An Arizona newspaper has reportedly received death threats this week for endorsing Hillary Clinton and breaking its 126-year-old tradition of backing only Republican presidential candidates.
“Well, it’s been crazy around here,” the Arizona Republic’s editorial page director, Phil Boas, said in an interview with a local NBC News affiliate.
Boas said the newspaper’s Clinton endorsement, which marks the first time that it has supported a Democrat for president since its circulation began in 1890, has prompted angry phone calls, subscription cancellations and even death threats.
“We’re getting a lot of reaction both locally and national. I don’t believe true readers of the editorial page are surprised by this at all, because over the past year we have been writing scathing, scalding articles about Donald Trump,” Boas said. “The things he has done, making fun of disabled people and rolling back press freedoms. You know a guy who would do that and crush our freedoms in one area will do it in others as well.”
Though the Arizona Republic’s endorsement has inspired angry responses from many readers, he said, it has also drawn support.
Boas stressed the paper hasn’t changed its politics. In fact, he added, had the GOP nominee been one of the other 16 candidates who ran, the paper’s eventual endorsement would have likely gone to him.
“This might have been a different decision,” Boas said, “if Republicans had elected Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush, responsible Republican men. You really only have two choices that are viable. The Republican and the Democrat and both of them have tremendous flaws.”
“I mean we are very concerned about what Hillary Clinton did with her emails. That shows recklessness and that gives us concern, but it is nothing compared to the sins of Donald Trump,” he said.
The Arizona Republic is neither the first newspaper in the 2016 election to break its longstanding tradition of backing GOP presidential candidates, nor is it the only one to reportedly face consequences for endorsing Clinton.
The Cincinnati Enquirer announced its support for the Democratic nomniee last Friday, breaking a GOP-only streak that lasted for more than a century.
“The Enquirer has supported Republicans for president for almost a century — a tradition this editorial board doesn’t take lightly,” the Ohio paper’s board wrote at the time.
“But this is not a traditional race, and these are not traditional times. Our country needs calm, thoughtful leadership to deal with the challenges we face at home and abroad. We need a leader who will bring out the best in all Americans, not the worst,” they added.
Separately, the Dallas Morning News, which broke its own 75-year-old tradition of backing GOP presidential candidates, said it is has experienced a noticeable decline in subscriptions following its endorsement of Clinton.
“[S]ome people have cancelled their subscriptions, so we lost some customers at a time when it’s tough to lose customers,” editor Mike Wilson told the Washington Examiner.
He said in a separate interview, “Certainly we’ve paid a price for our presidential recommendation, but then, we write our editorials based on principle, and sometimes principle comes at a cost.”
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with readers lately, and I respect their views and their right to disagree with us. 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,” he said.
