a magnifying glass to read it. After readers complained, Doonesbury was made a bit bigger. But it is still hard to read. Sometimes I have to get it under bright light to be able to read it.

So, one would think that the Tacoma News Tribune would have a similar itsy bitsy version of Doonesbury. You would be wrong. It is about twice the size of the Star-Telegram version, I can read it without my reading glasses in natural light.

I think this incompetently sized Star-Telegram version of Doonesbury is a perfect metaphor for what is wrong with Fort Worth's bad newspaper of record, what with their apparent 'Readers Be Damned" editorial philosophy.

To read Doonesbury in all its glory, go here.

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