Inquirer Endorses Obama, but Rep. Publisher orders printing of his bizarre "Dissenting Opinion"

[JPZenger]

http://youngphillypolitics.com/

On Sunday, the Inquirer published a well-written endorsement of Obama. The above link has an excellent column that analyzes the printing by the Philadelphia Inquirer of an anonymous "Dissenting Opinion" in favor of McCain. I've never seen a paper publish a dissenting endorsement.

The blogger makes a strong case that this dissent was probably written and ordered to be published by the largest shareholder in the company, Republican Tierney. The dissenting opinion sounds like it was written by someone cobbling together McCain talking points, as opposed to being written by a professional journalist. It also makes an attack on Obama's campaign manager, who is an old nemisis of Tierney's.
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A similar case happened at the Allentown Morning Call a few years ago. The incumbent US congressman, Don Ritter, was widely recognized as an extreme right wing fool, but the Dems could never convince a high quality candidate to run. Then Paul McHale, who was highly respected, decided to challenge Ritter. The entire Morning Call editorial board voted to endorse McHale, except the Publisher (who was an employee of the parent company, but not an owner) missed the meeting. The endorsement was written and about to go to press, when the Publisher nixed it and changed it to an endorsement of Ritter, which was printed. Of course, no one could keep a secret, and the whole story was leaked.

[Patiod]

1. Tierney, you think? Really?

:sarcasm:

what a tool. He probably had Santorum write it.

:puke:

[Number9Dream]

2. I remember that Morning Call incident...

After McHale won, the MC ran a couple of stories about how poor Don Ritter was coping with not being a congressman. The Morning Call then endorsed Pat Toomey each election, and today (10/26) they again endorsed repuke Charlie Dent (big surprise). They also endorsed Santorum and Specter.