The New York Times announced Monday that its editorial board will no longer give endorsements for elections in the Empire State, including for governor and mayor of the Big Apple. Neither will the paper weigh in on Senate, congressional or state legislative races in the upcoming election, or next year’s elections in New York City.
“As the institutional voice of The Times, the editorial board serves our mission to help our global audience understand the world by providing a consistent, independent view of the world based on time-tested institutional values," Kathleen Kingsbury, the NYT's opinion editor, said in a statement. "While elections everywhere remain critical to the lives and experiences of our audience, the editorial board is ceasing the endorsement process for New York elections. We remain a journalistic institution rooted in New York City, both historically, today and in the future. Our newsroom will continue to report aggressively on New York electoral races, and Opinion will continue to offer perspective on the races, candidates and issues at stake.”
As the Times' report on the update notes, Kingsbury did not explain the reason for the decision.
The Times’s editorial board, the part of the Opinion section that makes the endorsements, operates separately from The Times’s newsroom. The board will continue to endorse in presidential elections, as it has since 1860. […]
Still, The Times’s decision to end local endorsements is likely to make waves in the cutthroat world of New York politics, where the editorial board’s view has been closely watched by generations of candidates and voters.
The Times has made an editorial endorsement in every New York City mayor election since 1897, backing Democrats and Republicans. Campaigns for mayor, governor and other local offices have developed elaborate strategies to win over the board.
The decision did not sit well with some readers.
This is unbelievable, but totally believable. Really, at this point the paper just get rid of the "New York" in the title and be done with it. https://t.co/BAKgjqszDD
— Stephen Sigmund (@ssiggy1) August 12, 2024
Seems totally backwards to me, would make more sense to stop doing the national ones - it's an actual service to readers to inform them on local races https://t.co/cbek5kKBRO
— Justin Graeber (@justingraeber) August 12, 2024
What a terrible decision. The Times edit board abdicating the only thing anyone actually, really listened to them on, and leaving NYC politics to be continue to drift along, more or less controlled by tiny interest groups. https://t.co/DcA3FEO0pX
— Ben Smith (@semaforben) August 12, 2024