Inspired by Cyberactor's
Project Shame on You I sent a letter to the Cincinnati Post calling them to task for their 2000 Bush endorsement:
Four years ago, in endorsing George Bush for President, your newspaper proclaimed that "tax cuts in the magnitude he describes would be workable only if surpluses stay skyscraper-high year after year." Needless to say, the surplus is gone but the tax give-aways remained. After witnessing this Administration provide one justification after another for their tax cuts to the wealthiest we are left with a shaky economy and a country billions of dollars in debt.
In 2000, the Cincinnati Post feared the size of Al Gore's proposals to enlarge government but Mr. Bush has proposed one expensive plan after another without providing the means to pay for them. This year I hope you realize that Mr. Bush has not been the "commonsensical" President you hoped for and endorse John Kerry for President of the United States.
Today, I learned that my letter is 'in the pipeline' to be published.
The editor was surprised but flattered that someone from another state would take an interest in the Cincinnati Post's editorials. And also mentioned:
In case you don't know, by the way, the 2000 election was the last in which Scripps Howard newspapers carried a chain-wide endorsement. In other words, the various Scripps newspapers did not each write their own presidential endorsement editorial. They all carried the same one, which reflected a consensus developed by the editors in chief of the papers at a meeting. For this election cycle, however, we've dropped that policy, and we will all be writing our own edits if we endorse at all.
This is positive news because it means there are dozens of newspapers that could 'switch' from Bush to Kerry this year.
I want to applaud Cyberactor for the great project and encourage more collections of swing state Bush endorsers to be posted in dKos. For the extra-motivated there is also the dKosopedia page on media endorsements