On April 17, the Daily Pennsylvanian endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential race, just days before the first meaningful Pennsylvania presidential primary in recent memory.
The University of Pennsylvania student newspaper is one of the few newspapers in the state to endorse Clinton over her charismatic rival, Sen. Barack Obama. He has been endorsed by the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Allentown Morning Call and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, among others.
The Daily Pennsylvanian’s nod to Clinton received a lot of press attention after the Clinton campaign issued a press release announcing the endorsement. While Clinton’s press endorsements are limited, she has continuously campaigned with Gov. Ed Rendell and Mayor Michael Nutter, who have both endorsed her run.
The Temple News will not endorse any candidate for president in the primary, or the general election.
While political opinions often overwhelm our newsroom, The Temple News does not fool itself into believing that our beliefs or endorsement will affect the election in any way.
We are a college publication that focuses on the issues surrounding our college community. The outcome of the presidential race will obviously affect Temple students and faculty and the surrounding community, but our role in that election should be, and has been, limited to the scope of the university and the City of Philadelphia.
We covered candidate appearances on campus and around the city in an effort to educate readers on the candidates’ local actions. However, there are issues in this election that go far beyond appearances and debates in this city. We hope that readers can put our coverage into a national context when reading stories and casting a vote.
The leaders of local universities have endorsed Obama in The Temple News today [“Area student government leaders endorse Obama,” April 22, 2008], citing their organizational leadership experience in analyzing Obama’s ability to unite the nation.
These student leaders have a right to use their personal expertise to select a candidate and circulate that endorsement through media outlets like The Temple News. Applying personal convictions and beliefs to a candidate is what the election process is all about.
Just as our NCAA Tournament coverage faded after Temple’s regrettable losses, we will cease our presidential campaign coverage after today’s primary.
We limit our coverage to what we know best, the Temple community.
It would be amateur for us to endorse a candidate in this presidential election only to suspend our coverage when it goes beyond our scope.
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