The New York Times and the Onion

Well, these two are pretty much opposite.
The New York Times is more up-to-date because they have to be. The onion has much more leniency because their audience is of the younger generation and their articles do not affect anyone or spread actual breaking news stories, like the NYT does.

It is argued that the NYT has a slight liberal bias. The Onion has an overwhelming liberal bias.

The Onion takes the more "social" news and charaterizes the politicans while poking fun at them. The Onion takes the news stories and makes the situation (that is usually quite pressing) something that we can laugh at.

My guess is that the Onion looks at how the printed articles of the New York Times are received by the community (looking at the comments?) and makes a new article that sheds light on the issue in relation to the "Average Joe". Another way that the Onion helps the news cycle is that by poking fun at "breaking news", the situation seems less dire than it did when it was printed in black and white.
Example-
The New York Times--- "Perry Ends Bid for Presidency"
Oh, no! He's dropping out! Everyone freak out! 
... and here comes the Onion, making the situation less stressful and more fun...
the Onion --- "Rick Perry Experiences Overwhelming Feeling Of Clarity And Contentment In Final Moments Before Death Of Campaign"
 Giggle. 


In relation to the "press-sphere", the New York Times is much more highly regarded, and a real tool that educated citizens use to keep up-to-date with world and national news. If Jeff Jarvis had included the  NYT and the Onion in his circle pictures, the NYT would definitely be much more prominent. The Onion takes "social", non-pressing news and makes it something we can all step back from and think wow, this is a little ridiculous. I think that the Onion provides a much needed service to the American people. We need a little laughter in our news!


El fiin.