Detroit News, Republican paper, refuses to endorse anybody

[Bossy Monkey]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NEWSPAPER_ENDORSEMENTS?SITE=SCCOL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
The Detroit News, on Oct. 24:

"The Detroit News will not lend its endorsement to a candidate who has made too many mistakes, nor to one who offers a governing philosophy we reject. This decision to remain silent will disappoint readers who expect The Detroit News to stand with the Republican presidential candidate come hell or high water. Their expectations are not unwarranted - we have never endorsed a Democrat for president, and only failed to endorse twice before, both times during the Franklin Roosevelt years. ... We will never feel obliged to defend a president whose blunders and misjudgments have hurt the nation. Nor will we settle for an equally bad choice."

Certainly nothing we can put in TV ads, but definitely a blast at Bush from his own side. I'll try to provide the link to the actual editorial on edit.

Edit: They don't have their Sunday editorials online yet. It would be here when they do: http://www.detnews.com/2004/editorial/0410/23/index.htm

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Hey, that's better than the News endorsing craphead....

...like the Chicago Tribune did.

[murielm99]

5. Read the Sun Times instead.

They endorsed Kerry.

They moved out of their crappy old office building recently.

What is going to happen to the Sun Times? It was one of those papers owned by Black.

[Catch22Dem]

2. This is a paper who had a problem with FDR?

Yeah, OK.

[Sean Reynolds]

7. Shouldn't be a shock. They were probably cheerin for Hitler.....

Like most conservatives were back then.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[sonicx]

3. i'd rather repuke papers do this than give it to bush lukewarm

[Carolinian]

4. I can respect that. I cannot respect one that blindly follows a party.

[iamjoy]

6. Three Cheers...

Wonder if there are any Democratic papers endorsing Bush or refusing to endorse.

This is the second paper I know of (first - Tampa Tribune) that never endorsed Democrats for President, and didn't endorse anyone this year because they can't recommend Dubya.

[diamond14]

8. the Detroit Free Press endorsed Kerry...and the Detroit News remained

silent (a huge loss for reTHUGlicans in Michigan)..hahahahahaha....

it doesn't get much better than that....Michigan is OFFICIALLY BLUE !!!!!

My brother, a Michigan United Auto Workers (UAW) Union rep, told me: the Unions are all behind Kerry, every single UNION employee is voting Kerry....they'll have a HUGE "get out the vote" and MICHIGAN is KERRY all the way....

Go Kerry...BOOT THOSE CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR WHITE HOUSE.....

[5thGenDemocrat]

15. Let me endorse amen's statement

The Detroit News is editorially just slightly to the right of Alley Oop. Constant DUers have read that my great-uncle was the circulation manager of the News from the late '40s until about 1960. Because of that, this liberal family has always read the News, saving the editorial pages to line the cat litter box. That's probably why the cats shit in the corner.
John
The News refusing to endorse Dopey is H-U-U-U-G-E in Michigan (especially in Oakland and Macomb counties).

[ScreamingMeemie]

18. minus a few...my brother in law (a Chrysler employee and UAW member)

is voting for Bush, the idiot.

[susanna]

9. They're hedging their bets is my guess.

They are the conservative paper in this neck of the woods. A large number of automotive industry insiders read the Detroit News. A lot of them are also torn; they know that * is a blight on global markets and commerce, but hate Kerry before they have even seen what he will do. They are completely pathetic. It is kind of "big news" that they won't endorse, though. The Free Press did endorse Kerry, if I'm not mistaken, so the GOPers are probably PO'd about this.

As a sidenote, many years ago the two main papers in Detroit (Free Press, News) decided to publish a joint edition after "consolidating" their operations. During the related downsizing, they lost a huge amount of subscribers due to union issues. I still, all these years later, have kids - KIDS - coming to my porch begging me to buy either paper for camp trips, school things, etc. I haven't crossed the line and bought, and have to tell them, "I'm sorry. I just can't." I don't lecture them on unions, because they probably wouldn't get it...

I get my news elsewhere these days. I don't know that the Detroit newspaper industry has ever recovered from that fiasco. :-(

[fujiyama]

10. I'm surprised

I would figure they'd be marchin lock and step with the fascists.

Pay no attention to Bush's "sudden spike" in this state. He will NOT win it.

[cyr330]

11. Fuck Them

But I guess it's better than endorsing those charlatans who are illegally squatting in the WH. . .

[Tatiana]

12. At least they had more guts than the Chicago Tribune or Columbus Dispatch.

Those papers just marched lock-step with the Republican candidate, twisting and contorting themselves to justify electing a President who has no record to stand on. Even if the Detroit News didn't endorse Kerry, the fact that they couldn't bring themselves (under serious pressure from the Republicans, I'm sure) to endorse Bush speaks volumes.

[Lefty48197]

13. Reagan and Bush Sr. sucked too

but that didn't stop the Detroit "News" from endorsing them.

[ThoughtFood]

23. Hmm.....

Progressive thinking at its best, I must say.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. I applaud this editorial -- this paper did what many other Republican...

papers should have done.

[Skinner]

16. HERE'S A DIRECT LINK

Agonizing choice comes down to this: Neither Bush nor Kerry meets our endorsement test

As Election Day approaches, we find ourselves, like many Americans, agonizing over the presidential election.

Four years ago, the choice was clear. We endorsed George W. Bush based on his promises of fiscal conservatism, limited government and prudence in foreign affairs.

Today, we sadly acknowledge that the president has failed to deliver on those promises.

More...

http://www.detnews.com/2004/editorial/0410/24/a16-312995.htm

[Bossy Monkey]

17. Thanks, Skinner n/t

[Finbar]

19. Winston Salem Journal in N.C. has endorsed Republican candidate in

every election Back through 1968.
This year they endorsed no-one.

[Ganja Ninja]

20. It's really a backhanded endorsement of Kerry.

If a right wing rag like the news can't bring themselves to endorse a sitting republican president in time of war then that president is in trouble.

[Strawman]

21. Looks like they also endorsed a no vote on Prop 2

Even though I still mostly disagree with the thinking of their editorial page and do not like the News at all really, I'm pleasantly surprised by both the no on Prop 2 (MI anti-gay marriage amendment referendum)endorsement and the Bush non-endorsement. This is a good sign. The far-right has overreached and more moderate, Republican voices on the center-right are trying to smack them back down. That coalition between the two can't last much longer unless the fundies willingly get back in the back seat. Fiscal conservatives and even people who are moderately conservative socially are beginning to realize that they have been playing with fire by using these fundamentalist types as foot soldiers all these years. Now they are running the show and the old-style Republicans don't like it. Maybe we will begin to see the worst elements of the Republican party go away from the center stage of American politics for awhile before they eventually re-emerge, like the Sith in Star Wars. They are unfortunately a permanent strain in American politics. It's unreasonable to ever expect them to go away altogether, but they need to be held in check. It's good to see any signs of the center-right tilting away from them and more towards the center. It might portend the beginning of another progressive era. Maybe I'm reading a little too much into this, but hey, I'm hopeful.

[noonwitch]

24. As a Detroit area resident, I am shocked.

The News almost always endorses republicans, with very few exceptions. I think this gives a Gannett/Candyland Today-owned publication a little more legitimacy. The Free Press, which is the one I read, endorsed Kerry a couple of weeks ago.