101 Things I Love About Sydney

Sydney's only daily newspaper (i count the Telegraph and MX as being nothing but gossip-columns to be used for wiping windscreens or mopping sewage overflows), The Sydney Morning Herald started life in 1831, and has been consistently going downhill ever since. Long ago a bastian for strong international correspondence and indepth coverage, in recent years it's grown to be a haven for underpaid 21-year old "sociology" journalists who endlessly hate on Gen-X and the baby boomers, the odd contradictory opinion piece, and lots of wire stories. The only original and strong journalist left from the class of '31 is Economics Editor Ross Gittens, a rare leftie and humanist economist who explains every nuance of the global economic system in a way that even a whingey, desperately lonely, late-night blogger can understand. I reckon he should be our treasurer one day, except for the fact he actually cares for people - that might work against him in politics.

And despite being left-leaning, The Herald is also elitist, something The Chaser pointed out beautifully back when it was a satirical newspaper and not an adjective. In a satire on the Herald in 1999, it jokingly pointed out the Herald's editors also had concerns for its readers in the western suburbs - West Pymble, West Turramurra and West Gordon. Ha!

But despite the fact quality has gone down at The Herald, and despite that content has been reduced and/or is endlessly recycled and that freelances are getting paid much less than they used to... god, I'd kill to write for 'em one day. Because it's the only proper newspaper we've got left in this town.