A newspaper in Dallas, TX just heard loud and clear what its readers think about their endorsement of Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and it’s not good for their bottom line.
The Dallas Morning News decided to buck 75 years of Republican endorsements and go with Clinton, which has resulted in push-back from their readers, according to The Daily Caller.
Dallas is a fairly liberal city, although it has been 40 years since the state of Texas has gone for the Democrats in a presidential election.
Readers have expressed their disagreement with the endorsement by cancelling their subscriptions, leaving angry comments, and even protesting in front of the Dallas Morning News building.
Dallas Morning News editor Mike Wilson acknowledged the push-back in an email to Poynter: “Certainly we’ve paid a price for our presidential recommendation.”
Traditional media sources, particularly newspapers, have been struggling to maintain readership, and this subscriber revolt will undoubtedly be problematic for the Dallas publication.
“But then, we write our editorials based on principle, and sometimes principle comes at a cost” Wilson said. Yeah, principles and “Hillary Clinton endorsement” just don’t go together, sorry.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with readers lately, and I respect their views and their right to disagree with us,” he added. “The most important thing to us is that they vote, even if it’s not for our favorite candidate, because democracy doesn’t work if people don’t vote.”
The paper described Clinton’s mountain of negatives as “warts,” and went went on to lambaste GOP nominee Donald Trump with typical liberal tripe.
The Dallas Morning News, who endorsed a woman that is hellbent on destroying America and everything conservatives stand for, asserted that “Trump’s values are hostile to conservatism.”
While this is the mantra of the Never Trump movement, regardless of what you think about Trump ideologically (I’d argue that some of the concerns about Trump are more about elitist, establishment, hand-wringing hysteria cloaked as “principled conservatism” than any real, fact-based, logical reasoning), the idea that Clinton would be better is patently absurd.
One reader wrote this comment about Clinton and the Dallas Morning News’ endorsement:
“To endorse a proven Liar, a person who schemes and manipulates the truth, a person who broke the law and violated national security, and a person who flaunts doing the wrong thing and then blaming others. You have no credibility.”
The Dallas Morning News can certainly endorse whoever they’d like… and the readers can put their money elsewhere.
It will be interesting to see what happens if too many people cancel their subscriptions. Wilson talks about principle now, but will he be singing the same tune when that principle sinks the ship?
http://thefederalistpapers.org/us/major-newspaper-endorses-hillary-immediately-pays-the-price