Nineteen newspapers have made endorsements in the 2016 general election, and so far, they’re all over the place compared to who was endorsed by the same papers in 2012.
Friday morning, the Chicago Tribune endorsed Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson. The paper said it did so to “rebuke” Republicans and Democrats. The Tribune said GOP nominee Donald Trump was “not fit” to be president, and that he had “neither the character nor the prudent disposition for the job.”
The paper was similarly harsh toward Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The Tribune said Clinton’s “intent to greatly increase federal spending and taxation, and serious questions about honesty and trust” precluded it from endorsing her. The paper also called her “a corner-cutter whose ambitions drive her decisions.” Ouch.
In 2012, the Tribune endorsed President Obama. That’s a definite switch for the paper.
In fact, of the 19 papers that have endorsed, 11 are endorsing a candidate who is not from the same party they backed in 2012 (no paper so far is endorsing Trump).
The Tribune and the Winston-Salem Journal both endorsed Obama in 2012 but are now endorsing Johnson. The New York Daily News, the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Arizona Republic and the Sun Sentinel all endorsed Mitt Romney in 2012 but are endorsing Clinton now. The Richmond Times-Dispatch, the New Hampshire Union Leader, and the Detroit News also endorsed Romney in 2012 but are now endorsing Johnson.
Another two papers — The Caledonian Record and Portland Press Herald — didn’t endorse anyone in 2012 but are now endorsing Johnson and Clinton, respectively.
The San Francisco Chronicle, the Berkshire Eagle, the Los Angeles Times, the Akron Beacon Journal, the New York Times and the Baltimore Sun all endorsed Obama in 2012 and continued the trend to endorse Clinton in 2016.
Finally, USA Today endorsed no one in 2012 and did not officially endorse Clinton or Johnson in 2016, but did urge readers not to vote for Trump.
There are likely to be many more papers endorsing Clinton in the month before the election, but for now, 2016 appears to have rattled a lot of papers.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
