The Boston Globe today endorsed Deval Patrick for governor of Massachusetts so strongly that it ignored the customary writings-off of the other candidates, as in: “Chris Gabrieli has shown himself to be a straightforward leader with some new ideas, and we remain impressed by the precision and resilience of Thomas Reilly’s comb-over.” I’m glad. I’m a Deval Patrick supporter, too, and have the lawn sign to prove it.

But I don’t understand why newspapers take editorial positions. Doesn’t that contradict everything newspapers believe about the value of a neutral point of view? Alternatively, if expressing a point of view gives the reader valuable insight into the inevitable bias of the paper—as I think is the case—wouldn’t it be at least as helpful to allow reporters to state their own stands, in blogs if not in the stories themselves? [Tags: journalism deval_patrick]

Categories: blogs dw