Why Do Newspapers Endorse Candidates?

What's the Point? - American Journalism Review

Concerns about a perception of bias are relatively recent in the history of journalism. When the Bill of Rights took effect in 1791, it opened the umbrella of constitutional protection over a yelping, factional swarm of newspapers whose "main purpose, their reason for being, was to purvey political news," says Andie Tucher, an assistant professor of journalism at Columbia University.

"They were funded mainly by political parties," says Tucher. "They were staffed by partisan party functionaries... The idea that an objective press was going to present neutral news was just completely foreign in the very early years of the American nation."

How We Endorse, and Why - Fred Hiatt - WashingtonPost.com

Should Newspapers Still Be Taking Sides? - TIME

Taking a Stand - Why Newspapers Endorse Candidates - Ideas and Trends - NYTimes.com

Should newspapers endorse candidates? - USATODAY.com

Newspaper will only endorse local candidates - News-Leader.com - Springfield News-Leader

Why I Reject "Self-Defense"

"He punched me twice, so I punched him back twice," Kay Mehta said as she nursed a red, tearing eye and waited for police to arrive. "I was just defending myself."

Brawl erupts between Reid, Angle supporters at forum - News - ReviewJournal.com

For Further Study:

A Pacifist for Congress

Peace

Swords into Plowshares

Vengeance vs. Self-Defense

VFTonline.org

Ozarks Virtual Town Hall this Saturday

This Saturday is another "Ozarks Virtual Town Hall," at 10:30am. Libertarian candidate Kevin Craig will respond to the President's Saturday Morning Radio Address to the Nation and the Republican Party Response.

Listeners will then be able to ask Kevin Craig questions or make comments. This can be done over the phone, or using a Q&A box on the website. The subject matter of questions and comments is not limited to the subject of the President's Radio Address, but can be any subject on the minds of southwest Missouri voters.

Kevin Craig wants to be available to hear the voters and answer their questions. To make sure that everyone has an opportunity who has a question or wants to give Kevin Craig "what for," we're making available 250 phone lines and 2,000 internet webcast lines from now until Election Day. We normally go from 10:30am - 11:30am, but if there are more questions or comments, we'll extend the webcast.

Join us!

http://townhall.KevinCraig.us

Happy Constitution Day?

I guess I'm supposed to wish you a "Happy Constitution Day." Here's what I said on
Constitution Day 2007.

Someone commented that I needed to "update" my argument. Wrong for two reasons:

First, warnings about abandoning the Constitution and the need to "get back to the Constitution" have been around since at least FDR and the New Deal, if not Lincoln. The warnings were justified because Washington D.C. and America's law schools were abandoning the Constitution. I don't want to "update" this nearly ancient history. I'm not saying anything radically "new."

Second, I need to update the message only in the sense that, now in 2010, Obama has only taken us an even greater distance away from the Constitution. The Constitution is now even more meaningless and irrelevant than it was in 2007. The warnings continue to be ignored.

The Constitution failed in its most essential task: that of preventing the government it created from transgressing the rights affirmed in the Declaration of Independence.

I'm confident that every single person who signed the Constitution would take immediate steps to repeal the Constitution and abolish the government it created, if those Signers were here today. I would join them (though I would leave my musket at home).

Interview with John Judge - Wednesday at Lunch

This Saturday is the anniversary of the 9-11 attack. On our weekly "Lunch with a Libertarian" webcast we are honored to have John Judge join us to talk about his work with 9-11 families as an independent researcher. Based in Washington D.C., he sat through the 9-11 Commission hearings and has plowed through over 800 books on the subject. He wants us to ask simple and obvious questions about the conventional story, without falling prey to sensationalist conspiracy theories. This will be an extraordinary lunch conversation.

If you join us live you can ask John Judge some questions, either on the phone or typing them into our Q&A box.

Here's the webcast page:

http://KevinCraig.us/lunch-page.htm

We're going to be talking about this interview this Saturday on the Ozarks Virtual Town Hall.

Don't miss this!

Ramble and Rumble with Rabbi

In two hours I'm going to "Ramble and Rumble with Rabbi" Eukel.

Listen to internet radio with Rabbi DF Eukel on Blog Talk Radio

This time I think I'll actually arrive on time. It's 12:00 central time. Can't be midnight. Gotta be noon.

Notes for the program are here.

Update: I don't know what happened. All I could hear over the Internet and over the phone was noise. If you heard different, leave a comment.

Character Counts?

If Scott Eckersley were the Republican candidate for Missouri's 7th District seat in Congress, and Billy Long were the Democrat candidate, I suspect Republicans would be a lot happier.

Just changing party labels would make this race a completely different contest in the eyes of tens of thousands of voters.

But most Republicans put party loyalty ahead of character.

I admit, I wouldn't vote for anyone who increases the ranks of the Party of Pelosi, regardless of his personal character. I would not vote at all.

That's one reason I'm running: to give people like me someone to vote for.

In Missouri's 7th District, a vote for the Libertarian candidate cannot help the Democrats.

Obama's Deficits

I have to admit, I liked it better when I could say that Republicans are just as bad on deficit spending as Democrats, but it looks like Obama is going to beat Bush, if this graphic from FOXNews.com can be believed.

I suspect the Iraq spending is underestimated, and we should probably think about total "defense" spending -- or, rather, "nation-building" spending around the world -- and not just spending against Iraq.

Still, the two big bars are pretty compelling.