The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel announced last week that from this point forward, it will no longer make endorsements for political candidates in all elections, including the monumental upcoming presidential and senatorial elections. The Sentinel’s lack of conviction and transparency is upsetting, and its decision to refrain from making endorsements seems to be a poorly disguised attempt to dodge controversy and keep circulation numbers up.

David Haynes, the editorial page editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, wrote last Friday that the sunset of Journal Sentinel endorsements paves the way for a substitute plan endorsed by noted media scholar Jay Rosen to engage readers and remain independent from political parties. We do not understand why making endorsements precludes such a plan. Editorial independence does not mean recusing oneself from an important civic function just because the race is heating up. In fact, taking a stance and endorsing a candidate is an expression of editorial independence.

Haynes explained that, “In [some readers’] minds, the endorsements color everything else we do.” We realize the Sentinel doesn’t benefit from making endorsements – on the contrary, whichever candidate the editorial board chooses to back, a certain percentage of readers will disagree with the endorsement and stop reading the paper. In light of this, it appears that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is refusing to make endorsements because they believe the candidates they were going to endorse are unpopular with the people who pay to read their paper. This practice is a potentially dangerous form of self-censorship.

The Sentinel seems to believe taking a stance on a candidate means becoming their political crony. “Believe me, nowhere in my job description does it say that I should help politicians get elected,” Haynes remarked in the editorial. That simplifies the role of an editorial board to the point of naivet?. It is the responsibility of an editorial board to interpret the news and take a stance with the authority of the newspapers name. This means advocating for the political candidate that board members believe will act in the public’s best interest.

Haynes cited readers’ lack of knowledge concerning the difference between a newsroom and editorial board and how that can tinge reader perception of news content. In most papers, including The Badger Herald and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the news department takes great pains to keep its staff out of political activity and to make sure news coverage does not get contaminated with reporters’ partisan viewpoints. Some readers do not understand that an editorial board and newsroom do not intersect. This is not an excuse for an editorial board to dissolve its relevancy, but it is an opportunity to educate the public on how a newspaper works. A newspaper should not change the way it expresses editorial opinion because it believes its readers are ignorant.

Curiously enough, Haynes said there will be times when an endorsement will be made, and he cited the recall election as an example. The Sentinel supported Walker, Haynes said, and the decision was based less on politics and more on a disagreement with the recall process. Haynes gives editorial leadership generous breathing room to make endorsements in the future, when a race is novel enough that it is important to weigh in on. The Journal Sentinel has not given a criterion as to what makes a campaign endorsement-worthy. These exceptions puncture their attempts to say this is really an effort at editorial independence. Rather, it seems to be a cop-out from taking a side in the current election. We feel that an editorial board should either make endorsements on a consistent basis, or refrain from making endorsements entirely.

In the next two days, The Badger Herald Editorial Board will make endorsements in the presidential election and the Senate race between Tammy Baldwin and Tommy Thompson. We do not expect to bring tears to people’s eyes or cause a massive upheaval of support for the candidates we endorse. But we will keep doing our job as a newspaper: To contribute to important political discussions and to give our input on who would make the country better for our readers. We wish the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel would join us.