Should Labour really worry about the Sun's Tory support?

We find no evidence that partisan newspapers affect party vote shares, with confidence intervals that rule out even moderate-sized effects.

That is the conclusion of this paper,the effect of newspaper entry and exit on electoral politics.

Produced by three American academics,it looks at American daily papers from 1869-2004,it finds that newspapers can have a robust effect on turnout but that there was little or no evidence of partizan newspapers affecting shares of the vote.

Neither did the study find anty correlation between the affects on incumbents in roles either helping or hindering them.

The results they say are consistent with the model that says that newspapers affect the political process mainly by providing information.Where there is little information,there is a lower turnout in the political process.

Ht-Chris Dillow

Newspaper endorsements

How important are they?

Over the weekend the New York Times came out in favour of Barack Obama.

Editor and Publisher have been doing a great job in following which paper has been endorsing which candidate and this morning reports

The Obama lead in editorial endorsements this year turned into a landslide, even a rout today, as dozens of additional papers backed him, compared to the relative handful for McCain

In fact says the piece

Obama still leads by almost 3-1 in all editorial endorsements. Updated with the latest from today his lead stands at 180 to 75.

Maybe though the most embarrassing is the news that the Anchorage Daily News paper of the home state of Sarah Palin has come out in favour of the Democrats

Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency -- but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation.