When I say that this is probably the worst newspaper on earth, just trust me. The Daily Bruin, how do I say this ... sucks. I'm a freshman here and oh my god, I miss my old high school paper already because at least it covers issues that are actually RELEVANT to school life.

One of the hallmarks of modern newspapers is its claim to objectivity. Of course, they're not successful all the time but well they try. Not the Bruin, this organized inkblot on dead trees. The Daily Bruin covers the stories that are only of concern to the extremist left-wing (not to mention student funded) student associations. The paper wants to seem like it knows the BIG issues of the world and they are better people because of it. Big issues concerning mainly 'divestments', 'fair-trade', and 'equity.' I commend newspapers that cover these issues OBJECTIVELY but my god, the Daily Bruin thinks that a Nader voter automatically qualify him as a globalization expert. Actually, one of the more telling signs of the paper's lack of objectivity, is that most of the opinions are coming from amateurish student organizations. The reporters never bother to do their own research and instead rely on the figures fed to them. You can click on www.dailybruin.ucla.edu and just read the articles for a week and you will know what I'm saying.

The paper almost never covers the dorms and it's goings on. It doesn't tell you secrets about surviving UCLA. No tips on anything for that matter. It's not a STUDENT paper. It's a boring rag. It's irrelevant to student lives. And yet, I pick it up hoping that some writer with no agenda tells me the cheapest place to buy things, what places should I avoid at night, how do I navigate UCLA's Byzantine bureaucracy? Daily Bruin's answer? Oppression.

Oppression is a word that the Daily Bruin never fails to mention in every single issue. Which brings me to its notoriously bad opinion section, Viewpoint. There are 36,000 students in the campus and not one can write a good thought-provoking and original article. What we get in the section are old re-treads of the affirmative-action issue. It's been FIVE years since the UC Regents banned affirmative action and yet, the pro-and-con columnists are introducing nothing new to the issue. In fact, I swear, that all recent affirmative-action columns were recycled from 5 years ago with the author's name changed.

And ugh! It gets worse people. All the columnists seem to confuse rants with good writing. Every issue there's an "under-represented minority" pretty much blaming whitey and how he/she/transgendered are being secretly oppressed by phallic pens and nuclear families that can rape you by their existence alone. Everyone wants to be a victim, I have yet to read an article by someone who capped her rapists or an immigrant who extols the American Dream (hmm, that would be me). You have to know that nearly all articles in the Bruin is political. No one writes by personifying an object, or use alliteration or employ vivid imagery or hell even humor and other things we associate with being readable. Not in the Daily Bruin paper.

Well, I did say 'NEARLY all articles are political." The Arts and Entertainment section is superb and covers the infinite cultural happenings in LA with sophistication. It would be downright unforgiveable if it wasn't done that way.

Recommended: No

Describe the newspaper's political views: It is liberal