Any evidence newspapers write at a second grade level? I seriously doubt this. That being said, there is an effort in politics to "dumb down" speeches in the l

Any evidence newspapers write at a second grade level? I seriously doubt this. That being said, there is an effort in politics to "dumb down" speeches in the last few years to reach a bigger audience. They still speak at high school level though. http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/state-of-the-union-registers-at-th-grade-reading-level-112236.html http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/state-of-the-unio... >Obama's use of simple language is in part a reflection of his audience: the American voter in an election year. And it's part of a larger trend in simpler State of the Union language as the speech as transitioned from a simple address to Congress into a prime-time televised event. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/21/study-congressional-speaking-levels-move-back-a-grade/ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/21/study-congre... >A new study by the Sunlight Foundation found that Congress speaks at an average grade level of 10.6, equivalent to a sophomore in high school. That number is down from 2005, when Congress' 11.5 speaking level was in line with a high school junior. >"We do it on purpose," Mulvaney said of himself and his other freshman Republicans. "People have been teaching this for decades. If you want someone to understand your message, you speak clearly and concisely." EDIT: I went to the New York Times homepage and picked the first article I saw. It was this: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/world/europe/ukraine.html?hp&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/world/europe/ukraine.html?... I than ran it though a readability score analysis: https://readability-score.com/ https://readability-score.com/ It was written about at an 11th grade level.