Apparently, the big thing today is not to endorse candidates for the presidency. That is a far cry from the way it was when I was starting out in the business — when just about every paper’s endorsement was almost viewed as a national event.
I guess the current political climate today is much too unstable to accommodate that type of risk. The Los Angeles Times and Washington Post, two of the major papers in the United States, chose not to endorse a candidate after decades of doing so. They didn’t take this position (or non-position, if you will) to pass on either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris just because. There had to be an underlying reason.
One view is that the publishers of said papers have raised a white flag to the realization that endorsements no longer matter. The number of people who get their information from newspapers have dwindled commensurate with the explosion of social media. Mymothersbasement.com could endorse a candidate and get more mileage than a national paper such as The Post. That seems to be the opinion — and it’s fair.
Another view is that publishers are not anxious to cross candidates who win, but whom they opposed during the campaign, for fear it will come back to haunt them. I hope not. If you choose to install yourself as a mover and shaker of public opinion, then qualification No. 1 has to be the courage of your convictions, torpedoes be damned.
Anyone who has ever read a political column I’ve written already knows I lean left. Most everybody who knows me can probably guess who I endorse, so there’s no use hiding it. I’m backing Harris.
I’d say it’s 50-50 as to who’s voting for whom among the people I know. I have friends with whom I can’t even mention politics without an argument; who call me a “Communist; and who don’t even want to hear the word “election” as they just can’t wait until it’s over (especially those New Hampshire ads).
Once upon a time, I used to love election season. My first presidential campaign as a journalist was 1972, and it was magic to me to see how it all came together. Four years later, I got to know some of the campaign operatives when they came through Boston, and felt a bit more comfortable. I even met Jimmy Carter and Hamilton Jordan during one of his early campaign stops when nobody thought he had a prayer.
I went over to Ed King’s house in Winthrop the day after he won the governorship in 1978 and had coffee and donuts with him and a few other reporters. I loved campaigns and elections. I lived for them.
Now? I dread them. I have to gird myself to get through them.
I suppose I can see, then, why national newspaper publishers are loath to expose themselves to the toxic dumpsite of today’s political environment. But at the same time, even if you question how effective newspaper endorsements are going to be, there has to be a place for them. We can’t just leave it to these bloggers and social media wannabes who load up the silo with missives and toss them everywhere with the alacrity of someone singing along to the radio.
The Post and Times are, or should be, part of the fabric that maintains the old-fashioned political standards of fairness and decency (and shame on them if they do not), not part of the many in this country who run away from them.
After all, these are the papers that exposed Watergate and brought to light some of the lies we were fed during the Vietnam War.
Boy have the mighty fallen.
Steve Krause is a former writer and editor for The Daily Item. Now retired, he won several awards during a 43-year career for his columns. He can be reached at [email protected].
