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