explain this to me, please

[yellow911turbo]

I'm a youngun and also new to the politics game... I've only been following politics for the last couple years. Can someone explain this to me? I really don't understand it. How does this work and how is this legal??

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=8&u=/nm/20041017/pl_nm/campaign_endorsements_dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The New York Times, one of America's most influential newspapers, on Sunday endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) as a potentially "great chief executive."

With just 16 days before the Nov. 2 election, Kerry gained the backing of 27 papers on Sunday and President Bush (news - web sites) won nine, according to Editor and Publisher, which tracks the newspaper industry. Kerry leads Bush in newspaper endorsements 42 to 22, the journal said on its Web site.

Bush won endorsements from the Chicago Tribune, Denver's Rocky Mountain News, the Arizona Republic and the Dallas Morning News in his home state of Texas.

"We believe that with John Kerry as president, the nation will do better," the New York Times said its an editorial.

The Times characterized Bush's presidency as "disastrous" and accused him of "turning the government over to the radical right."

"We are impressed with Mr. Kerry's wide knowledge and clear thinking," the Times said. "He is blessedly willing to reevaluate decisions when conditions change."

Kerry "has qualities that could be the basis for a great chief executive, not just a modest improvement on the incumbent," the newspaper said. "He strikes us, above all, as a man with a strong moral core."

The Chicago Tribune, a regionally influential paper close to several Midwestern battleground states, cast Bush better able to ensure U.S. security.

"Bush's sense of a president's duty to defend America is wider in scope than Kerry's, more ambitious in its tactics, more prone, frankly, to yield both casualties and lasting results. This is the stark difference on which American voters should choose a president," the Chicago Tribune said.

In key swing states, Kerry won endorsements from the Dayton Daily News and the Akron Beacon-Journal in Ohio, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in Minnesota and four Florida papers including the Miami Herald. The Boston Globe in his home state of Massachusetts also backed Kerry.

In Ohio, two smaller papers -- The Repository in Canton and The Times-Republic in New Philadelphia -- backed Bush.

In North Carolina, home of Kerry's running mate John Edwards (news - web sites), the Winston-Salem Journal made no endorsement. The paper said had endorsed a Republican in every presidential election since 1968, but it said Bush's administration was "a presidency in deep trouble" and called Kerry "largely unknown and untried."

[SteveStromberg]

Its simple Pinchy Solzberg is a Commie so his paper will endorse the Commie canidate in this case John Kerry.

[SteveStromberg]

BTW Newspaper are pretty much history. They are in a freefall in their circulation and within just a few years will no longer exist.
They lost their base due to the Internet.
Why did it take Matt Drudge to break Monica Lewisky?
The Dan rather lies are also bring TV news into a spiral.
The Internet is so fast at putting news out. and Bloggers can check the fact and post the lies that are published or broadcast.

Thanks to Al Gore and his invention of the Internet the Demcrates are the has been party.
Thats why they love Micheal Moore wiyh his propoganda films.
The movyes are the only way they can get their lies out to the Sheeple.

[tabs]

Newspapers have Editors who can express their OPINIONS..in the EDITORIAL PAGES....Some newspapers are OWNED and RUN by Liberals and other Conservatives....thus the differnce of opinions...

The NY TImes, Washington Post and LA Times are generally considered to be the top 3 daily newspapers in the nation... Wall Street Journal and Christian Science Monitor also have excellent credentials.... However as of late the NY Times has discredited itself for publishing fraudalant stories....

The first 3 newspapers I mentioned are considered to be quiet Liberal....It really doesn't come down to a conscience decision to be biased....they believe they fairly report the news...however if all your friends and the people you surround yourself with are on the more Liberal side of the coin, your point of view will tend to be swayed in that direction....

[dd74]

As soon as a newspaper endorses a candidate, whether Republican or Democrat, I distrust it as a factual source of anything other than current events. You should too IMHO.

[tabs]

I will ammend your statement DD..Once a newspaper declares it's bias...you then can take their reporting with a grain of salt...keeping what their paticular bias is in mind when you read their stories.....

[928ram]

It's probably a good thing that they let you know right out loud what their bias(es) are.
Nope, newspapers shouldn't be endorsing a political candidate if they are truly concerned about the "news" but when the "news biz" is the primary concern (which it is), they are thinking about core audience and circulation.

[jyl]

My two cents:
- I think you've got to read and compare a variety of news sources, look hard at the facts and logic cited for the positions, do your own research, and come to your own opinions.
- I personally consider the NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and The Economist to be among the most reputable and reliable news sources, but I wouldn't unthinkingly believe something just because they say it. I could care less who they endorse, but I don't think just because the editorial board of a paper expresses a view, the rest of the paper is automatically untrustworthy.
- Most TV/cable news is pretty far down the reliability scale, I feel, and that includes CNN, Fox, CNBC, etc.
- Most radio and TV/cable "talk shows" are pandering garbage, not news. - I consider most of the Internet commentators, bloggers, forums, and ranters to be opinion and not reliable fact, but there are still some pretty good sites like www.factcheck.org.
- The Internet does make a wealth of actual data available to normal people.
- The Internet also makes it easier to read the media of other countries, which can be awfully useful sometimes.
- Unfortunately, all this takes time and effort. The world is complicated and a huge amount of what we read and hear is slanted, misleading, and just plain false.

[pwd72s]

Here in Orygun, it's pretty simple to vote....you read all the endorsements by THE OREGONIAN, the state's only newspaper of size. If liberal, vote with them, if conservative, the opposite. No need to study the issues and measures, the paper does it for you, and they admit their leftward bias. Press neutrality is a sick joke.

[Mule]

Rent Citizen Kane.

[yellow911turbo]

my gratitude goes to each of you for replying. i guess it makes more sense... about as much sense as it possibly could. call me naive and/or old-fashioned (even though i'm pretty darn young) but it seems rediculous to me.
i see it like going to see the doc and after the session he tells you how he respects patient's privacy and then throws in a little bonus of "but that dude that was sitting to your left in the waiting room... i don't think he's gonna make it. that's what he gets for sleeping around."
i don't see how ANYONE reads/watches the news and has ANY desire to hear a SINGLE opinion of the newscaster. it's hipocritical and contradictory.
hope i make sense.
oh and one more thing... nov 3rd and beyond will be a relief, eh? (even if the one i'm voting for doesn't win.)

*shrug*

serge

[mikester]

Originally posted by SteveStromberg
Its simple Pinchy Solzberg is a Commie so his paper will endorse the Commie canidate in this case John Kerry.

Sticks and stones...

What's quite funny is that the Chicago Tribune is claimed to be a conervatively biased paper owns the LA Times which is claimed to be liberal.

CT exerts a lot of administrative pressure on LAT I know for a fact I am not of course certain of any editorial pressure. Financially the LAT is very much under the gun of the CT management though.