Why The Fresno Bee will continue to provide its readers with election recommendations
A caller left a message recently that was equal parts surprise and scorn.
“I just learned that you tell voters how to vote in the election,” the man said. “I don’t think that’s right. You are a NEWSpaper,” he went on, with the emphasis. “Stick to the news and leave your opinion out of it.”
The caller was in the bullseye of a time-worn debate in American journalism — the role that the opinion page plays in the daily content of the newspaper, be it in print or today’s digital realm.
To many readers, the purpose of The Bee is to provide news and nothing more. But that belies the fact that, for the decades stretching back to its founding in 1922, The Bee has also provided readers with an opinion page that both communicated what the paper thought about issues, as well as what others believed, in the form of letters to the editor and commentaries.
Similarly, come election time, The Bee continues the well-honed practice of offering its views of candidates and propositions.
In the bygone era, such were termed “endorsements.” Today, they are known as recommendations. Far be it for The Bee to think it is smarter than its readers. Instead, its Editorial Board offers recommendations to ponder as a voter takes up his or her ballot.
Do we chart that course as a conservative voice, or a liberal one? I asked that several years ago of then-Publisher Ken Riddick when I became opinion editor. “I just want us to be right,” was his terse reply, offered in smooth drawl of his native Texas. So that is our compass today. Our Editorial Board offers recommendations on the basis on what it believes to be right for Fresno and the central San Joaquin Valley.
The Bee is about to start publishing its recommendations for this November’s general election. The focus will be on what the Editorial Board can best research, investigate and determine, namely local candidates and issues, as well as statewide ones.
Here is how we have gone about that.
Meeting with candidates
Like everything else in today’s world, meeting with candidates has been challenged by the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of gathering in person, as happened in the primary when the pandemic was just beginning, we had to hold our meetings online via Zoom.
But one advantage is that we recorded the sessions and will attach the videos with our recommendations for interested readers to watch online.
Our Editorial Board asks questions to the candidates and notes their answers. Afterward the board discusses the candidates and comes up with a choice of who to recommend.
I also conduct follow-up research to make sure we haven’t missed something. If all remains on track, I write the recommendation, and the board reads it and approves before it can be published.
The Bee cannot interview candidates in every race on the ballot. For example, this November there are a slew of school board races across Fresno County. The Editorial Board is only able to offer recommendations on the Fresno Unified and Clovis Unified races. Like all parts of the newspaper, the opinion staff has been scaled down from the half dozen of years ago to just one today.
Besides myself, the board consists of Publisher Tim Ritchey, Editor Joe Kieta, Vida en El Valle Editor Juan Esparza Loera and Maria Ortizbriones, a staff writer for Vida, which is the bilingual publication in The Bee family.
Gift of time
How do Bee recommendations help readers? For one thing, they save voters the time. We have the ability to do extensive online research, then meet candidates and ask questions directly. That is hard for the average voter to accomplish.
We also bring our experience to bear. Some of the candidates are incumbents we have interviewed before. Some of the issues are tied to longstanding needs, like school bonds or rent control.
We can ask tough questions and fact-check claims and statements with the Bee’s archives or its news staff as needed.
To come back to the caller’s point, the news staff plays no role in coming up with a recommendation. The reporters don’t know who the Editorial Board is interviewing, when that will happen, what we discuss or what the recommendation will be. By design, there is a firm separation from the news reporters and editors and the opinion side of the operation.
Why do we continue to offer recommendations? As the Valley’s primary news source, we are in the best position to offer opinions on what matters most in local elections.
And, as former Chicago Tribune Editorial Page Editor John McCormick put it, it is a paper’s duty to facilitate dialogue in its community and promote participation.
So, please consider our thoughts on candidates and issues. We want them to be useful.
More importantly, please make your vote count by casting your ballot not just for the presidential race, but also on the many key local ones. Your vote matters.
This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 5:56 AM.
