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.

Politicians Are People Too

NY gov says he tried coke and pot in his youth

Dear New York,

Your absurd governors have totally taken the heat off of Florida’s political ineptitudes, so thanks for that. So what have the Dems decided to do about that pesky and irrelevant Florida primary? Who knows, the only link on the CNN home page right now even remotely related to the election is Exclusive Video: Obama Hits Beach. Wow. (I feel it is important at this point to mention my respect for CNN, and criticism is the most sincere form of flattery anyway, right?) Obama’s sunbathing may be important, but the fabulous wet dream of a story that is The New York Governor Chronicles: Decades Of Wealthy Debauchery Exposed In One Week still got a spot two full headlines higher on the homepage. Awesome.

It took the general population months to do the math and realize that without the Florida and Michigan delegates, 2,024 was an impossible goal. Finally, people are paying attention to something worthwhile, albeit embarrassing for Florida and the Democratic Party as a whole, and then New York, you had to jump and hog all the attention for yourself. It will probably be October before someone asks, “Hey, what ever happened to those Florida delegates.” The room will go silent, and that person will be fired.

So now that we know David Paterson is pretty much no better a moral compass than Spitzer, what next? Within the next few days we will probably start to hear about new Lt. Governor Joeseph Bruno’s secret furry identity. That should keep attention focused elsewhere long enough for most people’s attention span to “like totally forget what they were just outraged about.”