I saw this one coming when I first saw the Arizona Republic’s Hillary endorsement, but it seems to be rather more widespread.
The subscription cancellations were coming every 10 minutes. Angry readers have been calling in droves. One caller issued a death threat.
“We’re feeling the weight of our history,” Phil Boas, the editorial page editor of The Arizona Republic, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. Until it endorsed Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, the newspaper, founded in 1890, had never endorsed a Democrat over a Republican for president.
In endorsing Mrs. Clinton, The Republic’s editorial was, by any interpretation, scathing toward her opponent, Donald J. Trump. “Trump responds to criticism with the petulance of verbal spit wads,” the editorial says at one point. “That’s beneath our national dignity.”
. . . . The newspaper is not the first this year to break with its long tradition of endorsing Republicans for president. The Dallas Morning News, which had not supported a Democrat for president since before World War II, and The Cincinnati Enquirer, which has endorsed Republicans for nearly 100 years, have backed Mrs. Clinton. The Houston Chronicle, which has in the past endorsed a Democrat for president but which typically supports Republicans, eschewed Mr. Trump in July, long before endorsements are generally published in an election year.
. . . . For some readers, however, the endorsements proved a step too far. “Certainly, we’ve paid a price for our presidential recommendation,” Mike Wilson, the editor of The Dallas Morning News, told Poynter this month.
Mr. Boas of The Arizona Republic said he expected “a lot of cancellations,” pointing to cancellations at The Cincinnati Enquirer, which like The Republic, is owned by Gannett.
Apparently, this election poses unique challenges to traditionally right-leaning media . . . and to their subscriber base.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY