Houston Chronicle

I’ve had an account with the Houston Chronicle for many years. About five years ago I went digital only. I continue to have problems trying to open an article to read. It continues to tell me that I need to subscribe or sign in. When I sign in, I get the message that I need to subscribe or sign in. It is totally frustrating. Every now and then I can get to the site to actually read the chronicle. I am actually considering canceling my subscription because it’s useless. If I can’t get to read the articles even in the emails that I have selected to download, I have a problem, opening it up and get the same message over and over, please subscribe or sign in.

As a 12 year daily reader of the Chronicle on this app, I have lived through the good, the bad, the ugly, and the very ugly. For many of the earlier years, the problems primarily were with the apps broken functionality, instability, and accessibility. These early problems have been largely resolved by updates in recent years. Today, the problems relate to poor reporting of the journalism. As many other reviewers have highlighted, front page articles are far from the major news of the day. Instead, it is filled with insignificant local stories that remain on the front page for days at a time. How worthless is a digital newspaper whose front page stories are last week’s school board news! I suspect that the Houston Chronicle management has lost all interest in this iTunes app. Instead, they now offer their own digital subscription that is a high performing presentation of the day’s news, as printed in their daily print editions. I’ve taken advantage of a 6-month trial subscription and it is far better than the iTunes Chronicle app.

The Houston Chronicle used to be a newspaper. It has turned into nothing more than a propaganda sheet for the democratic party. We no longer can even read front page “news” stories that are not editorials. Some of the biggest stories that affect our very democracy are not even covered: The Russian collusion investigation findings. The Oval Office directing the FBI to spy on the incoming administration. Biden’s quid pro quo with Ukraine. Weaponizing the IRS against conservative organizations. The shutdown of coverage of the findings from the Hunter Biden laptop. The very real instances of fraudulent and unlawful conduct in our last election. The snap impeachment, conducted without even a single witness being called. I have found no mention of John Sullivan since the riot. No condemnation of the shutdown of speech on social media platforms. The Chronicle is complicit in all of these abuses of our democracy. You are only complicit now; you should realize that it’s only a matter of time until your “news” coverage will be dictated to you. A free and fair press is the guardian of democracy. Your job is to hold the politicians in check, and report abuses. Do. Your. Job.