Is The Newspaper Political Endorsement A Thing Of The Past?

from the hopefully... dept

Romenesko recently pointed us to the news that the Atlanta Journal Constitution has decided to do away with political endorsements, and instead, focus on trying to provide more information on what candidates positions really are on various issues. This makes a lot of sense. I'd always wondered how much impact (if any) newspaper endorsements had these days. It may have been significant in the past, perhaps, but these days, with so many ways of getting information about candidates, it's difficult to see how an 11th hour endorsement from a newspaper people probably don't trust anyway is going to make a difference. And, of course, I could never understand how newspapers hold themselves up as bastions of objective reporting... and then turn around and endorse candidates. While I tend to think that the whole concept of journalist objectivity is overblown, these newspaper endorsements weren't helping either way. Hopefully other newspapers will follow suit.

Filed Under: newspapers, political endorsement