Everything said now will be forgotten. Many of these papers will be endorsing Davis in the final weeks.
Which is why they are doing it now. It may even be a "rope a dope."
I agree- I can't quite recall the exact info, but it seems like I remember reading that the "undecided vote" who swings nearly every election does not decide until either the last 2 weeks or last 2 days before any election.
Remember how clinton "immunized" himself by dribbling out scandals drip by drip? After a while, people went numb from the scandal-a-day...
It would be better tactics to save this stuff for right before the election.