Editor & Publisher keeps track of all newspaper endorsements. We know that Kerry leads Bush in number of endorsements and crushes him in terms of circulation.
Today's Salon piece has a good take on it. It points to GOP's spin that this is something to be expected, as newspapers in general are way too liberal. This was Cheney's response yesterday in TV interview and this is the same talking points all repubs repeat - the rest is below the fold.
From the Salon article (sorry, I can't muster those nice gray boxes!)
"Look, the Republican candidate will never win the contest for editorial board endorsements. The major dailies across the country tend to skew liberal," RNC chairman Ed Gillespie told CNN last week. That spin comes straight out of the GOP handbook that insists the mainstream press tilts to the left, so of course newspapers love Democrats come Election Day.
But numbers/history tell the different story. I was actually stunned to learn that!
"Only problem is, it's not accurate. In fact, the complete opposite is true. Since 1940 when industry trade magazine Editor & Publisher began tracking newspapers during presidential elections, only two Democratic candidates -- Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and Bill Clinton in 1992 -- have ever won more endorsements than their Republican opponent. That's because newspaper publishers, who usually sign off on endorsements, tend to vote Republican (like lots of senior corporate executives), which means GOP candidates pick up more endorsements. A lot more. In 1984, President Reagan landed roughly twice as many endorsements as Democrat Walter Mondale in the president's easy reelection win. And in 1996, despite his weak showing at the polls, 179 daily newspapers endorsed Republican Bob Dole, which easily outpaced the Democrats' tally by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.
"...candidate Bush enjoyed a huge newspaper advantage, picking up nearly 100 more daily endorsements than Gore.
On November 6 E&P predicted a huge win for Bush pointing that newspapers endorsed Bush 2 to 1 nationally and citing data from their survey of 800 top newspapers executives one week before the election (59% for Bush, 20% for Gore)
"As E&P noted in 2000, "One has to wonder: whatever happened to the so-called 'liberal press'?" The better question for the Bush/Cheney team is, why have all those GOP publishers abandoned the president this time around?.
And a good question it is!