When The Dallas Morning News endorsed Hillary Clinton for president earlier this month, it broke a 75-year streak of not endorsing a Democrat.
The editorial drew pushback from many readers in Texas, a Republican-dominated state that hasn’t voted for a Democrat since Jimmy Carter in 1976. A sampling of the comments underneath the endorsement (more than 3,500) gives some idea of the magnitude of the criticism. Many readers vowed to unsubscribe, although some praised the newspaper for taking a stand for what it called the only “serious candidate on the presidential ballot.”
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But it also paid financially for its decision to endorse Clinton. Although he declined to say how many readers cancelled their subscriptions, Dallas Morning News Editor Mike Wilson acknowledged the endorsement came with a price tag.
“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,” Wilson said in an email to Poynter. “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.”
That’s a sentiment Wilson expressed to protesters in person when they gathered outside The Dallas Morning News to complain about the newspaper’s decision. Last week, Wilson left his office at the Morning News to address the protesters directly and shared his account of the exchange on Twitter:
1. @realdonaldtrump supporters gathered outside @dallasnews to protest our rec of @HillaryClinton. So I went out to talk to them.
— Mike Wilson (@mWilstory) September 14, 2016
2. @RobertWilonsky was out there too. First guy I met, I told him my name and asked his. "You don't need my name." Okay, no problem.
— Mike Wilson (@mWilstory) September 14, 2016
3. Pretty quick, that guy and others started shouting questions at me: How could we support known criminal/liar/killer @HillaryClinton?
— Mike Wilson (@mWilstory) September 14, 2016
4. I didn't debate the points, just explained our editorial bd process. I got a few words in and persuaded zero people. Shouting continued.
— Mike Wilson (@mWilstory) September 14, 2016
5. I said, I'm happy to talk with you, but if you ask a question you gotta give me a chance to answer. Slowly, it became more of a dialogue.
— Mike Wilson (@mWilstory) September 14, 2016
6. One woman said we recommended @HillaryClinton because somebody is paying us big money. Clearly not a student of the newspaper economy.
— Mike Wilson (@mWilstory) September 14, 2016
7. Here's how I got through: I said, Listen, we want folks to vote, to participate in democracy. You guys are doing that, and I respect it.
— Mike Wilson (@mWilstory) September 14, 2016
8. They seemed to appreciate it. We shook hands. They took pictures I may never live down.
— Mike Wilson (@mWilstory) September 14, 2016
9. I told them, Don't forget to vote. They said, Count on it, pal.
Democracy.
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— Mike Wilson (@mWilstory) September 14, 2016
Wilson says he hopes the readers who canceled their subscriptions will eventually return.
“I believe The Dallas Morning News offers a lot of value to readers — even when they disagree with a particular editorial view.”