Endorsements of Hillary Clinton by traditional Republican newspapers such as the Arizona Republic and Dallas Morning News recently stirred national shock waves.
Readers of The Atlanta Journal-Constution will receive no such guidance for an election in which polls show strong support for Clinton in Georgia. Nor will the AJC endorse GOP candidate Donald Trump.
A few years ago, the Atlanta newspaper abdicated its basic journalistic responsibility of endorsing candidates. It also abandoned its daily editorial page, no longer making judgments about local, national and international matters as every other major newspaper in America does.
The Cox company, which during the civil rights era stood behind courageous columnists Ralph McGill and Gene Patterson, feared alienating conservative readers when circulation plunged before the 2008 financial collapse. For years, the staunchly Democratic Atlanta Constitution published a liberal editorial page, while the Atlanta Journal offered strong conservative views.
With the Internet killing circulation and advertising, the merged AJC decided to not alienate anyone by putting out a bland opinion page of "balanced" liberal and conservative writers.
Even though other papers view the election as vitally important and Trump's possible election as a threat to the country, the AJC will remain on the sidelines, holding to its corporate "nonpartisan" stance.
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