behind the news

Very Hidden

October 21, 2005

For all of you who think that USA Today is incapable of hard-hitting cultural reporting — and you know who you are — think again. Today, the Web site of the paper best known for its excellent national sports page and lovely pie charts, sheds some light on a controversial shift in the national zeitgeist.

The divisive question, as posed by this morning’s USA Today Snapshot, gets right to the heart of the controversy: “How is milk measuring up to tea?”

The Snapshot not only dares to ask the question, but goes on to answer it as only USA Today can — with a nifty, colorful graphic, pitting American milk usage from 1990 to 2002 versus American tea consumption over the same period. And the results?

Tea wins! There’s less milk than there used to be in the milk glass, but the teacup is getting fuller!

In the words of the USA Today editors: “Mo-o-o-o-o-ve over milk. The taste for tea is growing as the taste for milk declines.”

We’ll continue to check in with USA Today‘s Web site for news flashes on the next big question facing the arbiters of American culture:

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How is bacon measuring up to celery?

–Felix Gillette

Felix Gillette writes about the media for The New York Observer.