free press

i have been thinking about something for a while. our nation is primary obsessed, Eliot Spitzer resigned, Detroit mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick refuses to, and is charged with 8 felonies while still in office. Hilary and Obama battle and McCain tries to undermine both. all the while news outlets tell the tales with their own spin.

heres what i wonder: should newspapers endorse and denounce candidates and elected officials or should they just report the news of the day?

i in no way believe that any news outlet should stop publishing opinion and editorial pieces. i personally love to read such columns whether i agree or not. frequently news men and women are the most informed and i like to hear their thoughts. but i feel like it is somehow different when the organization as a whole endorses a candidate. in this day of conglomerates its hard to take it all seriously. a conservative CEO couple push hundreds of papers toward endorsing McCain. likewise a left leaning President could push others all toward Obama and Clinton.

to me, papers, like politicians, should serve their constituents. so the Post publishes a lot of political and international news to serve the people of DC. papers in Detroit focus on sports, labor and the auto industry, and the economy. in New York there is an emphasis on the stock markets. papers in theses cities are parts of bigger organizations and conglomerates. it scares me when they throw in their lot with a particular politician. a local opinion piece is not the same ans the greater organization's endorsement or denunciation. i wonder where to draw the line.

The Free Press has done much to denounce Mayor Kilpatrick. i have to agree with them, but at times i have thought that they have gone too far. i applaud then in getting the text messages that cost the city $9million, but out right calling for his ouster seems like too much. shouldnt the people make that call? at the same time, its one reason i keep going back to Freep.com. i like that they dont mince words.

and now that Kwame's fall is all but inevitable, they have chosen their successor in Ken Cockrel Jr. while i again agree, i wonder if articles like this go too far. i think Cockrel would be good for the city. his reserved politics would be a good change after the Kwame Kilpatrick show. he would bring a class and grace to the Manoogian Mansion that it hasnt seen since Archer left office. i can say that because blogs are all about telling the web what you think and all four people who might read this probably cant vote in Detroit. but if i were a writer for the Free Press i feel like you have to walk the line a little more.

i wont say that papers shouldnt endorse or denounce politicians, maybe the solution is the we, the voting public, ought to derive our decisions from more than one source. we ought to take in all that we can and make our own decisions. its our right and duty to choose and it is the papers' right and duty to gather news and information and inform.

i welcome comments to this and all posts.