Letter: Lifting editorial thumb from the political scale

Published by The Bismarck Tribune | June 27, 2024

Lift your thumb from the political scale. Cry us no crocodile tears about voters having no choices outside Republican primaries. It’s your job to be impartial in presenting voters with information on the choices they have.

Instead, you ‘predict in an editorial 143 days before the general election, that despite nasty and divisive primaries, Republican’s “outlook couldn’t be better.” Your paper can make that a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Or you could actually cover the races instead of handicapping them. You could treat Senator Merrill Piepkorn for Governor, Dr. Katrina Christiansen for U.S Senate, and Trygve Hammer for U.S. House as the legitimate, highly qualified candidates they are. You could highlight the differences between them and their opponents on issues of women’s rights and health care, for instance.

But that’s just the start. In the federal races, you could explain, without bias, the difference between appeasement of Russian brutality and Christiansen and Hammer standing with America’s allies for democracy and freedom. You could highlight the differences between corruption and cover-ups and drift towards right-wing radicalism that are the natural result of 32 years of one-party rule and the refreshing commitment to moderate bipartisanship of Senator Piepkorn.

Editorialize any way you want. That’s your right. But your obligation as a newspaper is to cover the news. Those Democratic-NPL candidates are crisscrossing the state, outlining their positions and drawing contrasts to their opponents. That’s news. Cover it and you won’t need to bemoan the lack of choices. Voters will make the choices.

—Opinion by Tracy Potter