Over 200 American outlets under USA Today parent company Gannett will not back candidates “in presidential or national races,” according to USA Today.
“None of the USA TODAY Network publications are endorsing in presidential or national races,” a spokesperson for USA Today, Lark-Marie Antón, said in an email to The Hill on Monday.
But isn’t Gannett a conservative company? Is this good news, like if Fox News or OANN says they won’t endorse a candidate?
It’s bad news. Gannet is a news conglomerate, but is run locally in each market. Each market has an editorial team, and each would like to independently endorse candidates. Whether they endorse Trump or Harris or Putin for president, they should be able to do that without interference from the corporate overlords. Oppression isn’t good when the oppressed disagree with you.
The endorsements come from the writers, not from leadership.
If a conservative owner owns a liberal set of writers, muzzling your writers and stopping endorsements is to the conservatives advantage.