1115.org

In an election where the vast majority of voters claim to have been paying attention and report that they have made up their minds, what will be the deciding factor in the decision of the remaining 4-6%?

Will it be events that have yet to happen? The solitary event of standing in the voting booth with the lever in their hands?

Some people think that it could be newspaper endorsements. I don’t subscribe to that particular theory, but it does present an opportunity to look inside the behind-the-scenes decisions and motivations of editorial boards.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the myth of the “liberal media” persists, and probably will until every American has read Eric Alterman’s What Liberal Media.

In the crucial swing state of Ohio, one of the hardest hit states over the last four years, one of that state’s leading newspapers is suffering an internal conflict and has delayed their endorsement:

…Editor & Publisher has learned from several sources at the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the paper’s nine-person editorial board decided earlier this week that it wanted to endorse John Kerry but publisher Alex Machaskee, who has final say, has decided on George W. Bush. The paper backed Bush in 2000.

This has caused consternation in some quarters at the Plain Dealer, with sources telling E&P that the endorsement editorial, which was expected to run Sunday, was put off.

When some radio talk show host or blonde airhead on Fox News yammers on about the “liberal media,” they always fail to mention that the owners of these big media outlets are overwhelmingly Republican. In the great conflict of interest parlay, they are also the same people who depend on the FCC to continue relaxing media ownership regulations so they can maximize their profits.

Whether implicitly or explicitly, these media owners get what they want from their employees, be they beat reporters or editorial board members.

The enduring theme of the liberal media has been shredded this year, but with so much at stake, the myth marches on.

Hopefully the Cleveland Plain Dealer will make the right call, but as long as the publisher holds his finger on the scales, it seems unlikely.