Newspapers: Covering the Campaign

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Much of the early editorial vehemence is now gone, perhaps out of a self-conscious attempt to achieve balance. But the editorial cartoonists show no enthusiasm for calm assessment. Goldwater has always been an enticing target and the cartoonists continue to slash away. The candidates themselves may have found few issues to debate, but to the artists of the editorial page the campaign has been a long excuse for caustic, black-and-white comment —a gallery of caricature in which the Republicans almost always come out second best (see cuts).

No Surrender. Publishers have also made their choice, if not with the same style, at least with alacrity. They are taking sides with unprecedented speed and in a pattern for which history provides no precedent. As of last week, in a press establishment that normally swings preponderantly behind the Republican presidential candidate, 243 papers, with a combined circulation of 12.6 million, had come out for Johnson. Goldwater's tally: 250 papers, with a circulation of 5.3 million.

The quieter tone of current editorial comment on the campaign suggests that news analysis is being restored to its proper role as a valuable adjunct to, but not the main instrument of, good reporting. Not that the working newsman has surrendered his privilege of presenting the news within the light of his own convictions, but at the moment, there are few campaign issues for newsmen to have convictions about. The polls show Goldwater far behind; liberal reporters see little to bother them beyond reporting a clash of personalities.