Keller @ Large: Do Media Endorsements Matter Anymore?

BOSTON (CBS) - Once upon a time, newspaper endorsements really mattered.

A case can be made that once in awhile, they still do: would Charlie Baker have eked it out over Martha Coakley two years ago if the Globe hadn't given him their nod?

But the days when media endorsements were decisive factors in a big election seem mostly gone, replaced by the instant availability of raw coverage and a mind-boggling array of analysis and persuasion, including your cousin's rantings on Facebook.

And any lingering clout is about to be tested in New Hampshire, where the clear frontrunner in the GOP primary, Donald Trump, isn't getting any respect from major newspapers.

The Union-Leader endorsed Chris Christie a few weeks ago, and Trump's been using them as a punch line at rallies ever since. And today both the Boston Herald, which also prefers Christie, and the Boston Globe, endorsing John Kasich, made it clear their endorsements were also repudiations of Trumpism.

A vote for Kasich, the Globe writes, is also a "rebuke" to "those candidates who have spent their campaign appealing to voters' fears and biases."

And the Herald observes: "The antidote to incompetence in the White House is not more incompetence…. [It is not] "a place for those driven solely by ego and blind ambition…. 'My way or the highway' doesn't work in Washington."

Will all that change any minds?

Not those of the Trump supporters I've been meeting.

And that means the big question in Iowa and New Hampshire isn't: can minds be changed? It's how many are really made up?

Listen to Jon's commentary: