The Star Tribune Won't Endorse Anyone For President This Year

MINNEAPOLIS — The recently re-branded Minnesota Star Tribune is among a handful of newspapers this year that announced it won't endorse any candidate for U.S. President.

Opinions editor Phil Morris announced the decision back in August:

"Rather than issue candidate or ballot endorsements, we’re going to evaluate the key issues relevant to the most important contests, and offer readers a studied perspective on how they might view them at the ballot box."

Morris admitted, "It’s an experiment — let’s see how it goes!"

The decision was announced to little fanfare. But more recent moves by the LA Times and the Washington Post have cast the Star Tribune's move in a more negative light in retrospect.

Late last month, the Washington Post editorial board prepared an endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris, but billionaire owner Jeff Bezos intervened. Bezos scrapped the endorsement and ended the paper's endorsement practice altogether.

After public outcry, Bezos felt it necessary to explain his decision in an op-ed. He wrote that endorsements "do nothing to tip the scales of an election" but create "a perception of non-independence" at the newspaper.

Bezos did admit that "I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it. That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy."

The op-ed appeared to only fan the flames. Over 250,000 digital subscribers have canceled their Washington Post subscriptions in response to the move, National Public Radio reported.

A similar situation has played out at the LA Times and its own billionaire tech owner.

There's no indication that the Star Tribune's billionaire owner, Glen Taylor, had anything to do with their decision to end endorsements. But the move has received plenty of backlash, with critics calling it cowardice and anti-democratic.

Newspaper endorsements date back to the early days of American journalism, where publishers would endorse candidates to reflect the paper’s values and political stance. These endorsements are crafted by the editorial board and kept separate from the news reporting side, which aims to provide unbiased, factual reporting.

The New York Times, for example, has endorsed a candidate for president of the United States in every election in the paper's history, dating back to 1852 for Winfield Scott.

As trust in the media declines, some argue that editorial endorsements may confuse readers more than they inform them.