Can it Get Any Stranger?

I'm sure this is "just because that Muslim terrorist is from Chicago", but for the first time in its history, the (far)-right-leaning Chicago Tribune has endorsed the Democratic Party's nominee for president.

Wow! This is historic.

For those who believe that Fox News is the only true source of news, here are reports of Obama endorsements [My comments are in square brackets like this.]:

• The Washington Post emphatically endorsed him Friday as "the right man for a perilous moment."
• The Los Angeles Times said Obama "represents the nation as it is, and as it aspires to be."
• The San Francisco Chronicle also endorsed Obama in its Friday edition, describing him as a "portrait of calmness and deliberation" throughout the financial crisis.
• Not counting the Chicago Tribune, Editor and Publisher has tallied Obama's endorsement haul at 50 and McCain's at 16. The newspapers reach a circulation of 5.8 million for Obama and 1.5 million for McCain.

[But, trying to blunt the clear lead Obama has, Fox said, "The Republican nominee has racked up some prominent endorsements over the past several weeks." And those are ... ]

• The New York Post [about as far right as Fox] in September endorsed McCain, saying "McCain's lifelong record of service to America, his battle-tested courage, unshakeable devotion to principle and clear grasp of the dangers and opportunities now facing the nation stand in dramatic contrast to the tissue-paper-thin resume of his Democratic opponent, freshman Sen. Barack Obama."
• McCain was also endorsed by the Union Leader [probably the most reactionary newspaper in the nation] in New Hampshire, the Boston Herald and the Examiner newspapers in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. [The primary newspaper in Baltimore is the Enquirer, the primary newspaper in Washington is the Post, and the primary newspaper in San Francisco is the Chronicle (mentioned above). OK, so that's 1 for 3, but with a penalty for tying to pass off these 3 papers as worthwile.]
• Obama has picked up the most endorsements in California, including those of the Sacramento and Fresno Bee newspapers, the San Jose Mercury News and the Oakland Tribune. [And, of course, Fox might as well go on, "Californicate is the home of fruits and nuts."]
• Other major endorsements for Obama include those of The Boston Globe, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Toledo Blade, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Nashville Tennessean.

Thus endeth the Fox News report.

So here's the story from Editor and Publisher as of 17 October 2008 at 18:36:42 (indications in parentheses indicate B=Bush and K=Kerry in 2004). You may note that several papers switched from endorsing the Republican to endorsing the Democrat, but that NO papers switched from endorsing the Democrat to endorsing the Republican.


JOHN McCAIN
16 newspapers total
1,502,163 daily circulation

CALIFORNIA
Napa Valley Register: 16,283
The San Francisco Examiner (B): 80,000

COLORADO
Mountain Valley News (Cedaredge): 2,000
The Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction) (B): 31,349
The Pueblo Chieftain (B): 49,169

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The Washington DC Examiner (N/A): 100,073

MARYLAND
The Baltimore Examiner (N/A): 50,000

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald (B): 182,350
The (Lowell) Sun (B): 44,439

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Foster’s Daily Democrat (B): 22,547
Union Leader (Manchester) (B): 51,782

NEW YORK
New York Post (B): 702,488

OHIO
The (Findlay) Courier (B): 22,319

TEXAS
Amarillo Globe-News (B): 44,764

WASHINGTON
(Spokane) Spokesman-Review (B): 89,779

WEST VIRGINIA
Wheeling News-Register (B): 12,821

BARACK OBAMA
51 newspapers total
6,299,363 daily circulation

ARKANSAS
Arkansas Times (K): 34,000

CALIFORNIA
The Argus (Fremont) (K): 26,749
Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek) (K): 183,086
Daily Review (Hayward) (K): 30,704
The Fresno Bee (K): 150,334
La Opinion (Los Angeles) (K): 114,892
Los Angeles Times (N/A): 773,884
The Modesto Bee (K): 78,001
The Monterey County Herald (K): 28,933
Oakland Tribune (K): 96,535
The (Stockton) Record (B): 57,486
The Sacramento Bee (K): 288,755
San Bernardino Sun (B): 54,315
San Francisco Chronicle (K): 370,345
San Jose Mercury News (K): 234,772
San Mateo County Times (K): 25,982
Santa Cruz Sentinel (K): 23,290
Tri-Valley Herald (B): 29,759

COLORADO
Cortez Journal (K): 6,700
The Durango Herald (K): 8,870
Gunnison Country Times (N/A): 4,000
Ouray County Plaindealer (K): 3,000

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The Washington Post (K): 673,180

HAWAII
Honolulu Star-Bulletin (K): 64,305

ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune (B): 541,663

IOWA
The Storm Lake Times (K): 3,200

MASSACHUSETTS
The Boston Globe (K): 350,605
The Standard-Times (New Bedford) (K): 30,306

MICHIGAN
The Muskegon Chronicle (K): 41,114

MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (K): 255,057

NEW MEXICO
Santa Fe New Mexican (K): 25,249

NEW YORK
el Dario La Prensa (): 53,856

NORTH CAROLINA
Asheville Citizen-Times (K): 50,160

OHIO
The (Toledo) Blade (K): 119,901
Dayton Daily News (K): 116,690
The (Canton) Repository (B): 65,789
Springfield News-Sun (K): 24,684

OREGON
Mail Tribune (Medford) (K): 30,349

PENNSYLVANIA
The Express-Times (Easton) (B): 44,561
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (K): 214,374

TENNESSEE
Chattanooga Times (K): 71,716
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis) (K): 146,961
The (Nashville) Tennessean (K): 161,131

TEXAS
The Lufkin Daily News (K): 12,225

VIRGINIA
Falls Church News-Press (K): 30,500

WASHINGTON
The Columbian (B): 44,623
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (K): 129,563
The Seattle Times (K): 220,883

WEST VIRGINIA
The Charleston Gazette (K): 48,061

WISCONSIN
The Capital Times (Madison) (K): 16,335
Wisconsin State Journal (Madison) (B): 87,930