Political Endorsements

I was chatting with someone who used to be a reporter on a local newspaper and is now a senior staffer for an elected official of local government. She mentioned that she once believed that papers should endorse candidates, since they have fairly detailed knowledge of the performance of elected officials and government, but now believes that they should not make endorsements. As she explained, the local papers are so dependent on real estate developers and other local interest groups that their endorsements are not credible.

It is an interesting point. Were we confident of the information literacy of voters, then we could be confident that they would combine information from the endorsement with information on the credibility of the source to make better judgments that they would without the endorsement.

Since in fact the voters in local elections do not fully understand the pressures on local papers as they make their endorsements, we can not be confident of their information literacy. Indeed, they may be so ignorant of the issues and the candidates positions, that even not understanding the biases of the papers, the voters may be better advised to accept the endorsements.

Obviously, one wants both an informed, information literate electorate and multiple sources of information on the candidates. I suppose, as compared with a couple of hundred years ago, things are better now. But, progress toward some ideal of democracy seems slow.