By: Greg Mitchell While E&P's daily endorsement tally has become phenomonally popular, some readers want more: Specifically, how are the editorial decisions for Bush and Kerry running on a chain-by-chain basis?
It's an interesting question, especially in a year when some corporate bodies, such as Scripps, are taking a more hands-off attitude and letting local papers decide on their own, with little or no intervention from the front office.
While E&P has its hands full just trying to keep the daily updates current and accurate, Jacob Kaplan-Moss, who works for the Journal-World in Lawrence, Kan., has taken our latest list and done the spade work of breaking the endorsements down by ownership. You can find his complete breakdown on his
personal site.
As of Tuesday, when our overall count had Kerry leading Bush by 143 endorsements to 125, Kaplan-Moss found the following:
? Knight Ridder is most pro-Kerry chain, backing Kerry him by an 18-2 count (with its papers in Forth Worth, Texas, and Wichita, Kan., as the exceptions).
? In the other corner, the MediaNews Group scores for Bush by 16-2 (with the Daily News in Los Angeles and The Oakland Tribune being the odd fish).
? Gannett, although sometimes considered rather Republican in editorial viewpoint, has broken for Kerry by 26-19.
? Lee Enterprises, on the other hand, favors Bush 13-6.
? Scripps, which freed its local papers to make their own choices after endorsing virtually every Republican candidate for president chainwide for decades, finds its papers backing Kerry by 6-3.
? Advance: 7-4 for Kerry.
? The New York Times Co.: 6-2 Kerry.
Others for Kerry: Cox 7-1, Tribune a surprising 5-2, Dow Jones 5-1, Blethen 5-0, Pulitzer 2-1.
Others for Bush: Copley 5-0, Morris 3-0, Belo 2-0.
And the evenly split chains: Hearst 3-3, Hollinger 2-2, Independent papers 30-30.
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