COLUMN: Get rid of endorsements

HOME STRETCH COLUMN
By: 
Pete Temple
Express Sports Editor

     (We interrupt our regularly-scheduled sports column for this attempt at political commentary.)

     The Gazette ran an editorial on Sunday, criticizing candidates for not meeting with its editorial board as part of the endorsement process. The Gazette, like daily newspapers all over the country, interviews candidates, and then makes endorsements based on what its editorial board has learned.

     I have always disliked the idea of candidate endorsements. And these days, in a time of a horribly divided nation and heightened distrust of the media, endorsements seem only to add fuel to those fires.

     I’ve been in the newspaper business since 1981. In all that time, no one has ever given me a good reason why newspapers need to endorse candidates.

     To me it has always seemed ironic, even hypocritical, for a newspaper to take a side in an election. Of course I understand that endorsements are done by editorial boards, and printed in the opinion section of the newspaper. But not everyone gets that. It is often passed off in general conversation as “the Gazette thinks this” or “the Register thinks that.”

     It just looks bad. And if I am a candidate who is convinced that the paper will come out against me no matter what I say, why would I bother? (This, by the way, is coming from a guy who leans left on most issues.)

     I fully appreciate the concept, and the value, of a newspaper board’s policy of meeting with candidates. It’s the endorsement part – picking one – that I feel needs to go away.

     Editorial writers who defend the endorsement process nearly always include the sentence, “We’re not trying to tell you how to vote.”

     Good. So don’t.

     Here’s a suggestion. Maybe the Gazette could start a new trend, and not make endorsements at all. You want the public to be informed on candidates’ stances so they can’t just hide behind negative ads attacking their opponents? Then by all means, meet with all the candidates. Then, print their answers in a Q&A format, side by side, and let readers look them over and make up their own minds.

     This should be appealing to every candidate, knowing that the paper will print what was said, and not what its editorial board thinks about what was said.

     And if, even with the new policy, a candidate declines to meet with the Gazette, that will send a clear message to voters that he or she has no interest in answering questions for the public.

     The concept of endorsing candidates is antiquated, and counterproductive in today’s society.

     By getting rid of it, the Gazette and other newspapers can help show they are trying to remain objective, while informing the public to the best of their abilities.

     That, to me, is win-win.

 

A nine-pin 300

     I need to give a shout-out to my son Levi, who bowled his second-ever 300 game in nine-pin (called “no-tap” by some), on Sunday evening. Our every-other-Sunday league uses the nine-pin format, in which you get credit for a strike when you knock down nine pins on the first roll, thus increasing everyone’s scores as well as their fun.

     Still, Levi bowled 12 straight nine-pin strikes, seven of which were actual strikes. Not bad.

 

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