The Adirondack Daily Enterprise, based in Saranac Lake, faces a controversy over Friday’s endorsement of presidential candidate John McCain.<\/p>\n
The essay embraces the Republican and slams Democrat Barack Obama, saying that “troubling questions remain” about his character.<\/p>\n
The controversy?<\/p>\n
The endorsement wasn’t actually written locally. It was produced by a writer in West Virginia at Ogden Newspapers, Inc., the Enterprise’s corporate headquarters.<\/p>\n
And yet the editorial includes this statement: “[W]e urge residents of our area to cast their ballots for John McCain, the leader Americans need.”<\/p>\n
“Our area”?<\/p>\n
Managing editor Peter Crowley points out that the editorial did include the corporation’s name at the top, which reads simply “Ogden Newspapers Inc.”<\/p>\n
“As the byline indicates, the editorial is by Ogden Newspapers Incorporated, which is our parent company,” Crowley said on Friday. “Locally, our editorial board did not reach a conclusion. Our local editorial board editorials are by consensus.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Would average readers know and understand the distinction? And it now seems unlikely that the Enteprise’s readers will ever know what their local editorial board thinks.<\/p>\n
Just yesterday, the Enterprise published a locally-written essay stating, “[T]he Enterprise editorial board is not endorsing candidates this election cycle…” <\/p>\n
The Enterprise isn’t alone.<\/p>\n
A nearly identical McCain endorsement, also penned in West Virginia, ran in the Gloversville Leader-Herald, also owned by the Odgen chain. <\/p>\n
That editorial also ended with the phrase “we urge residents of our area to cast their ballots for him.”<\/p>\n
The essays in both papers triggered angry reactions from some local readers. One read:<\/p>\n
Who is Ogden Newspapers Inc.? Is this the view of the Enterprise or of Ogden Newspapers Inc.? I would have liked to read the view of the Enterprise’s editorial staff, not some corporate conglomerate newspaper publishing house.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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