As the candidates in the Republican primary fill the front pages of newspapers with their comings and goings, the writings on the opinion pages are catching almost as much attention. Just this past weekend, the Tampa Tribune endorsed Newt Gingrich for the GOP nomination.
Not quite as headline-generating, but note-worthy still, are the student-run newspapers in early primary states. Some decided to endorse candidates, while other editors say they don’t want to tell their peers what to do, or wanted to stay above accusations of bias in their news coverage.
With 50,000 daily readers, Justin Hayes said his goal in each editorial is to “address things I believe students should be concerned with,” and that creates a duty to speak his mind on candidates as well.
Hayes is opinions editor at the University of Florida’s paper, The Independent Florida Alligator.
“We constantly write about issues we think are important and give our opinion on them, but when it’s time to change the system or change who’s in power, if we don’t give an opinion on it, that’s kind of contradictory,” Hayes said.
Hayes and the paper’s other editors endorsed Ron Paul last Wednesday, saying he “does not fit the standard Republican mold, and that’s why (they) like him.”
His peer at The Oracle, at the University of South Florida, disagreed.
The journalists at The Oracle covered the recent debate held on their campus, but won’t break tradition and endorse.
“As far as I know, The Oracle’s been around for a while and we’ve never endorsed a candidate,” said Editor-in-Chief Anastasia Dawson. “Our policy is that we don’t really feel that it helps our cause any as journalists to do so.”
With a staff of between 20 and 25, there are just not enough people available to dedicate someone to producing opinion pieces and not news.
Blurring the lines by producing an endorsement for or against a candidate and then having the same writer cover those candidates would only further young adults’ distrust of the media, Dawson said.
“To them, the truth is such a fluid concept. They grew up not really trusting the news because of the pundits and the obvious biases … We are trying to corral that generation into trusting the media again,” she said “We are supposed to be empowering our readers, providing the facts and letting them decide.”
She doesn’t condemn other papers for endorsing candidates if they have the staff resources and editorial desire to do so, but says casting a ballot is an intimate decision that shouldn’t be swayed by other people’s opinions.
For Adam B Sullivan, editor-in-chief of the 15,000-circulation Daily Iowan of the University of Iowa, there was no question his paper would endorse a candidate before the state’s caucuses on Jan. 3. Even if no candidate won the editorial board’s support.
The board members are mostly Democrats or unaffiliated voters, Sullivan said, but the paper endorsed candidates in both parties before the 2008 caucuses, and endorses in state and local elections every year.
“I told my editorial board that if there were no candidates they supported, then they should write a general non-candidate endorsement, encouraging people that even though we don’t have a candidate, get involved and do your own research.”
The board’s endorsement for Texas Rep. Ron Paul was published on Dec. 12, in the midst of weeks of endorsements from professional Iowa dailies.
None of the other endorsements weighed on the Iowan board’s decision, except as examples of what they didn’t want to do, Sullivan said.
“We were definitely reading those, but … I think they were a little less substantive. The Des Moines Register, they endorsed Romney and they talked about his style and his tone. Ours was totally based on the issues.”
Less than four weeks later, editors at The New Hampshire said both style and substance led them to support Huntsman.
“Economic policy was our biggest concern … but we wanted to look in terms of who the best guy for college students would be. And they tend to have more liberal social views, so we also took that into consideration,” said Executive Editor Chad Graff, a junior at UNH.
The endorsement was a first for the weekly, which has a readership of about 5,000 in four communities around campus. Graff and editorial page editor Thomas Gounley talked frequently in the fall semester about their regrets that the New Hampshire primary would fall during winter break, when the paper doesn’t publish.
That’s probably part of the reason the paper hasn’t endorsed in the past, he said.
With a revamped website and a presence on social media, though, the two decided to see what they could do.
“We decided we could probably get close to the same readership online, even without the print edition,” Graff said.
They both actively promoted the endorsement on Twitter before publishing it, and generated between 3,000 and 4,000 views online, Graff said.
He was proud to give a voice to his generation “beyond just holding up signs,” but practically speaking, “I was happy for just having one updated story on the website over break,” he said.
In advance of the South Carolina primary on Jan. 21, student papers were silent. One editor hinted it might have been partly for self-preservation.
Editors for the Gamecock of the University of South Carolina couldn’t be reached for comment, but Clemson University’s Tiger News doesn’t endorse in federal, local or state elections, said editor-in-chief Brett Mills.
“We’re an apolitical paper,” she said.
Clemson doesn’t have a journalism program, and “political writing would be too sticky a beat to make sure you always have skilled writers on it,” Mills said.
Besides, while the paper is “very well-equipped to know what is going on on campus better than anybody else, in terms of national news, students have never even looked to the Tiger.”
Staying outside the realm of politics also let her avoid the notoriously messy Palmetto State primary, she said.
“The South Carolina primary has been known for the ugliness of the campaigning, and it was nice not to worry about being dragged into it. I received between 20 and 30 emails a day of straight negative campaigning,” Mills said. “I was so glad not to be part of that more than just deleting the emails.”
While college students debate the role of endorsements, at least one professional daily paper – in a city known for similarly rough political play – is breaking with tradition.
The Chicago Sun-Times announced on Jan. 22 that its editorial board would no longer endorse candidates
Readers can gather information from more sources now than ever before, and endorsements rarely if ever influence votes, the board wrote.
“Our goal, when we’re not too much on our high horse, is to inform and influence your thinking, not tell you what to do … As many of you have told us, you can make up your own mind, thank you very much,” wrote publisher John Barron and editorial page editor Tom McNamee.
The Sun-Times’ in-town competition acknowledged a few days later that endorsements don’t swing elections, but said its board will continue to endorse candidates.
The Chicago Tribune’s editorial board is “under no illusions about the extent of our influence,” but in endorsements, readers get “an honest assessment of the options, and we will keep providing it,” they wrote.
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