This toddlin' town still has some of the old newspaper competitive spirit. The day after the Sun-Times announced an end to the editorial endorsements it has done since its birth in 1941, the Tribune harrumphed that since backing Abe Lincoln in 1860, it continues to endorse and now does so "from the top of the ballot to the bottom." It represents hundreds of hours of effort, sometimes requires holding the nose, antagonizes partisans -- and serves the public, sayeth the Trib.

Here are links to the two editorials

http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/10174893-474/editorial-why-we-will-no-longer-endorse-in-elections.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-endorse-20120124,0,1267158.story

Today's S-T editorial has already prompted a flurry of discussion among members of the National Conference of Editorial Writers/Association of Opinion Journalists in its members-only online discussion list.

The Sun-Times said it will continue interviewing candidates and such but would no longer endorse because voters have lots more sources now and endorsements can be perceived as tainting the rest of the newspaper's fairness.

Surely we will hear more on this.

Here's the closing quote from Bill Lucey's blog quoting George Vecsey upon his retirement as dean of sports columns at the New York Times. I think it has a lot to say about journalism in general and opinion writing in particular. Julie Moos put it on Poynter's MediaWire and it could go viral in a good way.

"Newspapers are the engines that drive the Web. Without editors planning assignments and copy editors fixing mistakes, reporters quickly deteriorate into Underwear Guys writing blogs from their den. The sad thing is that everybody knows it -- even politicians and business people know they need some source of actual information, even if they get whacked once in a while. But the economics and timidity of the newspaper business are working against that future. And the bloggers brag about knowing how things work from the sanctity of their dens."

http://www.wplucey.com/2011/12/a-departing-q-a-with-george-vecsey.html

Personal attacks (ad hominem argument), straw men, cause-effect confusion show up regularly in editors' mailboxes. NCEW member and logical-debate-coach Roy Maynard explores some of the most common errors and asserts that "civil" and "logcal" go together.

The full piece is, for now at least, online at NCEW.org in the Civility Project box; the direct URL is:

http://www.ncew.org/index.php?src=news&srctype=detail&category=The%20Civility%20Project&refno=230&view=civility_news_detail

JM 11/21/11

NCEW member Heather Long, deputy editorial page editor of the Harrisburg, Pa., Patriot-News, shared this:

"Today's editorial in The (Harrisburg) Patriot-News is a rare thing: We devoted the entire front page to calling for Penn State University's president to step aside and its head football coach to retire at season's end because they failed to properly handle an eye-witness account of child sexual abuse on campus."

Here's a quick link to the Nov. 8 Newseum page: 
http://tinyurl.com/4kf5y4

It was the first item on Poynter Institute's Romanesko+ daily email briefing.

And of course high on NCEW's listserv.

The Patriot-News opinion page site is:
http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/

###