Who writes those $#@&^! newspaper editorials, and why don’t they have the guts to sign their name to them? Furthermore, if a paper has editorialized on a divisive issue, how can I trust anything I read in that paper not to be biased?

Newspaper editorials generally aren’t signed because they reflect the consensus opinion of an editorial board made up of several people. Therefore, although they likely are authored by one person, that person is charged with reflecting the consensus even when they might not fully agree with it.

Of course, it doesn’t always work that way. Very small newspapers may have editorials that reflect the view of one person—the owner, or publisher or editor. Sometimes the editorial stances of the paper are left to the discretion of the editors. At other publications, the publishers or owners dictate editorial policy.

As for the second question, larger newspapers generally have editorial boards and news-reporting staffs that work independently of one another. Good papers take measures to ensure that reporters and their editors never are pressured, subtly or otherwise, to let editorial stances influence what news they cover or how they cover it. It might be strange to see a newspaper’s editorial board praise a public official one day only to have a reporter write an unflattering story the next day, but that separation is how it is supposed to work.

Again, it doesn’t always work that perfectly, especially at smaller papers where the editorial writer might be the same person reporting the news. Or where owners and publishers insist on micromanaging both the news content and the editorial writing.

Readers are often quick to leap to the conclusion that news coverage biases are an outcome of the position of the publisher, owner or editorial board. Certainly that happens—but only by analyzing coverage over time can that be reliably determined. And, of course, the reader doing the analyzing needs to take into account his or her own prism of biases also—not always an easy task!

Got a media relations question? Send it to:
 hughmec@voyager.net.