Way to be biased Media!Follow

Newspapers' editors always choose candidates to endorse. It's been that way for hundreds of years, as far as I know.

I didn't follow the link, but are you saying the newspapers endorsed candidates aside from the editorial page?

the fUck?

Newspapers

Editors I can accept and understand, because they are individuals whose whole written word is based on informed opinion and they are upfront about it. However, when the newspaper as a whole supports any side, how can I trust their print to be "just the facts"?

Endorsements come from the newspapers' editorial boards. So it's a collaborative decision. However, it's just the newspaper's opinion (and is printed on the opinion page) and doesn't, by itself, reflect a bias in the newspaper's reporting.

It just goes to show that people from all walks of life have had enough of the Republicans.

Journalists included.

Cant say I blame them.

Editors write editorials all the time. Each time they do, they're arguably showing some measure of bias about whatever topic: a school referendum, whether a police commissioner should step down, whether or not a town should approve zoning for a new skating rink, etc.

I imagine it's impossible to work with the news every day and not develop opinions on things. The editorial page gives them a chance to express those thoughts in a place where you know it's just an opinion.

I never claimed that any specific paper was not biased, but that they are not biased necessarily. Further, being unbiased does not mean treating all ideas equally, but treating all ideas as potentially equal and then judging them based on merit.

I agree that all people, especially the media (who are entrenched on the forefronts of the political battles) should voice their opinion and in the section clearly labeled as Editorial is very appropriate. However, their opionions should not spill over into the front pages and in no way should an entire newspaper publicly or privately lean to any side.

Well the editorial section is where those endorsements you complained about in the OP are contained. The link doesn't say anything about bias infecting the rest of the paper.

Also want to add two points:

1) Obama is leading in the national polls, so it's not absurd for him to be leading in newspaper endorsements.

2) Newspeople are intellectuals (or aspire to be), so why would it surprise anyone that they would side with the party that supports intellectualism, as opposed to the one that mocks and flouts it?





Edited, Oct 20th 2008 3:23pm by trickybeck

So, you just have no idea how newspaper endorsements work. We get it.

Apparently not.

Enlighten please.

Scroll up. The editorial staff will put their little heads together and come up with an endorsement (or occasionally if there's no consensus they'll do a Point/Counterpoint type split endorsement), which the managing editor typically writes.

It's on the Op/Ed page, because that's where it belongs. Nevertheless the paper itself is said to have endorsed the candidate because journalistic types are all about brevity of style.