…editorial independence.

Sunday my hometown paper, The Northwest Herald endorsed John McCain. No surprise there.  It has traditionally favored Republicans.  And McHenry County has long been regarded the most reliably Republican county in Illinois—at least until now.  So the paper’s endorsements could fairly be said to reflect the sensibilities of its readers.  Ordinarily the endorsement would have caused no particular stir, even among Democrats who would not have expected anything better.

But this Sunday the McCain endorsement did not really come from the Northwest Herald, meaning the editorial board of the paper which makes all of the other political endorsements.  This endorsement was issued with the following identification:

The Office of the President of Shaw Newspapers
Tom Shaw, Chief Executive Officer

Tom Shaw is the fifth generation of an Illinois newspaper family.  The Shaw Newspapers has become a modest little empire comprised mostly of down state Illinois, Iowa and Chicago Collar County publications.  The jewel in the crown is the Northwest Herald, the largest circulation in the wealthiest area.  Around the Herald Shaw has built the Northwest News Group of Greater Chicago, which the family owned company dreams will come to dominate the region against both Chicago dailies and the dominant Daily Herald empire.  (Non local readers can be forgiven the confusion over the dueling Heralds.)

Chris Krug, general manager and executive editor of the Northwest Herald wrote in his Sunday collumn that the “Shaw Newspapers is publishing a singular endorsement across all of its newspapers and Web sites presented by the Office of the President and Tom Shaw, our company’s chief executive officer and a fifth-generation member of the Shaw family.”  It was a tacit acknowledgement that the boss trumped the judgment of editorial employees.

This set off a round of controversy in the newspaper’s on line comments.  Below is a slightly longer version of the comment I posted.  Published comments are limited to 100 words.  I also have updated the total endorsement number reflecting more recent information.

The Bible of the newspaper business, Editor and Publisher reported on October 26 Barack Obama led John McCain in newspaper endorsements 160-69.  He even leads in papers published in states that went for George W. Bush in the last election 48-28(as of October 22).  Lest this be dismissed as the simple bias of the “liberal elite” the list of endorsers include many staunchly Republican newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, which has been unable to find a qualified Democratic candidate in its long history.  Look, as the old adage goes “Freedom of the Press belongs to those who own one.”  Mr. Shaw owns several.  He has every right to endorse who he pleases.  But the fact that he had to subvert the Herald’s normal Editorial Board process to do so speaks volumes.