Most of you probably remember that the Arizona Republic was one of the many normally-Republican newspapers that endorsed Hillary Clinton. You may also have noticed that it reported receiving an inordinate number of cancelled subscriptions as a result. Here’s my take on that.
When my husband and I lived in Michigan, we got out of the habit of reading a daily paper at least 30 years ago, but we always bought two or three papers on Sunday and read them all week: the Ann Arbor News, the Detroit Free Press, and often the New York Times. When we moved to Arizona eight years ago, we did not subscribe to the Arizona Republic, although it was clearly the dominant paper in our new home state. It just seemed too….well, Republican. Not very interesting. Too often repulsive. We bought the Times when we could find it, or just gave up on newspapers.
Of course we found the Republic’s endorsement of Hillary gratifying, but it didn’t change our perception especially. It never occurred to us to actually read the thing.
That changed a few days ago. The retirement community where we live has a Yahoo group for general discussion relevant to the community. It has about 2000 subscribers, out of the 2700 or so total households. In the middle of last week, one person—in fact a person we know—posted that she had cancelled her subscription to the Arizona Republic due to its endorsement of Hillary. My immediate reaction was to want to counterpunch: “So let’s subscribe.” My husband looked at their website and found a three month deal for Sunday only, we signed up, and he posted that we had done so.
Then we forgot about it. Yesterday morning we went out to head for church, and there was this surprising little bundle in the driveway, behind my husband’s car. “Oh, yeah, we did subscribe, didn’t we?” He threw it in the car so as not to run over it.
Later in the day I got around to reading part of it—I haven’t finished it yet. Here’s some of what I discovered:
On the front page: Headline: “Furor Over Trump Builds”. This includes a long account of survivor stories from victims of sexual assaults. “Closing the Gap”: a story recounting the decline in successful illegal border crossings from Mexico, attributing it to “increased border security already in place”. No Republican fear-mongering there! This story is accompanied by an entire inside section on the subject, sub-headed “Study finds 90% decline in illegal border crossings in ten years.” It explicitly refutes Trump’s claims to the contrary. We also have “Senate Race Now Sprint to the End”, about the race between John McCain and Ann Kirkpatrick, a long article continued to a full inside page. It states that in the last poll McCain was well ahead, but that “the race could shift in a month”. It quotes extensively from both candidates. On the whole it seems like a balanced presentation.
The “Arizona Politics” section features a long discussion entitled “Three Reasons Why Donald Trump is in Trouble in the Red State of Arizona”. (The three reasons: Trump is his own worst enemy, Mormons (who have a major presence in the state) dislike him, and Clinton’s ground game.) The second feature discusses Democrats’ chances to increase their presence in the very red state House and Senate: a long, detailed analysis, district by district. At the bottom of the page we find “Democratic Party Keeps up Outreach to Taco Trucks, Voters”.
The “Viewpoints Sunday” section is headed by a column from “Linda Valdez, Editorial Writer”, excoriating Trump for his attitude toward journalists and fact-checkers. At the bottom of the same page: a column by “Robert Robb, Editorial Columnist” defending Trump’s use of the “net operating loss”. (As far as I’ve seen so far, this is the only really “Republican” item in this issue.) Also on the same page, an article by “James A Garcia, playwright, journalist, and consultant”, talking about the emergent power of the Latino community, both economic and political. The six published letters from readers on assorted subjects include only two that I would characterize as “right wing”. One is a full-throated endorsement of Hillary Clinton.
All in all, I have not gotten the impression of a Republican-biased paper. It seems more centrist, and covers non-political news adequately: everything from hurricane damage in Haiti to a dog blinded by a coyote attack and now in need of a home. Of course, this could all change. Maybe after this election it will fall back into its old groove. Or maybe its old groove was never as deep as we thought. But for now, I think we’ve found our Sunday paper.