Why Some Newspapers are Abandoning Endorsements

By: Anna Clark | CJR

The newspaper endorsement: It’s a hardy trademark of election season, a platform for editorial boards to dispense their wisdom, even a source of information for data journalists.

But the traditional endorsement is increasingly being tinkered with—or dropped altogether. Dozens of newspapers have stopped making endorsements over the last two election cycles, often citing doubts about their impact and fears that, in a polarized era, endorsements put the credibility of the paper’s political coverage at risk.