Publisher’s Campaign Tests Ethics

When Jerry Brady launched his bid for Idaho governor, word of his candidacy landed with a thud in the pages of his hometown paper, the Post Register.

“We like and admire Brady, but we wish he weren’t a candidate,” wrote opinion editor Marty Trillhaase. It wasn’t that Brady is a Democrat in the most conservative part of this deeply conservative state. Nor the fact that Brady and Trillhaase disagree over abortion.

Rather, the editorial umbrage was more personal: Until just a few days before, Brady was Trillhaase’s boss, publisher of the Post Register and the one who approved virtually every word that appeared on the opinion pages of Idaho’s second-largest newspaper.

Few give Brady much chance of unseating Republican Dirk Kempthorne in November. But even so, the political leap by the 66-year-old patriarch has placed a vexing burden on his staff.

Journalists and their critics are forever debating questions of bias, influence and political ax-grinding. But that discussion has grown all the more acute in Idaho, a splinter of a state where the Post Register--selling just 25,000 copies daily--plays a major role in setting the agenda.

At the paper, Brady’s candidacy is not just a test of professional ethics but also of human nature, forcing people to put aside their feelings for their old boss and treat him like any other candidate--without overcompensating and being too harsh either.

“I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” said Roger Plothow who, as acting publisher, has overseen numerous steps to assure readers of the paper’s integrity. Among them, an outside monitor has been hired to regularly critique political coverage and issue a report card in November. But, Plothow added, “it gives me far less heartburn because I know this guy and respect his right to do this.”

Brady has severed virtually all ties with the paper since announcing his candidacy last month. He surrendered his cell phone, returned the company car and was taken off the internal e-mail system. His office, redecorated with freshly hung curtains, is now a break room for nursing mothers.

He still draws a paycheck--approved by the paper’s board of directors--which bothers some. But Brady, who turned down lucrative offers to keep the Post Register in private hands, said he needs the money to get by: “My [other] choice was not run.”

Awkward as it is, Brady said he expects no special treatment from his old colleagues, nor from the local TV station he co-owns and his wife manages. Even before he started running, Brady showed he meant it by keeping his intentions secret; as a result, his own newspaper nearly got scooped.

“I couldn’t give it to them without preferring them over another media,” Brady explained.

His candidacy is not that unusual, despite all the anxieties. America’s newspapers started as pamphlets reflecting the political views of their owners, and that vigorous partisanship continued through the Civil War. It was only with the advent of the telegraph that fact-based reporting became the norm, shunting opinion to the editorial pages where, for the most part, it remains today.

Throughout, editors and publishers have been leaders within their communities. Some entered politics, including the legendary Horace Greeley and Joseph Pulitzer. Warren G. Harding, a small-town publisher in Ohio, was elected president.

Brady is not alone this year in his political pursuit. The former publisher of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Joel Kramer, is running for lieutenant governor in Minnesota. Roy Brown, who heads a chain of Ohio newspapers, made an unsuccessful try for Congress.

The news coverage became an issue in that contest between Brown and Mike Turner, the former mayor of Dayton. Turner filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging his fellow Republican with improperly promoting his candidacy on the pages of his eight weekly and two daily newspapers. According to the complaint, Brown’s newspapers carried 70 articles on the race over a two-month period--only one of them favorable to Turner.

The editor of one of Brown’s papers released e-mails that had instructions from the publisher’s campaign manager. “Here are three important Roy Brown for Congress releases,” one read. “If you cover the 3rd District, they must run.”

Brown’s campaign did not return calls seeking comment. Turner won Tuesday’s primary in a landslide.

It is just that sort of blot on the paper’s credibility that staffers in Idaho Falls are determined to avoid. (By contrast, TV station KIFI, which Brady owns with his brother, has made no changes. No one accuses the station of favoritism. But asked whether his wife should step aside as general manager, Brady replied, “I’m not going to make my wife quit her job over my decision.”)

At the Post Register, the paper has drafted a script for its phone operators, routing calls for the Brady campaign to directory assistance. “If this bugs them,” operators are told, tell callers, “‘I’m sorry, but I am under strict orders not to mix up the newspaper in politics.’” The paper will not endorse in the governor’s race. Its candidate profiles will be identical in length and placement, and will run with same-size photos.

In his most recent critique, Sunday, the paper’s outside monitor took mild issue on a few points. But overall, “the paper’s ... news coverage on the race ... has been free of content or agenda-setting bias,” said ombudsman Lee Warnick, head of the communication department at nearby Brigham Young University-Idaho.

Bob Steele, director of the ethics program at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, also praised the paper’s efforts. “It doesn’t make it go away,” he said of the discomfort of covering the boss, “but it does give them a fighting chance to do it right.”

Which may be the best that can be said for Brady’s chances against Kempthorne. (Both men have token opposition in the May 28 primary.)

Idaho is slowly changing. On the same day last month that a major potato processor cut its farm order in half, 200 new high-tech jobs landed in Twin Falls. It was also announced that the Eastern Idaho Cinco de Mayo Festival had outgrown its home and was being moved to the state fairgrounds in Blackfoot.

Still, Idaho remains mostly rural, agricultural and white. With 1.3 million residents, the state has fewer people than the San Fernando Valley.

Idaho is also staunchly Republican. President Bush won 67% of the 2000 vote, and the GOP holds all but two statewide offices and 93 of 105 legislative seats. Brady has made Republican dominance a major issue, assailing Boise’s “power elite” as arrogant and unresponsive.

Brady has also distanced himself from national Democrats. “I’m not of that kind,” he said at a campaign stop in Pocatello, soft-pedaling his support for legalized abortion and certain gun controls. Brady said, however, that he personally opposes abortion, differing with opinion editor Trillhaase, which kept the issue off the editorial pages.

Kempthorne had no comment on Brady’s candidacy. Stumping for a second term, the governor boasts of cutting taxes, creating jobs and making higher education more attainable. But Kempthorne has faced a rough patch of late.

Teachers accuse him of slashing the state budget to finance a tax cut for the wealthy. The governor has also been savaged for throwing a post-Sept. 11 barricade around the state Capitol, which critics called a symbol of his distant style. The Legislature further rankled voters by repealing citizen-approved term limits.

With that climate, some think Brady has at least a shot at pulling an upset. “Which raises the even bigger nightmare,” said Trillhaase. “What if he wins?”