What's Sadly Missing from All Those Presidential Endorsements http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/newspaperbeat_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000674302Newspapers, whether for Bush or Kerry, are not standing up for their own issues, such as openness and accountability. Addressing public-access issues should become a routine part of the election cycle for publishers and editorial boards.
CHICAGO (October 19, 2004) -- Something's missing this election year from the presidential endorsements of newspapers: Any discussion about the issues most important to the work of newspapers.
According to E&P's exclusive tally of presidential endorsements, nearly 90 dailies so far have weighed in for either President George W. Bush or Sen. John Kerry. Many of the editorials have been unusually passionate. But you'll search pretty much in vain for any mention of the issues that directly impact the historic mission of newspapers to tell American citizens fairly, fearlessly, and frankly what their national government is doing in their name.
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That's why it's heartening to see the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) pressing the Bush and Kerry campaigns to answer its questionnaire on freedom of information issues, even though the organization was stiffed the last time around by both George W. Bush and Al Gore. Cox Newspapers Washington Bureau Chief Andrew Alexander says this year's questions are more specific than ever, asking, for example, whether the candidate will commit to holding those "senior official" briefings on the record rather than on background.
And any editor who hasn't yet seen it should read the article "Quizzing candidates on open government" in the current issue of ASNE's magazine, The American Editor. Steve Key, the general counsel for the Hoosier State Press Association, lays out practical tips for assessing a candidate's position on FOI and other openness issues. It's perhaps even more valuable advice because it concentrates on evaluating local candidates, whose attitudes towards transparency have the most immediate impact on the average citizen.
"Identifying champions for public access, or at least lawmakers who understand the need for government accountability, should become a routine part of the election cycle for newspaper publishers and editorial boards," Key writes.
It's a shame that more newspapers aren't embracing that idea when telling their readers who they think deserves to be the next president of the United States.
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