I am reminded of the 19th Century days when newspapers (the mass media of the day) were overtly partisan -- so much so that they had names like St Louis Democrat and Springfield (MA) Republican.

Ironically (from today's standpoint), my understanding is that the St Louis Globe-Democrat (at it was known for over 100 years) was the city's more conservative paper, while the St Louis Post-Dispatch (Joseph Pultitzer's paper, and still going) was the more liberal one.

Speaking of Springfield newspapers, I remember in the very early days of The Simpsons having a conversation with a friend about what the name of the Springfield paper would be. We agreed that, in keeping with the principles of the show, it had to be a name that was severely lame -- not merely dull like "Gazette", but dull and supremely insipid. We tossed out ideas like "The Springfield Springfieldian". Shortly thereafter, we found that the writers had chosen the name "Springfield Shopper", which was lamer than even our lamest ideas. Those guys are brilliant.