Newspapers usually endorse political candidates right before an election occurs. In theory, this maximizes the impact of their institutional imprimatur, and avoids any effect on campaign coverage.
But this week, Boston Globe publisher John Henry did things a bit differently, offering a ringing pre-endorsement of a presidential run by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
He did it on Twitter. Two days after a testy Republican debate in South Carolina, Henry voiced dismay at the state of the presidential race, tweeting: “Two party system completely broken. Bloomberg should run. More importantly long term, third party construct needed.”
(Bloomberg, of course, is Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire and former New York mayor who’s been thinking about jumping into the presidential race, as is his wont.)
Which raises a question: might Henry’s blatant Bloomberg boosterism make things awkward for the Globe’s journalists?
It may have already. On a recent episode of Greater Boston, host Jim Braude asked Frank Phillips, the Globe’s State House bureau chief, and Dante Ramos, a Globe op-ed columnist, to respond to Henry’s tweet. Phillips’ reply— “I’m not touching that with a ten-foot pole”—suggested a measure of discomfort. (Phillips later said of Henry, who’s also principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, “Just win us the World Series, please.”)
For his part, Ramos gently pushed back at Henry’s core proposition. “I think that there is something about our political institutions that make a two-party system almost an inevitability,” he said.
But Boston Globe editor Brian McGrory strongly disputes the notion that Henry’s tweet could pose problems. The suggestion that it might is “too absurd to respond to in any substantive way,” he told WGBH News via email.
“On the news side,” McGrory added, “it betrays a fundamental lack of insight regarding the work and mindset of the kind of high-level beat reporters we have covering the campaign. It also suggests you haven't been reading the Globe particularly closely for the past couple of years.”
The Globe’s editorial page declined comment. WGBH News did not receive a response from Henry.
The Beat the Press panel discussed the potential impact of Henry’s tweet on February 19. Despite a broad consensus that Henry's tweet won't have a significant impact on the paper's coverage, there was some disagreement about how it could affect his employees.
