Tribune should not endorse candidates

Published 9:04 am Thursday, October 23, 2008

I was very disappointed in your editorial telling us to vote for Barack Obama. I thought the media shouldn’t be so one sided, but unfortunately it is! It is one thing that the readers can write in their feelings, but I think the editor of our newspaper should keep his personal feelings to himself. I may not renew when we get back from Arizona in the spring. I can get the crossword online.

Sharon Seidel

Albert Lea

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Editor’s note: The newspaper editorials are in fact the oldest part of newspapers. It was decades later when newspapers started adding news stories. It is a long tradition of newspapers to make political endorsements. Newspapers these days very clearly divide the news stories from the opinions. Our news coverage is separated from the newspaper editorials. Also, the editorials are not the editor’s personal view so much as the institutional view of the newspaper as determined by the Editorial Board. If you didn’t like our endorsement of a Democrat for president, we hope you noticed our endorsement for a Republican for U.S. senator the very next day. We look at the candidate, not the party.