The Volokh Conspiracy

As I heard it, it was "virtue" and "in the swimming pool;" a classic with a lot of truth to it, regardless of the details.

Newspaper endorsements might mean a little more if they weren't so predictable. Does anyone doubt that in 2016 the New York Times, if there is a New York Times, will endorse the Democrat?

Newspaper endorsements obviously mean less and less with the decline in newspaper readership. I have noticed, however, that newspapers still carry some credibility, especially in "down ticket" races. Candidates then take those newspaper endorsements and put them into television ads for credibility. For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDBEQE_l6cM

Brian, what? Surely they'll wait for the Republicans to finish their primaries before deciding, it isn't like they automatically endorse a Democrat. It has been a while since Ike and the NYT endorsed a Republican for president, but that could just mean they are due.

Newspapers can sway me on local issues where I haven't followed all the arguments, but on national candidates I'd never give a newspaper endorsement a thought.

But blog endorsements can sway me, I notice several familiar names on the Lawyers for Thompson list including:

Jonathan H. Adler
Orin S. Kerr
Eugene Volokh
Todd J. Zywicki

I may not take their word for it completely, but it does give me something to think about.

We were never sure an endorsement was an asset or a kiss of death. A daily newspaper, we don't endorse, but we advocate specific positions on issues and explain why.

Part of the difficulty a newsaper has with candidates is evident in this example. After a recent local candidate's interview it was clear he was all hat and no cattle. There really isn't a way to write that judgment into a news article. One hopes that the readers discern it from the shallowness and ambiguity of the candidate's statements. However, writing editorials that tease out issues informatively helps readers know enough to make their own judgments.

And on the other side, who likes the way Lou Dobbs or Anderson Cooper try to make your judgments for you. That isn't journalism, that's hubris.

Ingeresting that the Denver Post operates off of questionaires and the Rocky Mtn. News actually tries to do a bit more. It would be interesting to see the Post's questionaires and the responses. Why? The Rocky seems to spread around its endorsements a bit. The Post does not. It has become as reliably Democratic as, for example, the New York Times.

And, if you know who they are going to endorse before they actually do it, their endorsements have little, if any, meaning except to illustrate their political biases.