Last year, before the presidential campaign, we rolled out a new endorsement policy. During the last year we’ve monitored our process and have had many discussions internally about the effectiveness of the policy, the value of our endorsements, and the unintended consequences of our policy.
We have also struggled, despite the policy, with convincing our readers and potential endorsees that our policy was impartial. There is a persistent cynicism about our endorsement – all endorsements from media outlets, both traditional and new, really – that our endorsement can be bought with advertising or otherwise influenced through relationships with our owners, board and contributors. That has never been the case, but the belief has continued unabated and solving that problem is next to impossible.
Throw in the inherent difficulty of coming up with consensus between some of the most opinionated people in the Commonwealth, and our endorsement policy has quickly become more of a headache than a benefit.
Thus, as part of our reorganization (more on that later today), we are ending our endorsement policy. Bearing Drift will no longer endorse candidates for office, at any level. We will continue to provide news, analysis, and our horse race handicapping of races – what our readers have come to expect from us since 2004.
Thanks for continuing to make Bearing Drift the most read conservative news source in Virginia.
