October 31, 2008 | Kevin Yeoh
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Newspaper endorsements are an intriguing aspect of elections. They reveal how well the opposing parties have curried favour with the fourth estate and who the media barons want to cozy up to in order to expand their empires. Check out this super-charged bubble chart for a visual map of endorsements in the US election. Like the Intrade prediction markets, where Obama is currently priced at an 85% probability of winning, Obama slaughters McCain in the number of newspaper endorsements: 233 to 105.
Naturally, the classic liberal papers like the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe have endorsed Obama. They also all previously endorsed Kerry, Gore and Clinton.
The New York Post, Rupert Murdoch’s paper, which endorsed Obama over Hillary during primary season, now endorses McCain. The Wall Street Journal, which is one of the most recent additions to Rupert’s stable, has a history of not endorsing candidates. But there is speculation that under Rupert’s prodding it will break with tradition and endorse a candidate for the first time. McCain is the likely choice.
What is interesting are the number of papers who previously endorsed Dubya, a Republican, but are now endorsing Obama, a Democrat. There are 46 of them, with a total circulation of 4.4m. The difference with McCain could not be starker. He’s a very lonely man. In his corner are only 4 papers who have switched sides. Their combined circulation is paltry - only 0.2m!
The Economist’s endorsement came out today. It too was for Obama. This has resulted in howls of discontent amongst a large number of its readership. Quite a few of the readers are so outraged at this apparent sacrilegous endorsement for socialism that they will cancel their subscriptions. Some of the more amusing comments are listed below:
“I subscribed to the Economist for over 25 years and watched it move progressively leftwards as new swathes of journalists from Oxbridge emerged to edit and write for the Economist. I stopped subscribing a few years ago in disgust… In the final analysis though the Economists support of Obama reflects more on how radical Oxbridge and other British institutions have become that the rag is now peopled with graduates who think left is the new normal.”
“Wow. I am dumbfounded and saddened to read this publication’s endorsement of Obama. As a subscriber I feel betrayed, but I also feel you betrayed many of the excellent writers who work for you. Suggesting that America should ‘take a chance’ as the rationale for your argument is something I would expect from a throw-away news rag, not The Economist. I am cancelling my subscription as a result.”
“Folks, is there a global political and financial publication that is as probing and in depth as the Economist but sans the leftwing slant?”
“With your endorsement you should change the name of your publication from ‘The Economist’ to ‘The Socialist’!!”
McCain supporters probably wouldn’t care about what the world thinks, but if you want a gauge on world opinion check out The Economist’s Global Electoral College. It’s a whitewash of blue. It’s quite sad when only 4 countries in the world support you. Iraq is the only country that strongly supports McCain. Three other countries (all with relatively tumultuous recent histories) lean to McCain - Congo, Sudan and Myanmar. The rest of the world is strongly for Obama.
It is quite clear then, that there are huge expectations worldwide for an Obama presidency and it would be a massive letdown if Obama turned out to be a dud.
This completely contrasts with Dubya. No siree, there were not many expectations there! I was in London when the Supreme Court made its ruling on Gore vs Bush. Dubya’s victory resulted in one tabloid headline splashing:
“Congratulations Dubya. P.S. We’re over here.”
Next to the headline was an arrow pointing to a map of Britain. No matter who wins, at least the world no longer has to put up with Dubya at the helm!
Kevin is an editor for The Backbench.
Article posted
on Friday, October 31, 2008 at 6:29 am in Culture & Media, Politics
