Print Media endorsements: An Update..:-(
Posted : October 23, 2004 at 11:19 pm [America/Los_Angeles]
Daily Endorsement Tally: Kerry Gets Nod from ‘Wash Post’ and 6 Papers that Backed Bush in 2000, but President Gains ‘Columbus Dispatch’
By Greg Mitchell
Published: October 23, 2004
New York Senator John Kerry continued his raid on newspapers that backed President George W. Bush in 2000, grabbing six new “flip-flops,” as well as The Washington Post.
In gaining, the Orlando Sentinel, another switch from Bush, Kerry completed a sweep of the major papers in top swing stage, Florida. However, Bush got a real prize in Ohio, the Columbus Dispatch.
The Washington Post, whose editorial page offered strong support to President Bush on the U.S. attack on Iraq, on Sunday endorsed his opponent for president. The paper said it found much to admire in the president’s first term, and much that gives it pause about Senator John Kerry, but on balance, the Democrat “has staked a stronger claim on the nation’s trust to lead for next four years.”
The moderate Chicago Sun-Times and the Los Angeles Daily News, which backed Bush in 2000, also endorsed Kerry, in a surprise.
But Bush gained the key Columbus paper, which in its editorial revealed it was “less than enthused about the choices.” It said it was troubled by Bush’s fiscal policies and war in Iraq but said that neither Kerry’s Senate record nor “his shifting positions during the presidential campaign inspire confidence that he would provide the strong, resolute leadership America desperately needs.”
Bush also picked up the Denver Post, a switch from Gore in 2000. William Dean Singleton, now the publisher of that paper, is known as a strong Bush supporter. His MediaNews Group also owns the L.A. Daily News, which he allowed to go for Kerry.
Kerry picked up three other papers from the Bush 2000 column on Saturday with the endorsement of the Iowa City Press-Citizen, the Wausau (Wisc.) Daily Herald, and the Bangor (Maine) Daily News, each in a battleground state.
This means he has picked up 17 Bush papers from 2000, while losing only two Gore papers to Bush.
Kerry also gained the backing of Newsday (Melville, N.Y.)and the Des Moines (Iowa) Register. And he picked up The Journal Times in Racine, Wisconsin, and The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Bush, however, did retain the Austin American-Statesman in his native Texas, the Cincinnati Post (the smaller of that city’s two papers) and the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va.
Kerry now leads Bush 68-58 in endorsements and by about 11.4 million to 7.0 million in the circulation of backing papers.
- Anand
Category: United (or not) State of American Politics 2004