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The Tribune’s non-endorsement endorsement of Kerry is raising eyebrows. SP Times:

Al Austin, a Tampa resident who serves as finance chairman for the Republican Party of Florida, said the editorial was an unfair indictment of Bush - and an unspoken endorsement for Kerry.

"I thought their comments were just totally wrong," said Austin. "They aren't even on the fence. They took an entire page to be critical of the president, and the criticism of Kerry was very brief."
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The Tribune piece ran on the same day that another newspaper owned by Media General chose to withhold its presidential endorsement.

Sunday, the Winston-Salem Journal ran an editorial under the headline "Bush Has Gone Astray," in which the editorial board offered no presidential pick.

Journal editorial page editor Linda Brinson said the non-endorsement was "the best decision we could make" as a publication owned by Media General, a company known for its conservative leanings.

Ray Kozakewicz, manager of corporate communications for Media General, said the company does not get involved in the editorial decisions of its 26 daily newspapers.

"Each newspaper is locally operated by the editorial team," he said. "It's a local decision in each case."

But Brinson said there is a sort of understanding between Media General and its publications when it comes to presidential endorsements.

"Whereas our editorial decisions day to day are completely our own, there is - when it comes to presidential elections - we understand that Media General newspapers have a set of values and views and a philosophy that sort of determines who we choose to endorse," Brinson said.

"Our inclination is to try very hard to endorse a Republican, but in this case we just could not do it," she said. "Bush had not lived up to our expectations. We felt he had really been a failure. But neither could we clearly come out and say Kerry stood for those values, either."

Brinson described the Journal as "the most liberal" of the Media General papers, while the Tribune has long been considered anything but liberal in its editorial stances.

Wingers can’t stand it when intellectually honest conservatives jump ship due to irresponsible behavior and incompetent leadership.