On Sunday, the New York Times decided to select their endorsement for the candidate to beat former reality television star and President Donald Trump, via their television show “The Weekly,” when the editorial board revealed — for the first time in the paper’s history — the decision making behind their endorsements of Senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Democratic primary.
Media scholar Bob Thompson praised the Times on Boston Public Radio Monday for opening up their endorsement process and called it “compelling TV.” However, he did not appreciate the Times’ decision to endorse two candidates.
“If they’re trying to make 'The Weekly' reality tv... . They’re not doing a very good job of it,” Thompson said. “It was a preliminary endorsement. It was a narrowing down... . I wonder if they’re going to do an episode where they finally make a decision after we see what’s going down in some of these primaries.”
Thompson is the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture and a Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
