Why Newspapers Shouldn't Endorse Candidates
So today I found out that both the Anchorage Daily News and Hartford Courant have announced that they are endorsing Obama. I just wanted to say that although I understand that people want to take a stance against the bullshit we've seen from the White House for the last 8 years, well 60 if you ask me, it is totally inappropriate for a newspaper or any other major news source to throw their objectivity out of the window. This is why CNN and Fox news may be entertaining, but are considered so biased that they are unreliable. It is time for our journalists to be objective again. It is the mark of a good journalist, news source, etc. to be objective. I have my own opinions, everyone does, but that's not why I read news articles. The article is supposed to present us with both sides of the story as accurately as possible and allow us to draw our own conclusions.
posted by baceman007 at 6:30 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Minister,
On the eve of the election, I thought I'd provide a little counter-argument. I think newspapers should go ahead and endorse candidates (if the editorial board has a preference), and should endorse them as often and as early as possible so that readers can know their biases.
That isn't to say that the news articles shouldn't be objective. There should be a clear distinction between the op-ed pages and the news pages. The key is having impeccable quality in the news section, not having a balanced or unbiased op-ed section. People will assume you have a bias whether or not you make it obvious, but if you're careful and keep opinions in the op-ed pages and out of the news, a paper can defend itself from charges of bias.
Personally, I don't know about the Hartford Courant, but what worries me about ADN is the lack of local ownership. It's owned by the McClatchy group out of Sacramento, CA (started with the Sacramento Bee). Having been both an Alaskan and (currently) a Californian, I can assure you there's a world of difference in the priorities and concerns in the two states. Depending on how much control the bosses in CA exert, ADN is unlikely to reflect the opinions of average Alaskans--example: endorsing Obama (and yes, I know plenty of Alaskans who are no fans of Republicans. In fact, I'm related to many of them).
Furthermore, papers should endorse candidates because journalists are in the business of being informed about the world--they're probably the most qualified to make rational, well-informed endorsements. Ideally everyone would be able to get the information necessary to make their own decision (you could argue that the Internets make that easier, but the misinformation superhighway makes the job of discerning credible information that much more difficult). I take some pride in knowing where the candidates stand, at least well enough to make my decision with a clear conscience. However, the fact that I work 8+ hours a day at something that other than investigating the candidates means I won't be better informed than a good journalist (emphasis on GOOD).
Now, with all that said, there isn't a whole lot of value in newspapers endorsing Presidential candidates, as they have near universal name recognition. Whatever value Presidential endorsements have is on the margin, with more value if a historically right-leaning newspapar endorses a Democrat or vice-versa (an argument for why papers should endorse as many candidates as possible in every election cycle--give us some history by which to judge them). Where newspaper endorsements make a lot more sense is in smaller, local elections where candidates are not as well known and information is not as available. In many local elections, the only information you can get about a candidate comes directly from either his campaign or his opponents. In that case, I'd want a person whose job it is to be informed to tell me how I should vote. Yeah, that person might be biased, but given his profession that bias likely comes from being informed rather than uninformed.
Anyway, I have to end this somehow. Happy voting tomorrow!
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