WELCOME to the debut of “The Truth Is!”, a blog of reporting and commentary that aims to be informative, thoughtful and provocative. At least initially, the blog will have a strong heartland flavor by virtue of the connection of a number of us to Cowles family journalism. I am former editor of the Des Moines Register’s opinion pages. Another contributor, Michael Gartner, is former editor of the paper; he later served as president of NBC News. Another former Register editor who has agreed to contribute, Geneva Overholser, is director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg school of journalism. Followers of the blog will have access also to the work of Herbert Strentz of Des Moines, a close Register and other newspaper watcher who once headed Drake University’s journalism school. Bill Leonard, a longtime Register editorial writer, will add insights.

“The Truth Is!” will be supervised by my daughter, Marcia Wolff, a communications lawyer for 20 years with Arnold and Porter (Washington, D.C.). Invaluable technical assistance in assembling and maintaining the blog is provided by my grandsons Julian Cranberg, a college first-year, and Daniel Wolff, a high school senior.

If you detect a whiff of nepotism in this operation, so be it. All of it is strictly a labor of love. —Gil Cranberg

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Gilbert Cranberg: THE TRUTH ON NEWSPAPER ENDORSEMENTS

The Iowa Senate mid-term election is shaping up as one of the more consequential of the year’s election contests. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin’s decision to not seek another term has put an otherwise sure Democratic seat up for grabs. At this point, Republican candidate Jodi Ernst is making a spirited bid for the seat against Bruce Braley, a two-term Democratic member of the House. Republicans see the Senate contest as a way for them to make headway in their drive to take control of the Senate by replacing Harkin’s reliable liberal vote with Ernst’s much more conservative outlook. Look for Republicans to make Iowa a battleground state for conservative convictions.

Making Iowa still more of a wild card than usual is the announced decision by Randy Evans, the Register’s editorial page editor, to retire. In my experience as editorial page editor the editor’s input on endorsements carries considerable weight. With a new publisher running things at the paper, that may no longer be true. If the publisher, who leans conservative, elects to throw her weight around on endorsements, the influential Register could well endorse Ernst.

If I were still giving advice to Register readers I would tell them to pay scant attention to the paper’s endorsement this year. Register readers are perfectly capable of making up their own minds about who should represent them in the Senate. Unless the paper is prepared to open up the endorsement process to reader access at an open meeting, readers should skip what the paper has to say to them on the subject and simply ignore this year’s endorsement editorial.

A newspaper’s endorsement traditionally is given weight because supposedly it is the considered judgment of the institution. The Register states that its endorsement of major candidates represents the consensus view of its editorial board, the half-dozen or so staffers whose names are on the masthead. But if, in fact, it represents the choice of a single individual, the publisher, it is entitled to no more weight than any one person’s opinion. Journalism would be performing a public service by clearly disclosing to readers whose views are being expressed in endorsement editorials.

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