College Papers Overwhelmingly Favor Obama

ABC News On Campus reporter Andrew Egan blogs:

According to Editor & Publisher magazine, a trade publication, and Uwire, which collects and distributes college journalism reports, America’s college newspapers overwhelmingly endorsed  Sen. Barack Obama for president, by a count of 79-1 among papers surveyed.

Editorial boards of the nation’s premier college newspapers, such Harvard University’s (Obama’s law alma mater), MIT’s, the University of California at Berkeley’s and the University of Texas at Austin’s, have all endorsed the Illinois senator for president.

In some instances, though, endorsements came with admittedly little thought.

Leah Ferguson, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Texan, the UT-Austin paper, said its endorsements were more focused on local races than the presidential campaign. Its endorsement of Obama was almost an afterthought, she said.

“I’d hate to call it that,” Ferguson said. “But that’s kind of what it was.”

The editorial board focused on local races, which it felt were more important given the dynamics of state politics, Ferguson said.

“We’re in a red state,” she said. “I’d hate to say it doesn’t matter, but it doesn’t.”

In total, the Texan endorsed 17 Democrats, three Republicans and one Libertarian.

“It didn’t surprise me,” said UT sophomore Lindsay Hejl, of the Texan endorsements. Hejl, a John McCain supporter, thinks the Texan should strive to be representative of the campus atmosphere, but thought the newspaper leans liberal.

For its part, the Texan editorial board isn’t seeking to represent the campus population. It is seeking to inform it, Ferguson said.

“It’s our job to read a million other papers and blogs,” Ferguson said. “We’re qualified to do this.”