Liberty in America
columnist: rtbohan

Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
The PA Press and the PA Primaries: Two Days to Go

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By early Wednesday morning we will have the results of the primaries and be able to gauge the effectiveness of press endorsements and slurs.

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by rtbohan
(Libertarian)
Sunday, April 20, 2008

With two days remaining before the Pennsylvania primary the two Democratic candidates and their surrogates are racing around the state trying to recruit voters to the end. The Republican contenders are taking a more leisurely approach.

Today the endorsements of candidates by the major metropolitan newspapers are in. What effect will they have on the outcome? Probably very little, but we will know for sure on Wednesday morning.

There are over eight million voters registered to vote in the primaries in Pennsylvania.  Many of these are first time voters, others are party changers voting in a different party's primary for the first time.  Most of these voters have probably changed their status in order to support a particular candidate.  Few of the new or switch voters are likely to swayed by any endorsement.  But the metropolitan press feels an obligation to guide its readers

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette(www.postgazette.com)  was not willing to wait until the last minute to announce its choice.  It endorsed Obama on April 16, calling him the candidate who represents the future, as opposed to Clinton, who is a candidate of the past.  Just to be sure its readers got the message, it repeated its endorsement in today's paper, urging Democrats to "dare to be different" by voting for Obama.  The paper did not mention in either editorial that the Republican primary is being held this week.

The other Pittsburgh paper, the Tribune Review, (www.pittsburghlive.com) endorsed Senator Clinton in the Democratic Primary.  While it did not rush its endorsement as the Post Gazette did, its position had been telegraphed by a column written by it publisher, Richard Mellon Scaife, talking of his many points of agreement with Senator Clinton.  The editorial itself was mostly a list of the most recent talking points of the Clinton campaign.

Probably because if has more Republican readers than the Post Gazette , the Tribune Review did acknowlege that there will be a Republican primary this week.  Its  position was that the Republicans would ratify McCain's candidacy since he was opposed only by "Ron Paul's maverick campaign."

The Philadelphia Inquirer also made a predictable endorsement in the Democratic race  The paper, which has a substantial insterstate circulation, had endorsed Obama in the New Jersey primary.  Today it endorsed him for the Democratic nomination for the same reasons it had given earlier.  Unlike the Pittsburgh papers, the Inquirer did admit that John McCain was not alone on the Republican ballot.  But it dismissed Huckabee because he has "abandoned" his campaign.  As for Ron Paul, the paper said he  "is carrying on his obscure campaign for reasons known only to him."(www.philly.com)

Newspapers outside the two metropolitcan areas carried campaign news, but did not attempt to tell their readers how to vote in either contest.  The same was true of the college newspapers in the state, although the Penn State student newspaper, The Collegian, did carry on its editorial page a quotation from Ron Paul explaining his appeal to college students (www.collegian.psu.com) .

The print media today see their circulation and influence in decline.  By early Wednesday morning we will have the returns from the two primaries and be able to judge whether the endorsements and the slurs of the newspapers have had any effect.

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2008 rtbohan, all rights reserved.
Published: Sunday, April 20, 2008
Last modified: Sunday, April 20, 2008

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