From Green Bay Press Gazette- and I agree.................................All the hallmarks of an election season have been upon us for weeks now — mud-slinging, he said-she said, television ads, nonstories that are inflated into issues, and polls that purport to predict how well vote. We expect those will intensify as we move toward Nov. 4. Press-Gazette Media has been covering campaign stops of the gubernatorial candidates as well as groups that hope to influence how you vote. Well continue that coverage and will ramp it up with expanded coverage about races of local interest. However, the Press-Gazette Media Editorial Board will not endorse any candidates. In the polarized, political world today, we want to be an independent voice amid the growing clamor of voices espousing hyper-partisan views. The Press-Gazette has often been identified as a liberal or conservative newspaper based on who weve endorsed. Many readers perceive an endorsement as an admission of bias, when actually we looked beyond political parties in forming our recommendations and focused on the issues and the candidates plans to address them. It didnt matter to us if the candidate was a conservative or liberal or middle of the road. However, when we endorsed candidates in the past, we were always quick to point out that we were not telling people how to vote but that we were trying to start a conversation, that we were offering food for thought. We can continue to offer food for thought, and we can continue to expand the conversation on the election, we will still editorialize on issues and urge people to vote, we just wont tell them who to vote for. Two years ago the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel announced it was getting out of the political endorsement business. Neither USA TODAY nor the Wall Street Journal endorse candidates. We are not alone in re-evaluating what we do and how we do it. Some may view it as if were taking a step back in our role in campaign coverage as well as abandoning a long-standing tradition among newspapers. The latter is true: We are forsaking custom, but today we live in a much different world where weve been saturated with instant analysis and opinion that can be found 24/7 on smartphones, computers, tablets and televisions. The days of patiently waiting for delivery of the daily print product with all your news and insights are long gone. But the former is not true. We are not taking a step back; if anything, were taking a giant step forward as we bulk up our coverage of the races leading up to Nov. 4 both online and in print. It starts Sunday with a Gannett Wisconsin Media front-page story on how Wisconsin has become a bellwether state in presidential elections, and picks up in October with our expanded election coverage. In the coming weeks, well invite candidates to come in and shoot a short, five-minute interview for the following races: 8th Congressional District; 1st Senate District; 1st, 4th, 5th, 88th and 90th Assembly districts; and Brown County treasurer and clerk of circuit court. Those interviews will appear online and be transcribed for print. Well give the candidates in those races an opportunity to send us an essay on why voters should choose them. Those will appear in print and online. Well also take part in editorial board meetings with the candidates for governor and attorney general and offer them the same opportunity to pen essays on their candidacies. And, as normal, well run your letters to the editor. We are not retreating from coverage and opinions, we are running toward them. We believe in the democratic process and take seriously our role in providing the electorate with the information they need to vote on Election Day. We will continue to fulfill that mission.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 18:45:52 +0000
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