shouting loudly

This weekend, the Philadelphia Inquirer endorsed Barack Obama for President. In what I think is an unprecedented move, however, it also published a dissent making the case for John McCain.

The Times’ Caucus speculates that this was due to interference from management. Here’s a key excerpt:

Brian Tierney, chief executive of the company that owns The Inquirer, Philadelphia Media Holdings, and who sits on the newspaper’s editorial board, would not say. In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Tierney would only say, “We don’t talk about what goes on on the editorial page.”

Harold Jackson, the editor of the editorial page, also would not discuss the deliberations or vote total, but did say that the board “had a vigorous discussion.”

But another member of the Editorial Board, who asked not to be identified because of possible repercussions, said that it was Mr. Tierney who pressed the case for Mr. McCain. After arriving at the meeting, the board member said, “we went around the room” and Mr. Obama was the “overwhelming winner.”

At that point, the person said, “Tierney weighed in and made the case for McCain.”

Tierney, a longtime Republican booster, reassured the reading public that he and the other owners would not interfere in content decisions when the paper was sold in 2006.

And I have a bridge to nowhere in which you may be interested…