Should newspapers endorse candidates?

[Dill]

(01-22-2020, 08:34 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: Quite frankly, a lot of articles people see as biased aren't really all that biased. The biggest two problems I often see are inflammatory headlines and too much "both-sides-ism" that actually can make things seem less one-sided than they really are in an effort to not appear biased. The latter is an over-correction to often inaccurate claims of bias in the media.

Yes to all this, especially the bolded. 

If anything, it seems to me that too many journalists kow tow to "both sides" on many issues so they don't get called biased.

I would add one thing to this--I'm never surprised when good journalism is called "biased" precisely because it is good, i.e., because it includes viewpoints and facts that some readers don't want circulating in public. 

It was during the final years of the Vietnam war that the charge of "liberal bias" in the news began to get traction--and it was aimed precisely at those reporters and papers who strayed from reporting the war as Johnson and Nixon saw it. I.e., those that were telling the truth. 

Nixon's television producer, Roger Ailes, figured out a way to amplify that criticism, and to carry it into the 21st century with a permanent home. . . .