MMMM # 470 -- The NON and NO endorsements of Alabama's Largest Newspapers.

    There was a time when an endorsement by the state's largest newspapers meant something to candidates...I think. At least the editors of the papers thought that was true, and they would have spirited deliberations about which candidate to support. 

  In 2011 The New York Times published a report that tried to determine whether those endorsements had any impact on who won. It included this graphic showing the number of newspaper endorsements in presidential elections across the years.

     The big jump in third party endorsements in 1980 were for John Anderson, who went on to win ZERO electoral votes and ZERO states.

(I love this photo, which I took, but there are only 3 machines there on Dexter Aver. now.)

    Anyway, here in Alabama we will vote for Governor on Tuesday, but the state's biggest papers can't seem to decide on an endorsement! The Montgomery Advertiser can't decide whether to support incumbent Republican Robert Bentley or Democratic challenger Parker Griffith. They write:

We cannot in good conscience endorse either man for governor.

      If the newspaper can't decide, what are voters supposed to do?      
     The polls show Bentley ahead by 30 points, so apparently there is no crisis of conscience by the people who will actually decide the race. And an endorsement--or a lack of one--by The Advertiser would be unlikely to have any effect anyway.

       The online presence of the other large (but not daily) newspapers in the state (The Birmingham News, The Mobile Register, and The Huntsville News), AL.COM, writes that Bentley is likely to win (Duh!) and sends an open letter to him that includes a litany of the problems facing this poor state, and concludes with this:

Seek your legacy and aim high, governor. The people need your greatness in every way that term applies.
They are waiting to see if you are that man. We hope you are.

       The papers' editorial boards have less squeamishness when it comes to Tuesday's election of an Attorney general: AL.COM endorses Luther Strange, even as they list his faults:

We realize that the Strange Administration is not without flaws.

      The Advertiser recommends his Democratic challenger, Joe Hubbard, though they do so without much enthusiasm:

We have reservations about both men, but on balance find Hubbard the better candidate.

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of TimLennox.com]