Defending the “Blank editorial”
At the risk of further fueling a family feud, I feel the need to defend the Observer-Reporter’s “blank editorial” which ran Nov. 10 in the wake of the presidential election, and which was condemned by a former part-owner of the paper as an “insult to the voters.”
I’m one of those voters and I wasn’t insulted. I was elated.
In case you missed it, the editorial in question was actually not an editorial but a blank space on the editorial page with a headline “Trump wins,” and in much smaller print, “We have no words.” I found it elegant and apropos, and silently applauded the Observer-Reporter for taking such a bold move. And I was happy to see there was someone other than myself who was struck speechless by the results of the election.
Bill Northrop, a member of the Northrop family that has owned and guided the paper for many years, said in a Sunday letter to the editor that the newspaper and its latest generation of leadership abandoned their journalistic and professional responsibilities to their readers. He suggested that blank space should instead have been filled with comment and analysis of the election – which, of course, was what most news outlets in the nation were doing in attempts to quickly explain why they were wrong and Donald Trump managed to become our president-elect.
Like most of us, I believed the polls and the pundits that said Trump would lose this race. Even the media believed their own polls and pundits. It didn’t happen. In all respects that count, it was an historic and stunning upset. End of story.
In that shocked atmosphere after the votes were counted, “We have no words” was appropriate. In effect, the paper admitted defeat with dignity, and made a statement at the same time. I believe Northrop totally missed the eloquence of that message.
I should mention that I am a retired journalist who started my career at the Observer-Reporter where Bill Northrop was my boss for several years.
Sorry boss, I can’t agree with you on this one.
Dave Budinger
East Washington