NOT ENDORSING A FAVORITE SON REAPS REACTION

By: Todd Shields E&P's Weekly Campaign Confidential Report





WASHINGTON - Newspaper editorial boards are rarely more in the limelight than when they offer political endorsements. If they lean against a local son, the limelight can burn.



That's what The Hartford Courant found when it endorsed Republican George W. Bush for president over Democrat Al Gore, whose running mate is U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. The Courant barely mentioned Lieberman in an editorial calling Gore a status quo candidate and concluding, "The status quo is not good enough."



The next day, the paper endorsed Lieberman in his concurrent bid for re-election to the Senate. By then, it was reaping plenty of reaction to its presidential pick - enough to devote a page to letters under a headline that said, "Readers Are Aghast."



Editorial Page Editor John J. Zakarian said the paper examined each race on its own terms. "It isn't contradictory," he said. "We were endorsing for president. That's what's on the ballot, not vice president."



Neither one nor the other



Major newspapers declined to issue endorsements in at least two major statewide races. In Virginia, The Roanoke Times eyed a U.S. Senate race pitting a longtime incumbent Democrat against a Republican former governor. "These two candidates fail to arouse our confidence," the paper said.



The nonchoice was not hard to render, said Editorial Page Editor Tommy Denton. "We've been watching these two people for a long time," Denton told E&P.



In Minnesota, the St. Paul Pioneer Press declined to endorse either candidate for Senate. It had sued one of them alleging copyright infringement after a TV ad showed a Pioneer Press article. Given the lawsuit, the paper said, its detachment could be questioned. Not that it has any favorite in the election, anyhow. The Pioneer Press called the race "at best, a contest among mediocrities."



Tuned in (or not)



Meanwhile, the presidential election rated just behind interest in the attack on the USS Cole and ahead of the Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed. Four in 10 Americans followed campaign news very closely, while another 37% followed it fairly closely.



- Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, reporting on results of an Oct. 18-22 survey



Endorsing the endorser



My already high estimation of The New York Times has risen even further.



- Vice President Al Gore to reporters after receiving the newspaper's endorsement







Past Campaign Confidential reports from E&P:



PRESIDENTIAL RACE ISN'T THE ONLY RACE (10/30/00)

DETROIT PAPER PROVIDES VOTER EDUCATION WITH AP REPORT (10/23/00)

SUNSHINE STATE GETS IN THE PRESIDENTIAL GAME (10/16/00)

CANDIDATES KEEP OHIO PRESS CORPS BUSY (10/09/00)







Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.