![]() ![]() On one hand, they say that statewide races for senator, governor and president have grown in importance and become too big for local newspapers to make recommendations with any relevance. Now it appears the editorial board, speaking for their corporate overlords, are talking out of both sides of their collective mouths. Could we have imagined that we would be so deeply divided over how to handle the pandemic that we would see shrieking parents dragged out of school board meetings? Or that partisan voices on both sides of the divide would take turns decrying law enforcement and medical professionals as villains or heroes?” Look at what’s happened since Florida’s 2018 gubernatorial election. We’ve all seen society become more polarized. “Corporate leaders also worry that common ground is being lost to culture wars. In a follow-on paragraph of their explanation for abdicating the traditional role as opinion leaders, the excuse-making continued with more finger-pointing at “corporate:” It’s tough to tell if the editorial boards at either of Florida’s Sentinels agree with Schale, though. But as a self-described political junkie, Schale thinks newspaper endorsements have little value in modern campaigns. With that resume, Schale may be one of the rare Democratic strategists in Florida with more wins than losses. Schale directed Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in Florida in 2008 and served as senior advisor to the re-election in 2012. And he should know about the importance of newspaper endorsements in campaigns as well as anyone. That’s what Democrat political strategist Steve Schale thinks. What are we supposed to take from that? That the Sentinel’s editorial advocacy on statewide issues is too weak to be taken seriously? Senate and governor are becoming more national in character, and that our editorial advocacy is strongest locally.” Company leaders acted out of concern that contests for president, U.S. This is the first time they have asserted their traditional role, but this discussion of which races to endorse in occurs at newspapers every day in the run-up to an election. “Since Alden Global Capital took over Tribune Publishing in May 2021, its leaders have made it clear that they support robust, local editorial pages. ![]() So what drove the decision by Alden to strip the Orlando and Sun Sentinel boards of their traditional authority to endorse? The explanation given to readers is a meandering missive that never quite satisfies: So a national corporate decree stripping once autonomous editorial boards of their authority to endorse in the highest profile state election contests is almost certainly a bitter pill to swallow, especially here in Florida where there are national implications beyond this year’s election cycle. With more than 200 newspapers under ownership, Alden Global Capital is the 2nd largest newspaper publisher in the United States. On the surface, at least, the decision is national in scope. In a joint published statement earlier this month, both Sentinel editorial boards attempted to explain that the decision was “company wide,” meaning that all of Alden Global Capital’s newspapers would follow the same endorsement policy. Even so, the Orlando Sentinel and its sister publication, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, blame the decision on a new diktat from the “corporate leaders” at the hedge fund headquarters of Alden Global Capital. While state and national polls are predicting big wins for Republicans, the races are far from over. Two prominent Florida newspapers appear to have thrown in the towel with a joint decision to “no longer endorse candidates in races for governor, Senate or president, including this year’s races.”īut the explanation provided by the newspapers for the decision makes little sense. ![]()
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