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Opening Arguments

Cowards

What a bunch of craven little twits:

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — Wisconsin’s largest and most influential news organization — won’t be endorsing in the very tight presidential and Senate races this year. (Oct. 17 headline: “Marquette Law School Poll finds presidential and Senate races tied in Wisconsin.”)

[. . .]

Inside the paper, I’m told, there’s the feeling that “we have two tough picks to make and we’re taking a pass,” and the paper is less relevant because of it.

Five years ago, a Journal Sentinel staffer told Milwaukee Magazine that “we should endorse for president or get out of the editorial business.” In the same media column, the head of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee journalism department said: “If you’re not going to editorialize on the most important topic of the day, and if you’re not going to take a stand in the most important presidential election of our lives, what’s the point?”

What's the point, indeed? Yes, this is arguably "the most important presidential election of our lives," which makes the decision not to endorse even more indefensible. But each election is important to readers, and giving them information and advice is part of the editorial page's mission. How can a paper comment day after day on matters great and small and in good conscience sit out the most important topic of all to comment on?

Comments

tim zank
Thu, 10/25/2012 - 11:09am

My guess would be there are at least a few big hitter advertisers on both sides of the aisle that the paper is scared to death of losing...so.....endorse no one I guess...It's not as though they had a lot of credibility anyway...

Leo Morris
Thu, 10/25/2012 - 1:55pm

Part of the reason might also be that they endorsed Obama last time around. So this time, they'd have to endorse Romney and seem philosophically muddled or endorse Obama again and look like idiots.

Christopher Swing
Thu, 10/25/2012 - 10:24pm

Says the member of an editorial board that just endorsed Mourodck.

Harl Delos
Fri, 10/26/2012 - 8:29am

Is it really all that important?  The president doesn't pass any laws, he just administers them.

Nixon resigned in disgrace, and the bation never hiccoughed.  We've has Chester A Arthur, who wasn't even a citizen, and there wasn't much of a fuss.  James Buchanon was gay and it didn't matter.  Even the scandals of Teapot Dome didn't destroy us.

The election of Abe Lincoln resulted in the death of half a million people.  We've survived four years of sa half-white president without much ill effect, and even if Mr. Etch-A-Sketch gets elected, there is a limit to how much he can do without Congress and the SCOTUS standing behind him.

The "most important presidential election of our lives" toopk place in 1964 = and even though LBJ lied and  killed 60,000 kids by sending them 8,000-10,000 miles to do what Asians ought to be doing for themselves, the vast majority of Americans didn't suffer all that much....

 

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