After reading Jeff Jarvis blog post, What Became Of The Times & Co?, I wonder whether/how USA Today contributes to the problem Jeff describes. One of Jeff’s theories of why The New York Times is in it’s current state of disfunction is self entitlement to the “mass,” which I take to mean all of us in the United States. While The Times has always been “the paper of record,” supposedly for the country, many people, including myself, really didn’t think of a national newspaper until USA Today. Is the attempt to appeal to everyone in the country causing The Times whipsaw of reporting? If it is not the only factor, it surely is a huge contributing factor.