There was lots of talk in the past weeks about newspaper endorsements, or the lack thereof, in the presidential election. The most noise came when Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, decided to keep his newspaper neutral. Others did the same including U.S. Today. In most cases, the official explanation was that management did not want to divert attention from the actual coverage of the election. It is a sensible explanation although newspaper endorsements, especially in presidential elections, are akin to the American way, as though an extension of the first amendment’s freedom of the press. The issue is especially touchy when the newspaper is in the nation’s capital and is one of the most important publications in the country.
There were staff resignations at the Post coupled with complaints that the publication was abandoning a leadership role by not providing badly needed informed opinion.
For all the kerfuffle, though, here is an important fact. Brace yourself: Newspaper endorsements, while they do provide extra publicity to the favored candidates, do not mean much at the presidential level. The elections are so high profile that voters generally know way ahead who they are going to vote for.
In other elections the circumstances are different. In Louisiana’s gubernatorial election last year there were 10 candidates. Many voters would have welcomed advice about who to vote for. But for the presidency, the choice is more apparent.
Actually, it can be fairly said that for most elections, endorsements are most helpful the further down the ballot the issue is: Who to support for the school board? A court of appeals seat? A clerk of something or the other? How about those pesky constitutional amendments? Or charter revisions? It is at the bottom of the ballot where journalist perspective is needed the most.
(For the really high profile elections where policy matters most, general wisdom suggests that newspaper staff members are more liberal – because they are younger – and the owners are more conservative – because they are richer.)
For the current presidential election, there might have been another reason for a non-endorsement that no one really wanted to admit: Many people seriously do not like either candidate.
Some newspaper publishers may have faced an inner-struggle similar to that of voters.
Of course, this is when the voters could use sound advice the most. Unfortunately, there is a political paradox: The more un-appealing the candidates are, the harder it is to convince the voters to support them.
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