Editorial v. News

I was just knee deep in a rant over an article that ran today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which "endorses Barack Obama for president". I know there is historical precedent for major newspapers to endorse political candidates, but I firmly believe it is inappropriate for the news to do anything other than REPORT THE NEWS.

Anyway, my rant was misguided. I was linked to the first article by this article, which makes a convincing case damning the Post-Gazette. The article begins with, "Barack Obama picked up the endorsement today of one of Pennsylvania's major newspapers," and I took that at face value.

But then I did a little searching. The Post-Gazette article doesn't specify what section in the paper the article ran in, but a little digging showed me that it ran in the editorial section, which is the only place in a newspaper that such an article is not only permissible, but expected. The editorial section is specifically designated as a place for the expression of opinions.

This is not to say that newspapers don't endorse politicians regularly, even if they don't come out and say it, it is evident in the articles. For all the efforts of the latter article calling out the Post-Gazette for bias, however, to be honest, the latter article seems a lot more biased and quick to jump the gun than the first.