Syracuse University students should petition the Student Association regarding its Student Readership Program to replace USA Today with The Wall Street Journal because we need more ideological diversity in our news.

Admittedly, USA Today is not unpopular or inherently bad at delivering news. In terms of circulation, it is among the top daily newspapers in the United States.

However, USA Today, with its colorful USA Today Snapshots, centrist approach and balanced opinion section, does little to counter the decidedly left-leaning New York Times.

Therefore, we need The New York Times’ natural enemy: The Wall Street Journal.

USA Today’s peaceful co-existence with The New York Times does nothing to challenge our convictions. In terms of ideological diversity and the Student Readership Program, we are not getting our money’s worth.

For instance, consider the front pages of The New York Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal the day after the final debate between President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney.

The New York Times reported Obama “went on the offense from the start, lacerating his challenger,” and characterized Romney as “less aggressive.” The spin: Romney was lacerated. In kind but less-colorful language, USA Today described Obama as “aggressive” and Romney as “impassive.”

Of the three papers, only The Wall Street Journal characterized Romney favorably.

The Wall Street Journal acknowledged Obama’s “more combative” debate performance but attributed this to Obama’s need to catch up after losing the lead in many polls. Further, The Wall Street Journal described Romney’s debate performance not as weak but as “(remaining) above the fray” while “broadly critiquing (Obama’s) leadership.”

The New York Times and USA Today, to varying degrees, characterized Obama as strong and Romney as weak. Only The Wall Street Journal characterized Obama as the candidate playing catch-up and Romney as the candidate who exchanged ideas without being drawn into argumentative debate.

Allie Curtis, President of SA, was the focus of a SU News article that mentioned her support for the Student Readership Program. The article defined the Student Readership Program as an initiative that “enables The New York Times to be offered … on campus for free.”

The article did not mention USA Today. This suggests that at SU, having free access to USA Today is less important and less sought after than free access to The New York Times.

This may be the case because USA Today is left-of-center, but less assertive than The New York Times in this regard and viewed as less serious than the paper in general.

On the other hand, The Wall Street Journal is, like The New York Times, ideologically assertive. In addition, The Wall Street Journal is recognized as a serious newspaper focused on business and economics.

Hence, even without considering the political implications, the business and economic information in The Wall Street Journal would add more value to the Student Readership Program than what is currently added by USA Today.

In short, reading about Democrats “lacerating” Republicans every day benefits no one. We must opt for more than being half-informed, and for this, we need The Wall Street Journal.

Michael Stikkel is a junior computer engineering major and MBA candidate in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at mcstikke@syr.edu.

Published on January 21, 2013 at 5:50 pm