February 10, 2014

The Star-Ledger

“An endorsement is not a love embrace,” writes Tom Moran, the editorial page editor of The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger. But the Star-Ledger regrets hugging N.J. Gov. Chris Christie anyway:

But yes, we blew this one. When the endorsement ran, I could not get a cup of coffee in the People’s Republic of Montclair without my liberal friends taunting me. Back then, I pushed back.

Yes, we knew Christie was a bully. But we didn’t know his crew was crazy enough to put people’s lives at risk in Fort Lee as a means to pressure the mayor. We didn’t know he would use Hurricane Sandy aid as a political slush fund. And we certainly didn’t know that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer was sitting on a credible charge of extortion by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

Christie’s opponent in his last campaign was “not up to the job of being governor,” Moran writes. And “Christie has boycotted the editorial board for years, an attempt to bully us into more loving coverage. So we’ve had a front-row view of what a creep he can be.”

Moran plans to discuss the un-endorsement Monday at noon ET.

Related: Ted Cruz’s Hometown Paper Retracts Endorsement (BuzzFeed) | Houston Chronicle Didn’t Un-Endorse Ted Cruz (iMediaEthics)

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Andrew Beaujon reported on the media for Poynter from 2012 to 2015. He was previously arts editor at TBD.com and managing editor of Washington City…
Andrew Beaujon

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