A reader writes:

I haven’t watched network news since high school in the mid 1980’s (I survived anti-Reagan hatred, but the bashing of VP Bush put me over the edge).
I have been reading daily papers since 7th grade. Today I subscribe to the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. It’s a low key paper that gets 100% of its national/international news from the big wire services…AP, NYT, LA Times, McClatchy. I generally skim the “A” section, but usually just go to the local news, sports and comic sections. I believe I am about to end my lifetime of daily newspaper reading though.
– The Palin bashing is so over the top in this paper. Everyday they have one or two anti-Palin stories. Even if it is just 3 paragraphs of repeating earlier stories, but they have to have something each day to hit her with. For example, they have run many stories on “troopergate” (aka Tasergate), but not once, never, have they printed the reason this trooper was to be fired. The man attacking his step child with a stun gun, the drinking on the job, etc.
– Comics. They suck. There are several leftwing political comics in there. I can live with putting the “A” section directly into the recycling bin, and still feel I am getting my money’s worth with the rest of the paper. But when I can’t even read the comic page without any political bashing, then I draw the line.
I’ve had enough. Goodbye newspapers. I’ll miss you. Or maybe I won’t. Things have been fine the past 22 years without old media evening news.

Here’s an example of AP’s “troopergate” coverage. It’s unusual in that it actually mentions the Tasering-the-11-year-old-kid episode, albeit in the seventh paragraph. Many of the AP stories on the subject don’t mention that fact at all:

Wooten, 36, admits using a Taser on his stepson but said he poses no threat to the Palin family and didn’t drink in his patrol car as they alleged in a 2005 complaint before Palin was elected governor.

That “before Palin was elected governor” sort of sneaks in, doesn’t it?

I’ve heard from dozens of readers, from Philadelphia to Amarillo, who’ve stopped buying their local newspapers because of Associated Press bias. It may not be the main cause of the decline of the American newspaper, but it’s certainly a factor. AP is a nonprofit, and it’s helping covert a lot of its client newspapers into nonprofits, too.