The News
The Atlantic backed Democratic candidate Kamala Harris for the US presidency on Thursday, the magazine’s fifth endorsement in its 167-year history.
Harris’ devotion to public service, respect for democracy, and belief in the “freedom, equality, and dignity” of all Americans were the reasons, rather than any specific policy positions, the endorsement read. “Electing her and defeating [Donald Trump] is the only way to release us from the political nightmare in which we’re trapped.”
Other legacy publications that have generally endorsed Democratic presidential candidates have backed Harris in recent months, including Vogue, Scientific American, and The New Yorker.
SIGNALS
Endorsements need to be surprising to change minds
Endorsements rarely change minds unless they provide new, surprising information to readers, Matthew Yglesias argued in his Slow Boring Substack, saying a novel declaration can create “perverse and counterproductive” consequences. For instance, scientific journal Nature’s backing of Joe Biden in 2020 reduced Donald Trump voters’ trust in the publication as well as the broader scientific community, according to one study. Endorsements that are surprising, but broadly consistent with the outlet’s ideological leanings, have the largest effect, another study found, such as when the center-right leaning Chicago Tribune couched its 2008 endorsement of Barack Obama in its familiar center-right style and tone. Ultimately, although endorsements can “help create momentum” for candidates, they’re unlikely to swing elections, its authors wrote in The Conversation.
Celebrity endorsements have lost their power to surprise, but may boost turnout
Economists estimate that Oprah Winfrey won Barack Obama some 1 million extra votes by endorsing him for the presidency in 2008. But apolitical celebrities have become something of a rarity, which makes most celebrity endorsements less surprising, and in turn, less powerful, the chief strategist of Democratic public opinion research firm Blueprint told The New Yorker. Winfrey’s endorsement had the impact it did partly because of her presence on the airwaves, but the rise of social media means the types of audiences celebrities once commandeered have now “splintered,” The Economist argued. However, celebrities can boost voter turnout: Taylor Swift directed more than 300,000 visitors to the federal voter-registration site within hours of posting her Harris endorsement.
UK politicians may not be willing to gamble on press support
The Rupert Murdoch-owned conservative papers Sunday Times of London and The Sun bucked tradition by backing the Labour Party in the UK’s recent general election. Labour won a landslide victory, but it’s unlikely that these endorsements significantly swung the vote. The election results were practically a foregone conclusion, a Guardian columnist argued, making The Sun “Schrodinger’s newspaper”: It’s difficult to know how much it drives election results because so few politicians have been willing to “test the proposition” by refusing to court Sun editors. Even though the US presidential election appears to be a much tighter race, some media executives believe endorsements risk alienating readers further at a time of press unpopularity, the Associated Press reported.