The Daily Gamecock will not be endorsing any Student Government candidates for the 2020 election.
This decision comes as a result of research and conversations with our staff, people in the journalism industry and community members. While we do recognize some benefits in continuing the tradition, we feel this decision best embodies our mission to serve our readers.
Historically, all of senior staff except the news editors participated in the endorsement editorial. In many professional newsrooms, such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, editorial boards are composed of all opinion reporters. This group is distinctly separate from news reporters and editors; The Daily Gamecock does not have this distinction. As a result, our news coverage of Student Government can be perceived as biased. By eliminating candidate endorsements, we hope to provide the most objective coverage possible for both our readers and the Student Government executive candidates.
We used our platform to interview each individual candidate. It is important to us to continue to ask the hard and unanswered questions. These answers we found are reflected in our news reporting instead of an editorial.
It is our hope that our readers will use our news coverage to make an informed decision when voting this week.
Voting opens Feb. 25 at 9 a.m. and closes on Feb. 26 at 5 p.m. You can vote online at www.sc.edu/elections.