Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

A snip from the middle of a column written by Peter Carlisle on today’s Civil Beat website that I found difficult to read:

… Or are Dennis Francis and his Editorial Board lost in Never Never Land?  Or, more frighteningly, have Zombies been feasting on their brains?

How is it that Francis disregarded the opinion of his paper’s expert on political matters, Abercrombie’s litany of gubernatorial inadequacies, the many times he stuck his foot in his mouth up to the kneecap and the judgment of the people expressed in the poll?

It seems to me Dennis Francis and his Editorial Board did little to understand more clearly why the voters were so frustrated with Gov. Abercrombie.

[Civil Beat, Peter Carlisle: Should the Star-Advertiser Be Endorsing Candidates?, 10/3/2014]

Zombies feasting on their brains? How does he know whether Francis and his editorial board understood or did not understand anything? Why should a poll determine an endorsement?

And the argument that Carlisle makes, that a newspaper should not endorse political candidates, seems strange to begin with. That’s what newspapers do. And they do it without opening up their methodology to public scrutiny.

Endorsements are most valuable when the editors explain their reasoning, as they did in endorsing Neil Abercrombie for re-election, and as they have done in the past. Voters obviously didn’t agree this time, but the editors made their case.

Carlisle’s column left me wondering—not only about the propriety of his attack, but whether the Civil Beat editors took the day off this Columbus Day holiday. Surely there are standards for accepting contributed material, and I wonder if they would consider this column to fit their standards.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 10/13/2014 12:25:00 PM