Monday, February 27, 2017

OPINION - Americans on Trump via Regional Newspapers

"How Americans see President Trump, according to three regional newspapers" PBS NewsHour 2/22/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  What do Americans think of President Trump's time in office so far?  Judy Woodruff asks newspaper editors from around the nation -- David Bradley of the St. Joseph News-Press, David Haynes of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Lee Ann Colacioppo of The Denver Post -- to weigh in on what they are hearing from their readers.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Now that we're one month into the Trump administration, we wanted to get a sense of how different parts of the country are assessing the president's time in office.

To do that, we have asked newspaper editors from three states to tell us what they're hearing from readers in their communities.  And they join us now.

Lee Ann Colacioppo is the editor of The Denver Post.  David Haynes is the editorial page editor for The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in Wisconsin.  And David Bradley is the editor of The St. Joseph News-Press in Missouri.

And we welcome all of you to the NewsHour.

David Bradley, I'm going to start with you.

Missouri is a state that went heavily for Donald Trump.  He won by something like 20 points.  What are you hearing right now from your readers about how he's doing?

DAVID BRADLEY, St.  Joseph News-Press:  I think people are fairly well satisfied with what Donald Trump is doing now.

I think he's done a lot of things that he said he would do.  He's made a few misstatements over the last few weeks, but what he's done, I think, has been pretty impressive.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Lee Ann Colacioppo, what about your readers in Denver around Colorado?

LEE ANN COLACIOPPO, The Denver Post:  We're getting a lot of really mixed results, mixed phone calls.

We have got people calling up really upset, angry with the Trump administration, angry with us when we have editorialized in the vein of he's lying.  And then we have got a lot of people who are — so we're really hearing from both sides.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  OK, we are going to pursue that.

David Haynes, what about in Milwaukee?  What are you picking up from your readers?

DAVID HAYNES, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:  Well, Judy, it always depends on who you talk to.

Liberals in our state don't have much use of Donald Trump.  Independents are a little bit divided, although they are concerned about what has been reported as some of the chaos in the White House.  Conservatives in Wisconsin didn't support Donald Trump in the primary.  They went for Ted Cruz, and so they're still a little wary and worried that the agenda of Paul Ryan, who is from our state, may not get passed in the way they'd like.

But what I hear from Trump supporters, mostly, is you in the media need to let him get his administration organized.  And I often hear them saying that, you know, Bill Clinton didn't exactly have an easy transition either, but, in the same breath, they often will say, but, gosh, I wish he would stop tweeting at 3:00 in the morning.

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