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One More Reason Newspapers are Losing Readers: Cowardice

Editor & Publisher: South Dakota’s Top Paper Refuses To Editorialize On Abortion Ban. “Part of it was that we wouldn’t change people’s minds, and part of it, regardless of which side we came down on this, is that people would read into it things that are not true,” Chuck Baldwin, editorial page editor of the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., told E&P. “People would think our coverage is tainted, and not just on abortion but on everything.”

We can argue about whether the concept of an editorial page is outmoded, but as long as editorial pages exist they have a nearly absolute obligation to talk with their communities about the big issues of the day, and to take stands. This decision — this refusal to engage in a core function of a newspaper — is cowardly.

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