With the announcement by the New York Times that it will no longer endorse local candidates for office — yet will still weigh in on presidential races — the newspaper has taken another step distancing itself from its namesake city. Beyond the impact in New York, the move is one more sign that the spiraling demise of local news coverage can affect even the biggest regions and largest publications.

Newspapers backing away from endorsing candidates is not in and of itself a strange decision. The endorsement game can turn off readers and lead to further accusations of favoring one side of the aisle. The results are not that great anyway — 2016 saw a historic number of papers backing Hillary Clinton, to no avail.

But that’s not what is happening here. By retaining its presidential endorsements, where the paper managed to embarrass itself in 2020 by choosing not one but two Democratic primary candidates (Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar) who failed to win, the Times still wants to retain its power on the national scene. The editorial board just doesn’t seem to care about the local races, where,........

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