> USA Today is deliberately written at a 10th grade reading level, so it’s doubtful how relevant it is for university students.

A 10th grade reading level doesn't mean they only cover stories of interest to 10th graders or younger. It just means they they use a 10th grade vocabulary and sentence structure. Most stories in the NYT could be covered at a 10th grade level and still convey most of the important information.

Sure, but it would mean articles have to run longer as concepts like mRNA or constitutional law are explained using basic words and simple sentence structures. If I’m college educated, I don’t want to waste time reading explanations.

Is there a higher reading level than tenth grade? What's the point in using plain language if you're not going to speak plainly when you can switch to a programming language or math?

Yes, if I’m reading an English-language paper I want them to use the proper language. Don’t explain to me what “budget reconciliation” is, just write “budget reconciliation.” On the off chance there’s a word or phrase I don’t know, I can look it up.

Wouldn't the same apply to e.g. the New York Times [1] and the Washington Post [2], etc.? I find any article with "explainer" in the title to be extremely condescending; it seems to me that no newspaper has a monopoly on dumbing down topics.

[1] From https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/us/politics/us-debt-ceili...:

> All of this drama raises the question of what the debt limit really is... > > What is the debt limit? > > The debt limit is a cap on the total amount of money that the federal government is authorized to borrow to fulfill its financial obligations.

[2] From https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/09/18/every...:

> What's a continuing resolution? > > It's a bill that tells the federal government's agencies, “Keep on spending like you've been spending till we can actually come to some agreement on how much you should be spending.”