Monday, October 29, 2012

Endorsement Derby: Romney camp newspaper endorses Obama

The Des Moines Register endorsed Romney, reportedly their first Republican endorsement since Richard Nixon.  The Romney camp were ecstatic...but why?

http://www.rttnews.com/1992864/des-moines-register-endorses-romney-for-president.aspx?type=pn&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=sitemap

The Des Moines Register is part of the Gannett chain, and as reported here in March, their largest shareholder is Integrity Asset Management, a hedge fund owned by Munder Capital Management of Boston and Birmingham, Michigan (Romney's adult and boyhood homes), whose former CEO Lee Munder is a Romney campaign finance co-chair in Florida.  Is it really a big story to get endorsements from a company controlled by your campaign?  Gannett's CEO was formerly with Brysam Global Partners, a private equity firm which invested in consumer credit companies in Mexico and Russia.  There are other private equity types on the Gannett board as well.

What would be more newsworthy is if any Gannett papers DO NOT endorse Romney.  Could this happen?
Yes.

The Detroit Free Press has endorsed Barack Obama.


http://www.freep.com/article/20121028/OPINION01/121026117/Detroit-Free-Press-Endorsement-Top-reasons-to-re-elect-Obama-president

The Detroit Free Press is the tenth largest circulation newspaper in the country. However, the Detroit News retains the right to publish its editorial page (the News endorsed Mitt Romney) in the Sunday Free Press.  The very fact such a condition was made when the two papers were un-merged demonstrates the importance conservatives place on media control, since the Detroit News is historically the conservative paper in the Detroit area, and the Free Press the liberal paper. Nonetheless, the Free Press staff showed a rare courage in taking on their own employers. I hope they were clever enough to make it a collective responsibility, or some (all) of them may be losing their jobs!




No comments:

Post a Comment