News-Record.com

Allen, in politics, and frequently in religion, it's more important to LOOK LIKE you're doing the right thing than to actually do it.

Alas, Lex, you're right.

And in journalism, too.

Rusty, that mysterious hit-and-run comment begs for elaboration. At the risk of getting what I asked for, would you care to?

Oh, I don't know. Maybe it has to do with excluding candidates from editorial endorsement consideration because they aren't a member of one of the 2 parties that usually get the vast majority of votes. It's a good business decision: writing about a Libertarian won't sell papers. But it's not the right thing to do when news is at stake, and an uninformed voting public goes into the booth and doesn't know who 1/3 of the candidates on their ballots are.

So a paper can say they are "objective" because they give equal consideration to Democrats and Republicans. But really they're not objective, because they willfully keep their readers in the dark about other legitimate candidates.

Looks like the right thing, but really it's not.

Rusty, I don't know that writing about Democrats and Republicans sells papers either.
But we've had a number of discussions on whether we should open the interview process to less traditional candidates (which typically, but not always, means Libertarians). Sometimes we have, sometimes we haven't.
These interviews can be very time-consuming, especially during a presidential election year.
The Libertarians didn't help their legitimacy, however, when they came out with a calendar a couple of elections ago featuring "Women of the Libertarian Party."

Consuming time interviewing legitimate candidates should be a priority for a newspaper. That's a weak argument. It's not like there's 10 parties recognized in this state. There are 3.

How a calendar put out by Libertarians (Libertarians DESPERATE for attention because of the media black-out) excludes other Libertarians who had nothing to do with the calander from endorsement consideration is beyond me. Reps and Dems have done a lot of stupid things in their tenure (supporting the blatantly unconstitutional Patriot Act is a lot worse than a calander in my mind), but they still get considered every election cycle.

A valid point. But what you may not realize is that, during the course of a presidential election year, we conduct more than 85 in-person interviews, from U.S. Senate to Congress to governor to N.C. Supreme Court to state legislature to other judges to insurance commissioner to school board. We have to make our time count.

Make the time count? What could be a more worthwhile use of time than considering the same options that the voters will see on their ballots, and helping the public to make informed decisions in the voting booth? You find the time to interview 100% of local Republicans and Democrats in partisan races. I think the paper should make the time to interview the other handful of Libertarian candidates in those partisan races. I really don't think it would be that much extra work. But if it is, it's time well-spent.

Allen,

I'm inclined to agree with Rusty here. The guilt by association (re: the calendar) doesn't carry water. Did you think Rusty was a serious candidate?

I'd like to comment further, but cannot without speculating on what may or may not be driving your decisions, instead, allow me to ask, what are the criteria you use for deciding who gets interviewed for endorsement consideration? How did you decide who would be among the 85? What is the measure of making your time "count?"

No, we did not, Roch. And I see the points here. We want to be inclusive. Libertarians also were shut out of the gubernatorial debates on the same premise as ours. Yet, frankly, I can't say that my own arguments impress me all that much. We'll reconsider for the future.

Thank you, Mr. Johnson. I look forward to more inclusive coverage in the future.

Well, Rusty, we have railed editorially about needing younger candidates and you certainly fit the bill. You at least deserve a chance to make your case before the editorial board in person. (Plus, I know when I'm licked.)

Bravo.

Let's all archive this one for 2006.

Jim, I am on the record and officially obligated.

Mr. Johnson, I overlooked this post (and its resulting comments) until reading comments David Hoggard had posted about it at his Blog.

Wow! This was exciting to read. A dialogue that actually resulted in thoughtful consideration and a change of heart. I don't consider that all too common in our society.

This almost seems worthy of a column--one in which you could make readers more aware of Blogging and also more conscious of its potential power to influence change and persuade minds.

It would also allow you to share your thoughts on how to approach candidate interviews more inclusively in the future.

And who knows, such a column might influence the token coverage and consideration given Libertarians by other members of the media.

I'm definitely impressed by what took place here!

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